# What actors have played the same role for the longest period of time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 19, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321 "2012-04-19T20:43:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/21 "2012-04-20T04:20:10Z")
Mel Blanc played Bugs Bunny for fifty years. Peter Falk played Columbo for 32 years (with some gaps). Raymond Burr played Perry Mason off and on from 1961 to 1993, also 32 years. Ted Neely has been playing Jesus in **Jesus Christ Superstar** intermittently since 1971. Yul Brynner played the King of Siam often from 1951 until shortly before his death in 1985; Richard Burton and Rex Harrison had similar attachments to their roles of King Arthur and Henry Higgins, but died before giving them as much longevity. I thought Joel Grey might be a contender for Master of Ceremonies in **Cabaret** , but can only find listings for two productions twenty-one years apart (and the movie, of course). Not sure if touring groups are covered in Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/22 "2012-04-20T04:24:28Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > [James Arness (1923–2011)](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000790/) as Matt Dillon needs to be considered, I should think. He played the character from 1959 until 1994, a respectable run. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/23 "2012-04-20T05:07:25Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Peter Falk played Columbo for 32 years (with some gaps). Raymond Burr played Perry Mason off and on from 1961 to 1993, also 32 years. Horst Tappert only played [Derrick](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_%28TV_series%29) for 24 years (1974-1998) but that was pretty much continuously. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/24 "2012-04-20T05:25:03Z")
It doesn’t win for year-to-year or number of appearances, but [Kiyoshi Atsumi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otoko_wa_Tsurai_yo) deserves a mention. 48 films all playing the same character. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/25 "2012-04-20T05:43:29Z")
June Foray has been the voice of Granny for Warner Brother cartoons from 1955 to the present. 57 years ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/26 "2012-04-20T05:53:25Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > It’s not the record, but Fred Rogers “played” Mr. Rogers for 43 years (1968-2001). Your math is off. It’s only 33 years. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/27 "2012-04-20T07:19:53Z")
Morgan Freeman has been playing Morgan Freeman since 1964. Jokes aside, Nancy Hughes played Helen Wagner in _As The World Turns_ continuously between 1956 until she passed away in 2010. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/28 "2012-04-20T09:58:13Z")
I was going to say Richard Belzer on Homicide: Life on the Streets. He’s played it into movies (The Brady Bunch). Law & Order and that other cop show. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/29 "2012-04-20T10:41:32Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Hal Holbrook probably has the record for this; he started performing as Mark Twain (originally in a play with his then-wife playing several female characters) since 1954 and is still playing the role in his one-man show in 2012. If he’s still active in 2030, he’ll have played Twain for longer than Twain played Twain. Let’s make this happen. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/30 "2012-04-20T12:50:23Z")
In the 19th century, actors would latch onto a good role and tour in it to their graves: James O’Neill as The Count of Monte Cristo, Charlotte Cushman as Meg Merrilees, Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle–they got sick to death of it, but it paid the rent for decades. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/31 "2012-04-20T13:02:40Z")
William Daniels has a lock on the Adams family – not the ghoulish ones, the American History family. He played John Quincy Adams in 1952, John Adams in _1776_ on Brodway in 1970 and in the movie in 1972, in TV commercials, then John nQuincy Adams again in _The Adams Chronicles_ in 1976, Samuel Adams in _The Bastard_ in 1978, John Adams again in _The Rebel_ in 1979. Herbert Lom played Napoleon Buonaparte in \*The Young Mr. Pitt in 1942 and _War and Peace_ in 1956. But he was Charles Dreyfus in seven films, starting with \*A Shot in the Dark \* in 1964 and ending with _Curse of the Pink Panther_ in 1983. Elisha Cook Jr. and Lee Patrick reprised their roles from 1941’s _The Maltese Falcon_ for _The Black Bird_ in 1975. Charles Gray was Mycroft Holmes in _The Seven Per Cent Solution_ in 1976 and went on to play him multiple times in the BBC/WGBH Sherlock Holmes series from 1985-1994. I’ve tried to concentrate on roles in different series here, but you could easily bring in people who stayed with the same series for a long time, like Bernard Lee, Loisd Maxwell, and Desmond Llewelyn from the James Bond franchise. The latter played Major Boothroyd/“Q” from 1964 to 1999. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/32 "2012-04-20T14:01:45Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Do the folks on Sesame Street count? Even aside from the muppeteers, Emilio Delgado has been playing Luis since '71, and Bob’s been doing his thing since the '60s… > > Sesame Street premiered November 10, 1969. Hey, I never said he’d been doing it since the _ **early** _ '60s. 😉 But let me now dwell on something else I glossed over in that post: back in '69, a slim guy with a knack for big costumes started using a cheerfully whiny voice to play Big Bird; Caroll Spinney then went on to spend decades at it, like various other actors mentioned in this thread. What’s interesting is that since '69 he’s also been using his signature taxi-cab-driver growl to play Oscar the Grouch; how many other guys have worked two separate roles, each for 40+ years, in the cast of an ongoing television series? (And he’s still doing quality work; he got nominated for the Emmy in '11 just like he did in '10, with his most recent win back in '07…) ---
**Author:** ![bryanmaguire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bryanmaguire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bryanmaguire)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/33 "2012-04-20T18:53:39Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > He probably wins for time period as the same character on the same show, but he’s not even close for number of appearances. According to his [IMDB page](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0730075/), he’s appeared in 1360 episodes of _Coronation Street_. > > There are quite a few soap operas that have run, for years, at the rate of four or five episodes a week. > > [Deidre Hall](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004984/) has appeared in 2002 episodes of _Days of Our Lives_ (1976-2012). > > [Ray Meagher](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0575114/) has been in 2206 episodes of the Australian show _Home and Away_ (1988-2012). > > [Kate Linder](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0511721/) has been in 2580 episodes of _The Young and the Restless_ (1982-2012). The episode listing for Bill Roache is massively incomplete. According to imdb he only appeared in 1 in every 8 of the first 2000 episodes. Given how massive a character he was then i find that hard very hard to believe ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/34 "2012-04-20T18:58:24Z")
> [@BrassyPhrase](#): > > I was going to say Richard Belzer on Homicide: Life on the Streets. He’s played it into movies (The Brady Bunch). Law & Order and that other cop show. Not to mention The X-Files. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/35 "2012-04-20T19:00:54Z")
nmn ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/36 "2012-04-20T19:03:29Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > nmn alfrd e nmn? He’s been around since the late 1950s, doing the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/37 "2012-04-20T19:12:47Z")
And here I thought Kelsey Grammer might be a contender. He’s a piker compared to some of these folks. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/38 "2012-04-20T19:13:12Z")
> [@bryanmaguire](#): > > The episode listing for Bill Roache is massively incomplete. According to imdb he only appeared in 1 in every 8 of the first 2000 episodes. Given how massive a character he was then i find that hard very hard to believe Me too. He’s quite unusual in that his character has always been a significant one. He was 18 when he joined, so he’s spent his entire adult life playing a single role. He’s 70 now and I doubt he’ll leave Corrie till ill health forces him to, so I bet he’ll be there for a long time yet. I was thinking that one of the cast of The Archers must be in the running, and it turns out that Norman Painting is. From Wiki: The actor [Norman Painting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Painting)played Phil Archer continuously from the first trial series in 1950 until his death on 29 October 2009. His last recording for an Archers episode was recorded just two days before his death and was broadcast on 22 November. He holds the title of longest-serving actor in a single soap opera in the Guinness Book of Records. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/39 "2012-04-20T19:21:21Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > And here I thought Kelsey Grammer might be a contender. He’s a piker compared to some of these folks. **Nanny G** Frasier, if you knew how bored I am, being “Nanny G.” How trapped I feel… **Frasier** You have a wonderful career. **Nanny G** But nothing ever changes! Do you have any idea what it’s like to play the same character for twenty years? ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321/40 "2012-04-20T19:47:23Z")
Pfft. Screen actors? TELEVISION Actors??? Piffle. How about THEATER actors? Catherine Russell has played the same part in the play [_Perfect Crime_](http://www.perfect-crime.com/)(off-Broadway) in New York City since 1987. She’s only missed FOUR performances in that time, to attend siblings’ wedding. She’s listed in Guinness for [Most Performances of a Theater Actor in the Same Role](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/6000/most-performances-of-a-theatre-actor-in-the-same-role). They only list the record through 2008. She’s STILL playing the same part, four years later. And that’s performing (following a typical New York theater schedule) **EIGHT** shows a week! Oh, and she has also found time to perform in other plays (either late-night shows or performances on her days off), some minor movies, and TEACHES acting at NYU. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-actors-have-played-the-same-role-for-the-longest-period-of-time/619321.md?page=3)