What actor or actress has the largest gap in credits on IMDB?
I have a vague recollection of a gap of a decade or more, but I can’t recall who and I don’t know how to do a search for something like that.
I trust we’re not counting posthumous credits, i.e. someone’s appearance in “archival footage” in a modern film.
Jack Larson, recently deceased Jimmy Olsen actor, has a 26 year gap from 1965 to 1991.
I submit Leonard Whiting, who played Romeo in Franco Zefferelli’s film Romeo and Juliet from 1968.
He acted in the film Rachel’s Man in 1975 and then, aside from a voice-only credit, next appeared in a film in 2015’s Social Suicide. A forty year gap.
I would agree. Only credits for appearing in a new role and not just a flashback or archival footage.
Also Mark Lester, the kid who played Oliver in the Oscar-winning film Oliver! (1968) has no credits between 1977 and 2011, and the 2011 credit is a short film. That’s a 34 year gap, in case you can’t count.
It is arbitrary, but I’m curious to see who has the biggest gap in credits, including voice work. Otherwise someone like Don Pardo would be really difficult to measure.
In that case Leonard Whiting has just a 25 year gap (1990-2015) and Mark Lester leapfrogs ahead of him with his 34 year gap.
Jack Totheroh has a seventy-year gap.
By the way, in case you’re wondering what Mark Lester was up to during his long break… he became an osteopath and possibly, as he has suggested, fathered Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris.
This is impressive.
I was thinking it would be in the 40 year range.
I was going to say that he became a veterinarian, but that’s actually Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He’s not a fit for this thread, because that movie was his sole acting credit (which might be a topic for a whole different thread).
FWIW, I was about his age when the movie came out, and my mom was told by people all the time that I looked just like him. So if you want to know what I looked like as a kid…: http://hollywoodshow.com/star_images/marklester43c64ccf.png
Also worth noting is Anita Page, who made virtually no acting appearances between 1936 and 1996. She did apparently play a nun in an obscure 1961 production called The Runaway, but it was never released to theatres and was unseen until TCM aired it in 2008.
Tsuru Aoki, who was married to Sessue Hayakawa, was active in films from 1913 until 1924, then had a 36-year gap in her filmography. She finally made her first (and only) talkie in 1960.
One example is Harold Russell, who had a 34-year gap between 1946 and 1980:
If we’re not just talking acting credits, I was going to guess Harper Lee (jump from 1963 to 2015). It’s going to be hard to beat Dewey Finn’s entry.
Jo Helton Wintker had a recurring role on Dr. Kildare from 1961-1965, and another credit in an obscure movie Bill Wallace of China in 1967. After that, her next credits include several movie appearances in 2014 including Dumb and Dumber To.
That’s 47 years! Not Jack Totheroh territory but I think a solid second place so far. And she’s still going - her entry shows another movie currently in production.
(She’s also a friend of mine from church and a wonderful old lady).
ETA: I guess third, after Harper Lee’s 52 years.
But he only had to wait fifteen years for his next role. So his career was picking up momentum.