Who is the longest "lived" fictional character

Cafe Society
61

I am reanimating the zombie of my own OP because I have discovered a near tie for Wodehouse and Bertie Wooster: the Poldark novels of Winston Graham.

My wife and I started watching the new BBC adaptation on PBS last night, and when I checked out the Wikipedia entry on the novels, I discovered that Graham wrote 12 Poldark books from 1945 to 2002, before dying in 2003 at the age of 95. This is a span of 57 years, a very close second to Wodehouse’s 58 years!

The only possible fly in the ointment is that I don’t know if Ross Poldark or any of the main characters in the first book survive through to the last one. According to Wiki, the time frame of the last is 31 years after the end of the first, so there’s no reason he shouldn’t.

I am surprised (and a little disappointed) that none of my fellow Dopers mentioned Poldark 11 years ago. After all, the BBC’s first adaptation was in 1975. I had heard of it, but never watched.

With the revival of this thresd, I look forward to hearing if there are any potential rivals for Bertie’s record since 2004.

62

All these years later, I’ll ask: didn’t he wrote MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN longer?

63

Nevermind

64

As I was reading this thread, recognizing that it was from 2004, I assumed it was going to be bumped because of “Go Set a Watchman”. Going by publication dates it would be 55 years (1960-2015) but the two novels were written between 1957 and 1960 so I don’t think it counts.

65

Not a potential rival to the 58 year mark, but Sue Grafton has now been publishing Kinsey Millhone stories for 35 years (upon the publication of “X”, due in August) and will likely make the 40 year mark by the time “Z” comes out, assuming she’s in decent health.

66

Stan Lee. Spider-man first appeared in 1961, so it might be 54 years and counting.
Jack Kirby on Captain America 1941 thru the 70s I think.
Bill everett on Sub mariner

67

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Tarl Cabot of the *Gor *series, which were published pretty much annually (with a couple of large gaps) from 1966 to 2013, a span of 47 years. Although I’ll admit I haven’t read the later ones and can’t swear that Tarl Cabot was in them.

68

Minor case: Jerry Shuster drew a page of artwork for Action Comics #544 (Jun 83), commemorating the 45th anniversary of Superman.

69

Not a challenge to Wodehouse, but Sax Rohmer wrote Fu Manchu books over a period of 46 years, 1913-1959.

And maybe we should we give an honorable mention to Harper Lee, publishing two separate books featuring Atticus Finch 55 years apart.

70

Beetle Bailey didn’t hold the record when this thread was started but he does now. Mort Walker created the character in 1950 and is still producing the comic strip sixty-five years later.

71

Thanks for the replies, but I want to remind folks that back in post #27, I decided to exclude comic strips from consideration in this thread. But as I mentioned there, a similar thread for comic strips might very well be interesting.

I also think that Harper Lee doesn’t really count, because the essence of the accomplishment I’m celebrating in this thread is a significant body of work created over an extended period of time. Not just publishing two works many years apart.

Besides, there seems to be some question as to the extent of Lee’s involvement in publishing GSAW.

72

The characters from Doonesbury?

73

Harry Harrison wrote Stainless Steel Rat books since 1961, the most recent came out in 2010 just before his death. 49 years.

I still think the adventures of Slippery Jim DiGriz would make a great movie. Or TV series.

74

Inspector Maigret had a pretty long career. First book in the series in 1931, last appearance in 72 (all written by Siménon).

If posthumous publications count, Arsène Lupin appeared in 1907, and his last adventures were published in 2012 (Leblanc himself died in '41).

75

Dick Tracy was under the same author/artist for 46 years, but is still going strong today.

76

Rabbit Angstrom (John Updike), 41 years
Atticus Finch (Harper Lee), 55 years

77

Dorothy Gale (L. Frank Baum), a mere 19 years. She was just a kid!
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley): 23 years (She wrote three editions)

78

Honourable mention to Rincewind - 30 years from The Colour of Magic (1983) to his last brief mentions in Raising Steam (2013)

79

The detectives of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct mysteries lived from Cop Hater in 1956 to Fiddlers in 2005–a lifespan of 49 years.

80

I’d give that credit to Death, who appears in *all *of the books.