McKellen began his professional career in 1961 at the Belgrade Theatre as a member of their highly regarded repertory company.
He’s playing right now in pantomime at the Bristol Hippodrome.
That’s 62 years, approximately. Not too bad!
Mark Hamill is still going strong as well. In addition to the recent Star Wars films and voice work as The Joker, he provides the voice for the air raid siren app being used in Ukraine.
By sheer coincidence, I saw Russell last night guesting in an episode of “The Fugitive”. He played Lt. Gerard’s son.
Oh, no he isn’t!
How about Carol Burnett? She turns 90 this month, her first television appearance was in 1955 and she is in 4 episodes of Better Call Saul’s most recent season.
Incorrect. He was on The Masked Singer earlier this year.
Is he famous for the Masked Singer?
He’s on the Masked Singer because he’s famous.
Bob Newhart first became well known in 1960 with the release of his comedy album, which went number one and got Newhart a Grammy. He’s still doing cameo appearances on The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon, which got him an Emmy, as recently as 2020.
Like Betty White, Carl Reiner (actor, stand-up comedian, director, producer, screenwriter, and author) is another performer with a very long, illustrious show business career who just recently passed (2020).
Though perhaps better known for his behind-the-camera work, Carl also had a long, memorable career in front of the camera as an actor, spanning 7 decades from the early 50s to 2020 (according to the IMDb, his last acting part was in 2020, Home Movie: The Princess Bride). He also did a lot of voice acting in recent years. IMHO Carl Reiner was one of the funniest people ever and a major influence on American television humor.
I saw Bob in Hell Is for Heroes (1962) the summer before I started second grade. He plays an American GI who spooks the Germans by doing his routine over a field phone they’ve tapped into.
The movie made a BIG impression on me.
Is that the one where he pretty much does his phone routine to trick the enemy into thinking the Americans had vast resources ready.
Yep. And Steve McQueen keeps flicking the ejector port on his M3 submachine gun for no apparent reason.
Man, did they crank the movies out back then! He appeared in between 5 and 10 movies a year from 1917 through 1928. Impressive!
A couple of long-serving actors over here - Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi (whom you may know best from Last Tango in Halifax)
And if you count singer/actors, Petula Clark started as a child singer in 1942, diversifying into acting later in the 40s, and was still appearing on stage in a small part in Mary Poppins until earlier this year.
Get yourself Bob Newhart and a telephone, and something entertaining will happen.
I was going to say, specifically in reference to The Mule, that although Eastwood’s acting has indeed been limited in recent years, it’s also been high profile. I thought The Mule was a sentimental tribute to age (despite being a crime movie) and would have been fitting as his final farewell to acting. Too bad he then decided to perform in Cry Macho and ruin everything.
It’s a sign of my own age but my first thought for Jacobi is I, Claudius.
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Ditto!