10. Dustin Hoffman/Lisa Gottsegen 29 years (Oct. 12, 1980)
Although Hoffman, 73, has said that marriage seems strange to him, hes done a pretty good job at making it work. Theres something unnatural about marriage, he said in an interview. These two people are not going to be the same people in a few years. Luckily, though, the Academy Award-winning actor and his wife Lisa Gottsegen, have gone through their changes together as they raised their four children: Jacob, Rebecca, Maxwell and Lydia. Besides being an attorney, Gottsegen launched a successful skin-care line in 2007. The trick, Hoffman has said, is to live your own life while sharing your space.
9. Meryl Streep/Don Gummer 32 years (September 15, 1978)
She seems perfect in every other way, so why shouldnt Meryl Streep have one of the most enduring marriages in the entertainment industry? And Streep, 61, isnt the only talented one in the family. Gummer is a respected sculptor whose work is part of museum collections around the world. They have three children: Mamie and Grace, who are actresses; and Louisa. Streep attributes the longevity of the marriage to a deep understanding between her and Gummer, 63, of whats important in life: "My husband understands the compulsion to create things. With somebody who had a regular job, I think it might have been harder... I think you have to have somebody as a partner who shares what you value."
8. Bridges/Susan Geston 33 years (1977)
After Bridges, 60, won an Oscar earlier this year for his portrayal of a broken-down country singer in Crazy Heart, he gave a shout-out to his wife, Susan Geston, and its safe to assume that a fair number of in the audience wouldnt recognize either her or her name. One of the lowest-profile figures in Hollywood, Geston, the daughter of a professional couple from Fargo, North Dakota, was working as a waitress on a ranch when she met Bridges while he was filming Rancho Deluxe. In one of the very few times Bridges has talked about his wife, he said it took just a week for him to fall in love with her. I had a feeling of being at homea soothing feeling of being where I belonged, he said. In marriage, no one can ask for more than that.
7. Howard/Cheryl Alley 35 years (June 7, 1975)
Director Ron Howard (Cocoon, Apollo 13, The DaVinci Code) got his start in show business by playing the archetypal small-town American boy, Opie,on The Andy Griffith Show. And offscreen, his life seems just as innocent. Howard, 56, married his high-school sweetheart (who else?) on June 7, 1975, and theyve been together ever since. Asked what he thinks his greatest achievement is, Howard said in 2006, Forty-eight years of steady employment in television and film, while preserving a rich family life. Ron and Cheryl, 56, have four kids: Bryce Dallas, twins Jocelyn Carlyle and Paige Carlyle and son Reed Cross. Howard has said the children were named for the place they were conceived: Bryce in Dallas; the twins in Manhattans Carlyle Hotel; and Reed --well, they just gave him the name Cross because Volvo didnt work.
6. Sissy Spacek/Jack Fisk 36 years (April 12, 1974)
Although shes an Academy Award winner (for her portrayal of singer Loretta Lynn in Coal Miners Daughter), Spacek, 60, has never followed the typical Hollywood path. Beginning with an uncredited role in an Andy Warhol movie, she made a name for herself in independent cinema; it was on the set of one of those movies (Badlands) that she met her future husband, art director Jack Fisk, now 64. After she starred in some classic movies (including the terrifying Carrie), Spacek decided to take some time off to focus on her family. She stayed away from the industry for four years. Maybe its that willingness to put her family first thats kept her and Fisk together for nearly four decades. They have two daughters, Schuyler and Madison Fisk, and live on a horse ranch in Virginia.
5. Plummer/Elaine Taylor 39 years (October 2, 1970)
Although hes best known for the role of Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music, the Canadian native, 80, has had a long, distinguished career in theater and the movies. He met Elaine Taylor, an actress, on the set of the farce Lock Up Your Daughters in 1969. In his autobiography In Spite of Myself, Plummer wrote of how empty and despondent he felt at being separated from her. Taylor, now 66, said shed date him if he cut down on the booze. The two were married a year later.
4. Andrews/Blake Edwards 41 years (1969)
The actress and the director met, the way many couples do, at work the1970 movie Darling Lili, in which Andrews played a German spy in World War I. Although the film wasnt a big hit, it began a personal and professional relationship thats grown richer over the years. Andrews, best known for her role as the sprightly Maria in The Sound of Music, starred in several Edwards films that included the gender-bending Victor/Victoria and the satirical S.O.B. Andrews, 74, and Edwards, 88, have five children. As for the secret of their marital success, flexibility seems to be key: Julie once said, All love shifts and changes. I dont know if you can be wholeheartedly in love all the time.
3. Martin Sheen/Janet Templeton 48 years (Dec. 23, 1961)
Sheen, 70, best known recently for his portrayal of President Josiah Bartlet on The West Wing, came from a traveling family. One of ten children, he was the first to be born in the United States, and he married a girl from his hometown, Dayton, Ohio. Sheen and the former Janet Templeton, 64, have four children-- actors Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, Ramon and Reneeand three grandchildren.
2. Alan Alda/Arlene Weiss 53 years (March 15, 1957)
Alda, 74, best known for his role as the sardonic physician Hawkeye Pierce in the legendary television series M*A*S*H*, and his wife, Arlene, 77, have both come a long way from the Bronx. Typically, theyve never made a big deal of it. Alda, whos won five Emmys and six Golden Globes, doesnt make it a habit to talk about his personal life hed rather focus on his liberal Democratic and feminist views. Weiss, even quieter, is an accomplished clarinetist who once played with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. They have three children and seven grandchildren.
1. Kirk Douglas/Anne Buydens 56 years (May 29, 1954)
Like everything else about Kirk Douglas, his marriage is incredibly long-lasting. At 93, hes been married to his wife, Anne Buydens, for 56 years. The marriage is Douglass second; his most famous son, Michael Douglas, was born during his fathers first marriage. Douglas and Buydens met in 1953, when she was a publicist for his movie Act of Love. Although Douglas was engaged at the time to actress Pier Angeli, he and Buydens eloped to Las Vegas. In 2004, they renewed their vows before 300 guests, including Nancy Reagan. As part of the traditional Jewish ceremony, Kirk cracked a glass wrapped in linen, an act symbolizing both the joy and difficulty of life. He wasnt strong enough to stomp on it, but in typical fashion he made it work: He used his cane.
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