Actors With the Longest Careers

One of the most popular movies in theaters right now is “Mary Poppins Returns” — a follow-up to the classic musical “Mary Poppins” from 1964. Among the sequel’s cast of rather youthful actors — including Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda — are some familiar, older faces, namely nonagenarians Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury. And while Julie Andrews, the original Mary Poppins, is absent this time around, she continues to act, most recently voicing the role of Karathen in Marvel’s “Aquaman.”

Van Dyke, Lansbury, and Andrews have had long and successful film careers. And they’re not the only ones. The movies are filled with performers who have been active in their craft for 40, 50, and even 60 years. While not all of them have necessarily reached similar fame as Lansbury or Andrews have, they’ve all managed to remain working in the film industry for decades.

24/7 Wall St. has identified the actors with the longest careers. These are the actors with at least 65 years in the business — from their cinematic debuts (sometimes in their infancy or childhood) to their most recent movies.

Some of the actors on the list got an early start in movies as child actors. Jeff Bridges, Patty McCormack, and Dean Stockwell were all “in the business” before reaching 10 years of age.

Others, such as 104 year-old Norman Lloyd, have had long careers thanks largely to their advanced ages. As these entertainers have stuck with it, they’ve amassed many years of acting.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Tim Matheson as 3rd for longest acting career. His earliest movie was in fact 1985’s Fantasia, not 1940’s Fantasia. He has been removed from the list. In addition, we replaced for 8 actors (Terence Hill, John Saxon, Patty McCormack, Piper Laurie, James Fox, Dean Stockwell, Karolyn Grimes, and Leslie Phillips) the name of the earliest film to a film that was released earlier that same year.