1. Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick
Married: September 4, 1988 – present
Duration: 26 years
How they met: Filming the play Lemon Sky for PBS in the late ‘80s. Sedgwick wasn’t too fond of Bacon at first (“He wasn't very friendly, he had an attitude.”), and he knew it (“I was more into her than she was into me. I think she found me cocky and pretentious.”). He asked her out a few times. She eventually broke down, and they married months later.
2. Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan
Married: July 16, 1988 – present
Duration: 26 years
How they met: Well, it was on Family Ties—but nothing happened at first. The couple told Oprah:
POLLAN: It wasn't that I wasn't attracted to him—I was just dating someone else.
FOX: And it wasn't that I wasn't attracted to her—the guy she was dating was just bigger than me.
They officially began seeing each other in 1987, while filming Bright Lights, Big City.
3. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson
Married: April 30, 1988 – present
Duration: 26 years
How they met: Speaking of Bosom Buddies … the couple first crossed paths filming the cross-dressing comedy in 1981. Wilson played the Lucifer-loving romantic interest to Hanks’ co-star, Peter Scolari. Three years later, Hanks starred with her in Volunteers, and sparks flew. In time, Hanks left his unhappy marriage, and Wilson broke up with her fiancée, claiming, "I didn't know what being in love was until I met Tom.” The couple wed in 1988.
4. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall
Married: June 25, 1987 – present
Duration: 27 years
How they met: In college! Both were heavily into the comedy scene at Northwestern University. In 1982, their troupe, the Practical Theater Company, attracted the attention of SNL’s then-producer, Dick Ebersol, who hired all four members right out of school. Julia’s been with Hall ever since. “Brad was the right guy, and he’s remained the right guy,” she says.
5. Mark Harmon and Pam Dawber
Married: March 21, 1987 – present
Duration: 27 years
How they met: Famously private about their relationship, rumor has it the pair hooked up at a party in March of 1986, two months after Harmon was named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. (From that interview: "When I marry, I want it to be everything this town says it can't be. I'm not into catting around.") They were engaged by summer’s end and wed the following March.
6. Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest
Married: December 18, 1984 – present
Duration: almost 30 years
How they met: Years before their official first date, Curtis saw a picture of Guest in Rolling Stone—
dressed like this, promoting This is Spinal Tap—and said to a friend, “I’m going to marry that man.” She cold-called him, and he never called back. Months later, they locked eyes at a Hollywood restaurant called Hugo’s. He phoned the next day, and they walked the aisle less than six months later.
7. Keith Richards and Patti Hansen
Married: December 18, 1983 (his 40th birthday) – present
Duration: about 31 years
How they met: The first time was in 1979, when he scored champagne for her at Studio 54; they hooked up for good at Richards' 36th birthday party months later. Hansen describes him as a romantic, sending her mix tapes and letters “written with his own blood.” And though her parents weren’t pleased at first—especially after Keef drunkenly wrecked his guitar on their dining-room table—the couple married in 1983, with Mick Jagger playing best man.
8. Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne
Married: July 4, 1982 – present
Duration: 32 years
How they met: Sharon’s father, Don Arden, was famously managing Black Sabbath when his 17-year-old daughter first met frontman Ozzy Osbourne in the early ‘70s. By 1979, Ozzy was a solo act, Sharon was his lover and manager, and the rest … is bat-biting, drug-and-alcohol-fueled, reality show history.
9. Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman
Married: January 28, 1982 – present
Duration: 32 years
How they met: The diminutive pair hooked up in 1971 during a cast dinner for a play, The Shrinking Bride, in which DeVito played a stable boy. They moved in together after two weeks, then dated for 11 years before tying the knot. (Fun fact: Their wedding march was "I'm in the Mood for Love" from The Little Rascals.) With the exception of a brief—and alarming!—separation in 2012, they’ve been going strong ever since.
10. Johnny Cash And June Carter
Married: May 1, 1968 - May 15, 2003 (her death)
Duration: 35 years
How they met: June first heard Johnny’s voice while on tour with Elvis Presley; the King was a big fan and personal friend. Then, in July of 1956, she was tuning her guitar backstage at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry when Cash took her hand and said, “I've always wanted to meet you.” They married 12 years later—he proposed to her onstage—after a long and somewhat tortured courtship.
11. George Burns and Gracie Allen
Married: January 7, 1926 - August 27, 1964 (her death)
Duration: 38 years
How they met: It was 1923. He was 27. She was 17 (or 18 – her date of birth is debated) and already engaged. They were vaudeville partners first, until it became more than a professional collaboration—for George, at least. As the act grew more popular, he fell more in love. Finally, he threatened to quit if she didn’t marry him. Needless to say, the ultimatum worked.
12. Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft
Married: August 5, 1964 - June 6, 2005 (her death)
Duration: about 41 years
How they met: At a taping of the Perry Como variety show. Bancroft sang “Married, I Could Always Get,” and walked offstage into Brooks, who greeted her with, "I'm Mel Brooks and I'm going to marry you."
13. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
Married: January 29, 1958 – September 26, 2008 (his death)
Duration: 50 years
How they met: The story goes that a young Newman was living in New York with his two children and then-wife, Jackie Witte, when he scored a part in a play called Picnic. Woodward was the leading lady’s understudy. The actors grew to love each other’s company, but remained friends until Newman left Witte (whom he divorced in 1957). According to reports, Newman struggled with the circumstances, but shut down nosy reporters by claiming, “It’s simply nobody’s business.”
14. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee
Married: 1948 - February 4, 2005 (his death)
Duration: 57 years
How they met: In 1946, Davis starred in a play called Jeb in New York City; Dee was an understudy for another role. They wed two years later, and had three children, Guy, Nora, and Hasna, during their long union. Dee passed recently, on June 11, 2014. Her plan was to be cremated and have her ashes placed in an urn with her husband’s, inscribed, “In this thing together.”
15. Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara
Married: September 14, 1954 - present
Duration: 60 years
How they met: In the early '50s, Meara, a struggling actress, met with an agent, and came out of his office crying. Stiller, sitting in the waiting room for the next interview, discovered the agent had been hitting on her, and took Meara for a cup of coffee to comfort her.
This exchange sealed the deal:
STILLER: Can I pick up the check?
MEARA: Forget the check. Pick up some silverware, stick it in your pocket, and let’s get the hell out of here.
