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Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: 10 Lasting Hollywood Marriages
by Stacy Conradt - January 15, 2009 - 3:25 PM

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When famous people get married, it seems like people immediately take bets on how long it will last. And with the super-short marriages of Britney Spears and Jason Alexander, Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney, and Pam Anderson and Kid Rock… well, I guess maybe people aren’t too optimistic that Hollywood marriages are going to be anything long-term. But there are famous couples out there with serious staying power; they’re just often overlooked. Here are a few of them.

newman.jpg1. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward – 50 years. Before Paul died last year, he and Joanne Woodward celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. They had three daughters together. It was Joanne’s first marriage, but Paul Newman was married to Jackie Witte (he has two daughters and a son from that marriage) for nine years before he married Joanne. When asked once if he had ever been unfaithful to Joanne, he famously said, “Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?”

2. Tony Martin and Cyd Charisse – 59 years. This duo was inseparable from 1948 until she died last year. It was the second marriage for both of them as well – Cyd and married to Nico Charisse originally, and it was no quickie marriage – it lasted eight years and resulted in one son. Cyd and Tony also had a son, Tony Martin, Jr.

3. Bill and Camille Cosby – 44 years. If you’re like me, you can’t hear the name “Camille” in conjunction with Bill Cosby and not think about him saying her name. Or maybe I’m just thinking about Kenan Thompson’s impression of Bill on Saturday Night Live. Anyway, Bill met Camille in the 60s when he was working in D.C., doing his stand-up act. She was a student at the University of Maryland at the time. They got married in 1964 and had five kids.

4. Art Linkletter and Lois Foerster – a whopping 73 years. That is one impressive marriage. They got married in 1935 and have five kids; they have outlived three of them. In 1969, Diane jumped out of a sixth-story window. Art claimed she was on LSD, but her autopsy showed no such drug. His son Robert, died in a car accident, and his son Jack died of lymphoma in 2007.

hope5. Bob and Dolores Hope – 69 years. It’s no secret that Bob was totally devoted to Dolores, but most people probably don’t know that she was his second marriage (I didn’t, anyway). His first, to his vaudeville partner Grace Louise Troxell, lasted less than a year in 1933. He and Dolores married in 1934; they adopted four children together, and the rest is history.

6. Alan and Arlene Alda – 51 years. They married in 1957 and have three daughters and seven grandkids. Arlene is very accomplished in her own right – she is a photographer and children’s book author.

7. Kirk Douglas and Anne Buydens – 53 years. Kirk’s sons Joel and Michael are from his first marriage to actress Diane Dill. They divorced in 1951 and he married Anne Buydens. Their sons together are Peter and Eric Douglas. Despite the divorce, though, Kirk and Diane remain good friends and even continued to act together for a long time. He even played her husband in 2003’s It Runs in the Family.

8. James Garner and Lois Clarke – 52 years. James and Lois met at an Adlai Stevenson rally in 1956. And they are proof that just because you get married in a hurry doesn’t mean it won’t last – they wed just 14 days after their initial meeting. They have one daughter together, Greta Garner. Clarke has a daughter from her previous marriage.

9. Karl Malden and Mona Greenberg – 70 years. These two met when Malden was training and performing at the Goodman Theater in Chicago in the ‘30s. Mona was also an actress at the time, going by the stagename Mona Graham. They married in 1938 and just celebrated anniversary #70 in December.

10. Charlton Heston and Lydia Clarke – 64 years.
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Charlton married Lydia, a student at Northwestern, in 1944. She thought he was arrogant and full of himself; he loved her “tumbling mane of black Irish hair.” He paid $12 for her wedding ring and they got married spontaneously after he convinced her to before he was sent overseas with the Air Corps. They had a son and a daughter together.

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Comments (15)
  1. Don’t forget the late Ricardo Montalban. This class act gentleman was married to Georgiana Young from 1944 until her death in 2007 — a total of 63 years.

    Star Trek II – Best of the series, thanks solely to this magnificent actor.

  2. My maternal grandparents celebrated 68 years last September.

  3. Paul Newman actually had two daughters and a son with Jackie Witte – Scott, Susan and Stephanie. Scott, his only son, died in 1978 from an accidental drug overdose.

  4. Not a “Hollywood” marriage, but a high profile one: Paul & Linda McCartney were married for just over 29 years at the time of her death. (Ok, so he wasn’t so smart the 2nd time around!)

  5. The Cosbys had five children together – four daughters and a son. Ennis was murdered in 1997 while he was changing a tire.

  6. Don Rickles & Barbara Sklar – married 1965
    Jay Leno & Mavis Nicholson – married 1980
    Dom DeLuise & Carol Arthur – married 1965

    reCaptcha: commendable agent

  7. ruth gordon/garson kanin

    greg peck/veronique

  8. Wow unbelievable and now a days all you hear is this one got married yesterday and today they getting divorced, marriages don’t seem to last like they did back then.

  9. Can’t believe you left out Carl Reiner and his wife Estelle — they were married just short of 65 years when she passed away in October.

  10. Don’t forget Carl Reiner’s 2,000-Year-Old-Man partner Mel Brooks.

    Brooks was married to Anne Bancroft for 41 years until her passing in 2005.

  11. How have you overlooked George Burns and Gracie Allen??? One of the most popular couples in Hollywood, both famous and talented in their own rites. Sheesh.

  12. @Calin, they were only married for 38 years. “Only,” I know that’s still a really long time, but there were definitely longer. I should have included Carl Reiner though, as mentioned above. I had no idea he and his wife were married for so long! Ricardo Montalban as well. Just goes to show you, there are plenty of long-lasting Hollywood marriages… they just don’t get any press!

  13. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee should be on this list. They were married 56 years
    before his death in 2005.

  14. Bob & Ginny Newhart 1963
    Jimmy & Gloria Stewart 1949-her death 1994

  15. Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, 1942 – 1994, till Ms. Tandy’s death.

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