Love to Last a Lifetime: Show Business Marriages That Lasted

On this occasion when we celebrate love, I thought it fitting to recognize marriages that have lasted in the difficult environment of show business. In Hollywood, where forces conspire against a lasting relationship, particularly when both parties are actors, some marriages have endured for a lifetime. Here’s a list to encourage you. It did me.

Charlton and Lydia Heston (pictured) - 64 years, ending with his death in 2008
James and Frances Cagney - 63 years, ending with his death in 1986
Ronald and Nancy Reagan - 52 years, ending with his death in 2004
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans – 51 years, ending with his death in 1998
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward - 50 years, ending with his death in 2008
Gregory and Veronique Peck - 47 years, ending with his death in 2003
Jimmy and Gloria Stewart - 44 years, ending with her death in 1994
Susan Hayward and Eaton Chalkey - 39 years, ending with his death in 1966
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III - 36 years, ending with her death in 1982

And my personal favorite from an earlier time:

Annie Oakley and Frank Butler (from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show) who met when, as a young teen, she defeated him in a shooting match. He began courting her thereafter (broadminded man!) and they were married in 1876, just days after her 16th birthday. They remained married for 50 years until her death in 1926. Frank was so brokenhearted when she died he stopped eating and died 18 days later. Truly theirs was a love to last a lifetime.