I was thinking about the new Star Wars and Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford, all playing characters we first saw in 1977 - 381/2 years ago. Was that the record? Then, my thinking still running in a sci-fi direction, I realized that Leonard Nimoy had played Spock from 1966 to 2013 - a forty-seven year span (yes, I’m willing to fudge the original TV series).
Is that the record? Has anyone else portrayed the same character over a greater span of time? Just for clarity - I’m not talking about someone who played “himself”, i.e. a Groucho Marx or a George Burns.
My mind went to Buster Crabbe. Crabbe played a lot of serials in the 1930s including Flash Gordon in 1936. In 1979 he reprised the role shortly in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. That’s 43 years but that’s all I can think of.
Not quite what you’re looking for, but Clayton Moore started playing the Lone Ranger in 1949 and was closely associated with the character up until his death in 1999. He is the only actor listed along with a role on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His last official appearance as the Lone Ranger in a movie was in 1958 but he continued to represent himself as the Lone Ranger until he was sued in 1979 by the producers of a new Lone Ranger movie. Moore continued to appear publicly, wearing sunglasses instead of his trademark mask without actually using the name Lone Ranger up until his death.
If you count documentaries, the group of kids in the “Up” series have been appearing every seven years for 49 years. It started in 1964; the most recent installment was in 2012, and there will probably be one in 2019, extending this.
Elisha Cook, Jr. and Lee Patrick reprised their roles from The Maltese Falcon in The Black Bird – 34 years apart.
Andy Clyde played the same character in short subject for 32 years – 1924-1956
Edgar Bergan & Charlie McCarthy: 1938 to 1979 in films, so that’s 41 years. If you add radio, that pushes it back to 1936, for 43 years.
Adam West & Burt Ward played Batman & Robin on TV (and one movie) starting in 1966 and they still do promotions/conventions in costume (well, Burt still does, not sure about Adam). So that’s 49 years.
Actually, Nimoy portrayed the role of Mr. Spock as early as 1964 as he appeared in the rejected pilot “The Cage” which would raise the bar to 49 years!
Most of the best ones are taken, but
William Daniels played John Quincy Adams in A Woman for the Ages in 1952 and in The Adams Chronicles in 1976. And that first appearance was years before he played John Adams in 1776 on stage and on the screen (1972), and later in The Rebels (1979). He also played Sam Adams in The Bastard in 1978. He had a lock on the historical Adams family. He was also the voice of K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider in 1982-6, but played the role at various other times until 2006.
Actor Kevin McArthy played Dr. Miles Bennell in the first Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1956, and essentially reprised the role in the 1978 remake and in *Looney Tunes: Back in Action * in 2003.
Jerry Lewis was Dr. Julius Kelp in The Nutty Professor in 1963, and re-voiced the role in the animated The Nutty Professor in 2003.
James Best was hero Thorne Sherman in The Killer Shrews (1959) and reprised the role in Return of the Killer Shrews (which he also produced) in 2012, a gap of 53 years, beating Nimoy’s record of 49 years.
If historic portrayals count, Wikipedia says Hal Holbrook “initially gained notoriety for a one-man stage show he developed while in college in 1954, performing as Mark Twain.” He developed this portrayal into Mark Twain Tonight, which premiered on Broadway in 1966 and he performed it as late as 2014, for at least sixty years of the same role.
June Foray voiced Rocky the Flying Squirrel (and Natasha Fatale) starting in 1959, and in the movie in 2000 – 41 years. And it looks like there was an animated short film in 2014, so that goes to 55.
On stage, Hal Holbrook has been playing Mark Twain for over 60 years.