Man, that must have been a really primitive TV in 1912…
Helen Wagner has played Nancy Hughes on the US soap As the World Turns since 1956 and still plays her today. The soap will end later this year, at which time she will have been Nancy Hughes for over 54 years.
What about Bob Hope? He first appeared on television in 1947 (on an experimental studio in New York, according to Wikipedia) and his first television special was in 1950. His last was in 1996. He also had a long career on radio. (I was always annoyed that NBC did little to note his passing, given the long association he had with the network.)
Patrick Moore (born 1923) has presented the TV astronomy programme *The Sky At Night * since it first started in 1957. At 53 years this is one of the longest running TV programmes of all time.
Hugh Downs made his first TV appearance in 1945 and still shows up (albeit in infomercials.)
Dennis James first appeared on TV in 1938 and was still working up to his death in 1997.
Norman Lloyd’s earliest television credit is from a 1939 live production called The Streets of New York. A five-minute, silent kinescope film of this live broadcast, now in New York’s Museum of Television and Radio, is the earliest filmed record of an American television drama.
Lloyd’s most recent television credit is from 2005, so that would be a 66 year TV career - pretty hard to beat…
It occurs to me that if you want to find the one who is likely to have the longest career, you want to find someone who was very very young at the dawn of TV.
Ron Howard’s first appearance on TV was in 1956, and he became a star on TV by 1959 - when he was only five years old (he was on “Dennis the Menace”). He was six when he became Opie on the Andy Griffith show. He was a TV star through the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, and did various TV episodes in the time since. He’s the narrator of Arrested Development today.
It’s entirely possible that he’ll come back to TV some day in a starring role. If he does, he could beat the old record pretty handily, because the guy is only 56 years old, but he’s been around since the first decade after the television became available.
Harry Morgan had a long movie and tv career. He did movies throughout the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s. Then Morgan was a pioneer in the early days of tv. December Bride was his earliest tv series (1954-1959). Pete & Gladys ran 1960-1962.
It’s a shame most people only know him for Dragnet and MASH. One of his last recurring roles was on 3rd Rock in 1996.
Harry Morgan is still alive at 95.
Another obvious long British TV career that’s still running is that of Bruce Forsyth. First performed on television as a child in 1939, has been a regular fixture on screen since 1958 and currently hosts one of the BBC’s highest-rated entertainment shows at the age of 82.
Wasn’t this show (Arrested Development) cancelled about five years ago?
Oh, I guess so. I never watched it.
Not in the same vein, but still pretty impressive:
Jack Mercer holds the Guinness record for the longest time voicing a single cartoon character. He took over as the voice of Popeye in 1935, continuing to do the voice both in film and television until his death in 1984.
Only four people have been with the long-running children’s TV show Sesame Street for all of its 40 years: actors Bob McGrath and Loretta Long, puppeteer Carroll Spinney, and cameraman Frank Biando.
The Sabado Gigante guy, Don Francisco started hosting the show 48 years ago. He’s only 69, so he could theoretically go on for years. According to his Wikipedia page, he plans to host the show until he dies.
Plus, I was listening to NPR today and heard the unmistakable tones of Don Francisco hosting the recent Chilean earthquake telethon (he’s Chilean). He does a lot of work for a 69 year old.
He did occur to me as a possibility - I should have looked him up. 71 years on TV is pretty damn impressive, especially since he’s been such a huge part of British TV for roughly 50 of those years. Still dancing on TV too.
(BTW, Hi, Bonzer!)
For an overall mix (as per the OP) Sir John Gielgud’s movie career stretched from silent film in 1924 to 2000 aged 96- That’s around 76 years
Richard Crenna had an incredibly long run on television. He did do movies and theater, but I think he was on a series in every decade from the 1950s to the 2000s (if you count Centenniel as a series). He started with Our Miss Brooks in 1952 and ended with Judging Amy in 2002 if I remember correctly.