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Long celebrity marriages in the US: named couples with dated durations
Long celebrity marriages in the US, with dated durations: the active record of William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett, the Aldas, and completed marriages such as Linkletter and Foerster, the Hopes, Stiller and Meara, and Douglas and Buydens, plus a five-couple duration sample.
What to take away
- The longest active Hollywood marriage named here is William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett's, married June 30, 1951: about 75 years as of June 2026.
- Alan and Arlene Alda, married March 15, 1957, are still together, about 68 years as of 2025.
- The completed marriages named here ended with a death. Each is listed with its wedding date and its end year.
- A list of long marriages must say whether it counts active or completed marriages, and from which date the clock starts.
- Separation is not divorce. Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman married in 1982, announced a separation in 2012, and never divorced.
The longest active marriage, and the completed ones
The longest active Hollywood marriage named here belongs to William Daniels and actress Bonnie Bartlett, a fellow Emmy Award winner. They have been married since June 30, 1951, which makes 75 years as of June 2026. Both won Emmy Awards in 1986.
Alan and Arlene Alda married on March 15, 1957, and remain married. Their marriage is the second-longest active one named in this article.
The completed marriages below ended with a death, so the end date is known and the duration can be stated exactly to the year:
- Art Linkletter and Lois Foerster.Married in November 1935; sources give the 25th, 27th or 28th. Art died in 2010, after about 75 years of marriage.
- Bob and Dolores Hope.Reportedly married February 19, 1934, in Erie, Pennsylvania. He died on July 27, 2003, after about 69 years of marriage.
- Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.Married in 1954. Meara died in 2015, after more than 60 years of marriage, and Stiller died in 2020.
- Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson.Married March 5, 1948, until his death on June 24, 2014.
- Carl and Estelle Reiner.Married in 1943, for about 65 years until her death in October 2008.
- Kirk Douglas and Anne Buydens.Married May 29, 1954, and lived together until his death in 2020, about 65 years of marriage.
- Bob and Ginnie Newhart.Married in 1963, until her death on April 23, 2023: about 60 years.
- Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.Married in 1948, until his death in 2005, a marriage of more than 56 years.
Each completed marriage listed here runs longer than the five in the duration table below. That table is a separate sample, not part of this ranking.
Marriage duration data for five US couples
Every figure below is a marriage date, not a dating date, because a marriage record is the only part of a relationship timeline that a government agency will confirm. The durations in this table are calculated to mid-2025 and will drift. In this file a timeline runs from the marriage date to the end of the marriage, divorce or death, with any separation noted but not counted as an ending. The rows sit in file order rather than sorted by length. The figures in the lists above are as of June 2026.
| Couple | Marriage date | Years married (mid-2025) | Status note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson | 1980 | About 45 | Together |
| Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman | 1982 | About 43 | Separated 2012, never divorced |
| Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick | September 4, 1988 | About 36 | Together |
| Denzel Washington and Pauletta Washington | June 25, 1983 | About 42 | Together |
| Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson | April 30, 1988 | About 37 | Together |
Sorted by length, the five read: Jackson (1980), DeVito and Perlman (1982), the Washingtons (1983), Hanks and Wilson (April 1988), Bacon and Sedgwick (September 1988). These five are a working sample of long Hollywood marriages. They are not a census of every long American marriage.
For scale, look outside entertainment at the Carters. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter married on July 7, 1946, in Plains, Georgia. Rosalynn Carter died in 2023, and the couple celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in July 2021. A full relationship timeline would add the year they first met and the milestones between, which this article does not give.
Where a couple lands in a sorted list depends on whether you count a separation as an ending. That choice belongs in your notes, not hidden inside a number. The celebrity weddings timeline shows how those records are kept current.
Why the dating start point changes the ranking
Publicists often date a relationship to the first red carpet, which can sit two or three years after the couple actually started. Marriage records do not have that problem. A county clerk records a date, a license number and the signatures of the people involved.
Samuel L. Jackson attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, and the couple married in 1980. A relationship can start earlier than the marriage, but only the marriage date is a record. Where the published sources give only a year, this table keeps year precision instead of inventing a date.
When you see a headline claiming a 40-year relationship, check which event started the clock. For example, a first meeting in 1985 and a wedding in 1988 produce very different numbers from the same couple. The celebrity weddings page explains how to keep a past event from reading as current when you update a record.
The measurement limit you should state out loud
Duration is a count of days between two recorded events. It cannot measure quality, and it cannot survive a missing record. This is the honest limitation of the metric: a couple who married privately in another state may have no retrievable certificate, so their true duration is unknown rather than short.
California marriage records, for example, are requested through the state's vital records office rather than a single national database. The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics publishes a "Where to Write for Vital Records" directory of state offices, which is the starting point for a request in another state.
A duration you cannot source is a rumour with a number attached. Write the gap in the record, not a guess.
Example: testing a claim that a couple split after 32 years
Here is the check sequence this desk runs before changing any status field.
Verifying a split claim
- Pull marriage date from vital records
- Search divorce filing in last shared county
- Look for joint statement or rep confirmation
- Mark unconfirmed if only unnamed source
- Find the source of the split claim.Who said it, on what date, and is it a statement by either person, a representative, or an unnamed source?
- Check the court record.Search the divorce index of the state where the couple lives for a filing. No filing means no divorce on record.
- Separate separation from divorce.DeVito and Perlman are the model: separated in 2012, never divorced, so the marriage row stays open and the separation gets its own dated row.
- Change the status only on a document or a first-party statement, and record which one, with its date.
Couples married over 30 years: the working checklist
- Marriage date and issuing county recorded.
- Any separation dated, with the source named.
- Divorce filing checked in the correct state court.
- Status field updated only after two independent sources agree.
Run this before you publish, and again when a story resurfaces. Older couples get recycled into fresh headlines every few years, and the current couples by year record shows how that churn looks over time. For rumours, check the separations rumors guide before touching the table.
