Hollywood Couples Still Together After 20 Years
Movie Stars in Relationships That Have Lasted 2 Decades or More
- Joanne Woodward/Paul Newman
Married Since: 1958
Woodward won an Oscar for her portrayal of multiple personalities in Three Faces of Eve and starred with Newman in The Long, Hot Summer; Rachel, Rachel; Drowning Pool and Mr. & Mrs. Bridge.
Newman, as you know, makes salad dressing.
After losing out on 7 Best Actor Oscar nominations, including for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Hustler, he finally grabbed one in 1987 – for Color of Money, the pale sequel to The Hustler and clearly a The Departed/Training Day-style pity prize. Sadly, Newman is reported to be ailing.
Love Connection: It was apparently quite The Long, Hot Summer for the lovebirds, who met and dated on the set of the movie while Newman was still married to another.
Likely Reason for Longevity: Similarly prodigious levels of talent. Also, bleu cheese.
- Goldie Hawn/Kurt Russell
Together Since: 1983
Hawn has a Supporting Actor Oscar for Cactus Flower and has ditzed out with the best of them in films such as Private Benjamin, Bird on a Wire and Butterflies are Free. She is Kate Hudson’s mother.
Russell starred in Backdraft, Tango & Cash and John Carpenter movies Escape from New York, Escape from L.A., Big Trouble in Little China and The Thing.
Love Connection: The pair met on the set of Swing Shift, perhaps not coincidentally during the same year Russell and his first wife divorced.
Likely Reason for Longevity: Goldie’s immutable locks continually serve to remind Kurt of the first time ever he saw her face; if Kurt needs to escape, he can call up John Carpenter.
- Christopher Guest/Jamie Lee Curtis
Married Since: 1984
Curtis lived up to her mother’s legend as star of the ‘60s slasher film Psycho with her own iconic turn in Halloween and its sequels. She also starred in A Fish Called Wanda, Trading Places and True Lies.
Guest is the king of the mockumentary; he wrote and starred in This Is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, For Your Consideration, Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind, each of which skewers an industry.
Love Connection: Curtis saw Guest in Rolling Stone magazine dressed up for his role in This is Spinal Tap and passed her number along to his agent.
Likely Reason for Longevity: Mutual nobility. Daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, she’s Hollywood royalty; fifth Baron Haden-Guest of Saling in the County of Essex, he’s British peerage.
- Susan Sarandon/Tim Robbins
Together Since: 1988
Sarandon is the female star Janet (Slut!) of cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
She also has a Best Actress Oscar for Dead Man Walking and has created numerous memorable performances in movies including Thelma & Louise, The Hunger and Atlantic City. She recently portrayed socialite Doris Duke in the HBO film Bernard and Doris.
Robbins has a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Mystic River and has starred in The Shawshank Redemption and some five Robert Altman movies including The Player.
Love Connection: These two covered all the bases when they met on the set of baseball movie Bull Durham.
Likely Reason for Longevity: Similarly rabid sociopolitical convictions; mutual compulsion to vote for Ralph Nader.
- Kyra Sedgwick/Kevin Bacon
Married Since: 1988
Second cousin of Warhol sidekick Edie, Sedgwick starred in the grunge classic Singles, looked uncannily like Julia Roberts in Something to Talk About and, in her overly maternal role in Loverboy, spent way too much quality time with her onscreen son.
Bacon has done so many films for so many years that his career inspired the parlor game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, which posits that all actors in Hollywood have a professional link with Bacon.
Love Connection: When Sedgwick and Bacon met on the set of the TV movie Lemon Sky, she’d only done one feature film, War and Love, which also featured Evan Handler. Two years earlier, Handler had made Taps with Sean Penn, whose brother Chris Penn starred with Bacon in Footloose. Whoa – it works!
Likely Reason for Longevity: They don’t call Sedgwick “The Closer” for nothing; also, shared love of small, indie roles.
- Rita Wilson/Tom Hanks
Married Since: 1988
Like her husband, Wilson spent most of the ‘80s as a TV actress; her feature films include Sleepless in Seattle, Runaway Bride and Auto Focus.
Hanks has Best Actor Oscars for Forrest Gump and Philadelphia, and has starred in a slew of audience pleasers. He’s currently filming the prequel to The Da Vinci Code.
Love Connection: Originally met when she guest-starred on the TV show "Bosom Buddies," but didn’t connect romantically until they met again on the set of Volunteers.
Likely Reason for Longevity: Whenever Tom tries to go catting or go Hollywood, Rita simply whips out those “Bosom Buddies” videos, and he rediscovers his devotion.
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