Yeah… no.
The divorce rate in the US for all marriages is 50%. Which includes plenty of 2nd marriages all the way up through couples pulling a Larry King.
Therefore, the success rate for first marriages has to be at least above 50%.
Jeremy Irons has been married to Sinead Cusack for almost 32 years, although they’ve been open about how stormy their relationship is.
Danny Devito and Rhea Perlman married in 1982. First marriage for both.
It was a second marriage for both of them.
The ubiquitous character actor Charles Lane was married to the same woman for 71 years.
Art Linkletter and his wife have been married for almost 75 years.
I came in here to mention Heston, and his wife Lydia!
Heston said in his autobiography that Lydia was the only girl he ever dated. He met her at Northwestern in Chicago, in a university class.
When he was on the Jay Leno show, plugging his book, it was the same year the couple celebrated their 50th anniversary. Leno asked him if, as a soldier(it was WWII) he’d ever tried that old gag “Honey, we may never see each other again, we have to have something to remember each other by” Heston’s reply was that he’d tried, “but she was too smart for that!” Based on some other comments it was implied they were both virgins when they got married.
Steve Buscemi has been married for 30+ years.
Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were married for 50+ years when he died.
Maybe the proportion of successful first marriages is 20% or less.
Though I didn’t state it explicitly in that sentence, I’m talking about the success rate of first Hollywood marriages. And I’m saying it is lower than normal (lower than 50+%) and it might be 20%… or 10%…
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Hollywood marriages are subject to a pressure that normal marriages aren’t - living in a fishbowl.
It’s not just Hollywood; sports stars, politicians and famous business magnates all have just as much trouble staying married.
Another point: We non-movie-stars like to fantasize about being in a relationship with these hot celebrities, and just sort of think that, “If I just married <hot celebrity>, then my life would be perfect”. But of course, nothing’s that simple: Being married to a hot celebrity carries at least all the same problems as being married to anyone else, and some of them aren’t nearly as enjoyable to be around as they make themselves seem (which is, after all, their job). If I had the chance to wed, say, Catherine Zeta-Jones, I just might do so, even though I know almost nothing about her. And since I know almost nothing about her, the relationship probably wouldn’t last.
Well, the celebrities themselves aren’t immune to that sort of infatuation, either. They find the same people hot that all the rest of us do. The only difference is, they actually do have the chance to get into relationships with other hot celebrities.
I would also add that there’s also added pressure whenever there’s a relationship between two people in the same competitive profession–in this case, acting. It’s not that you’re competing for the same roles, it’s just that your partner may be more successful than you and that almost always is a source of tension. That’s why it seems that most of the successful Hollywood marriages involve a famous actor or actress who’s married to somebody outside the entertainment world. Or, if they don’t, the other spouse is either a non-actor (i.e., someone who works behind the scenes) or quit acting shortly after getting married.
It looks like he’s only been married once, but it was in 1991, and it was her second marriage. But from John’s POV it counts.
The reveal of this was one of the best moments of Ken Burns’ Jazz IIRC.
Gary Sinise has been married to his wife, Moira Harris, since 1981. They met in college.
For example, Phoebe Cates, who married the 16-years-older Kevin Kline. They married in 1989 and her last movie was 1994 (other than The Anniversary Party, a small film in which she appeared, along with Kline and their two children, partly as a favor to Jennifer Jason Leigh, her old friend from Fast Times at Ridgemont High days.)
All marriages come to an end, if not in divorce, then in death. I figure the divorced ones got off easy.
Nah. Death is usually quicker, and often less painful.
By longevity, some other nice long Hollywood marriages, just as data points:
Anne Meara & Jerry Stiller: 56 years
Bill & Camille Cosby: 46 years
Ron & Cheryl Howard: 35 years
Samuel L. Jackson & LaTanya Richardson: 30 years
Dan Aykroyd & Donna Dixon: 27 years
Denzel & Pauletta Washington: 27 years
Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick: 22 years
Tony Shaloub & Brooke Adams: 18 years
I don’t know if Jerry Seinfeld is the best example, since he met his now-wife right after her honeymoon and she divorced that husband right away. Sheesh. Marriage Ref indeed.
Jane Wyatt’s husband, Edgar Ward, died in 2000 one day before their 65th anniversary. But he wasn’t an actor, he was a banker.