14 Actors Who Played the Same Character for 40 Years or More
Conundrum: you get a prestigious four-decade career, but you literally just say “meep-meep” the entire time.
Fran Brill: 43 Years
Brill ed Sesame Street with exactly zero puppeteering experience in 1971, but created the character Prairie Dawn (and voiced several others), eventually winning an Emmy. She retired her signature character in 2015.
Jamie Lee Curtis: 44 Years
Curtis has lived and died in the Halloween franchise from 1978’s Halloween through 2022’s Halloween Ends. Actor Nick Castle has also played Michael Myers throughout that span, although he spent most of his career focusing on writing and directing, and has occasionally done “voiceover” work providing Myer’s heavy breathing.
Paul Julian: 44 Years
Julian was a voice actor and a background animator for Warner Bros., and he perfected the “meep-meep” as the Road Runner from 1949 to 1994.
Mark Hamill: 45 Years
He kicked off his career as Luke Skywalker in 1977’s Star Wars, and has indicated that his 2020 de-aged turn in The Mandalorian and his 2022 de-aged turn in The Book of Boba Fett may be his last appearances in that particular far-far-away galaxy.
James Earl Jones: 45 Years
His long career voicing Darth Vader is bookended by 1977’s Star Wars and the 2022 miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Anthony Daniels: 46 Years
Daniels has played C-3PO more times than any other Star Wars actor has played their role, appearing in just about every movie, TV show and video game that’s come out. His latest was a cameo in Ahsoka in 2023.
Leonard Nimoy: 47 Years
Nimoy started playing Spock in 1966, and made his last cameo in 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, with a few stints as director and EP along the way. He ed away in 2015, before he could do any work on Star Trek Beyond.
Dave Goelz: 48 Years
Goelz was most famous for voicing Gonzo for 45 years, but the Muppet he spent the most time with was Zoot, a band member in The Electric Mayhem.
Ellen Burstyn: 49 Years
Burstyn played the mother of the possessed girl in 1973’s The Exorcist, picking up a Best Actress nomination, but didn’t appear in any of the sequels or spin-offs for the next few decades. She got to play Chris MacNeil once again in 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer, when the father of the newest possessed girl on the block consults her for help.
Carroll Spinney: 50 Years
Spinney played Big Bird from the very first episode of Sesame Street in 1969 until he retired in 2018. He ed away in 2019, and his final episode aired in 2020. He also played Oscar the Grouch for 49 years.
Kathryn Beaumont: 51 Years
Beaumont was 10 years old when she was cast as Alice in 1951’s Alice in Wonderland, and 63 when she reprised her role in the 2002 game Kingdom Hearts. She also had a 49-year career as Wendy Darling in various Peter Pan media.
Mel Blanc: 51 Years
Blanc has voiced just about every beloved Warner Bros. character, from Bugs Bunny to the Tasmanian Devil. His Daffy Duck spanned the most years, from 1937’s “Porky’s Duck Hunt” to 1989’s “Bugs Bunny’s Wild World of Sports.”
Frank Welker: 52 Years
Welker voiced Fred Jones in the 1969 series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, and has continued to do so for almost every single animated series in the franchise. Most recently, he voiced Scooby-Doo, Fred Jones, Dynomutt, Speed Buggy and Magilla Gorilla in the 2019-2021 series Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?
Burt Ward: 53 Years
Ward played Dick Grayson, aka Robin, in the 1966 live-action Batman series. He then took a few decades off from the role before making a brief appearance in a 2019 episode of Supergirl, where he was seen in his classic Dick Grayson duds, walking Ace the Bathound, just before the planet is destroyed.
