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The lists below are not intended to imply that fair moral assessments can be made based only on marriage or divorce statistics. Still, we can light candles of appreciation where marital health was apparently achieved in Hollywood. Each name below is listed in accordance with the length of their marriage. Some details may have changed or may be subject to correction.
Compare the lists below. Notice that marriages lasting over fifty years among Hollywood actresses were harder to find (only four, to my knowledge) than among the actors.
The Actresses
1. Dame May Whitty (1865 - 1948). Spouse, Ben Webster: 1882 - 1947 (his death). They were married for 65 years. She was a fine British actress who came to Hollywood in later years to star in dignified elderly roles. Watch for her in old movies and you will be rewarded.
2. Frances Dee (1907 - 2004). Her birth name was Jean Dee. Her spouse of 57 years was fellow actor, Joel McCrea (married from 1933 to 1990, his death). They had three sons together. Dee did not pursue her career as much in order to devote herself to her family.
3. Eva Marie Saint (1924 - P). Her nickname was, ‘the Helen Hayes (see below) of television.’ She married Jeffery Hayden and has remained with him since 1952 (53 years). They had 2 children.
4. Joan Leslie (1925 - P). She was born; Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel, in Detroit. She married Dr. William Caldwell in 1950. She quit her acting career to raise her identical twin daughters; Patrice and Ellen. Both daughters are now doctors teaching at universities. They remained happily married until his death in 2000 (50 years). She played wholesome, pretty girl-next-door types during the early 1940s.
5. Joanne Woodward (1930 - P). She married Paul Newman in 1958 (46 years as of 2004).
6. Irene Marie Dunne (1898 - 1990.). She is my favorite! She was married for 37 years to a dentist, Dr. Frances Griffin (1928 - 65, his death). They adopted one daughter. Dunne was a versitile actress who received Oscar nominations for one western (1931), two comedies (1936 & 37) and two dramas (1939 & 48). “I Remember Mama” (1948) is a favorite of mine). In 1957, she was appointed as a special US delegate to the United Nations during the 12th General Assembly by President Dwight Eisenhower. She was devoted to many civic causes (public health and the arts, especially). She was a staunch Catholic and Republican, known for her noticeable kindness and for going home after the filming was done. Of her acting, it was once said, “the leading men never get the best of her, but they do get the best of themselves when with her.”
7. Dorothy McGuire (1916 - 2001). She married John Swope, an airline founder and photographer for Life magazine, until his death in 1979 (36 years of marriage).
8. Rosalind Russell (1907-1976). She was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, and married Frederick Brisson, 1941 to 76 (35 years).
9. Helen Hayes (1900-1993). She married Charles MacArthur in 1928 and they were together until 1956 when he died (28 years). She was known as the “First Lady of American Theater.” Quote: “The truth is that there is only one terminal dignity--love... What is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity.”
10. Maureen O’Sullivan (1911 - 1998). She married Australian writer John Farrow in 1938. He was a director and author of a history of the papacy, a life of Thomas More and a Tahitian/English dictionary. They had 7 children. After her last Tarzan, she asked for release from her contract to care for her husband who had just left the Navy with typhoid. She walked away from a lucrative career to devote more time to her family. Her husband died in 1963 after 27 years of marriage. She was the mother-in-law of Frank Sinatra.
The Actors
1. Karl Malden (Malden Sekulovich, 1912- P). He married Mona Graham (1938 – to the present); 2 daughters. 66 years and counting. You might have seen him in “On the Waterfront.”
2. James Cagney (1899 – 1986). He married Frances Vernon (1922 1986, to his death). 64 years together. He did not smoke and rarely drank liquor. Politically, he was a longtime New Deal Democrat who, in later years, became a conservative because of what he perceived as a moral confusion threatening Americans' values.
3. Alec Guinness de Cuffe (1914 – 2000). He married Merula Salaman' and stayed married for 62 years (1938 to 2000; his death). He is known for a fine long acting career. His role in 'Star Wars' is remembered most today but he longed to be appreciated far beyond that role.
4. Robert Young (1907 - 1998). You may recall him as the father in “Father Knows Best.“ He married Elizabeth Louise Henderson (1933 - 1994, her death; 61 years). He was 17 and she was 14 when they met in high school. He had 4 daughters with Betty Henderson. He was also Dr. Marcus Welby.
5. Charlton Heston (1924 - P). Born, John Charles Carter. He married 'Lydia Clarke' in 1944 to the present (2 children). 60 years and counting. He is best known for playing Moses in “The Ten Commandments.”
6. Joel McCrea (1905 – 1990). He was married to Frances Dee (see above) for 57 years. He was a popular western star. He starred in many movies, my favorite of which was “Stars in My Crown,” a fine gem of a movie (1950), especially for Christian tastes.
7. Robert Mitchum (1917 - 1997). His bad boy image was enhanced by at least 2 prison terms. An itinerant, he finally settled down in 1940, marrying his high-school sweetheart Dorothy Spence. Their 57 years together were said to be rocky but worth noting here.
8. Paul Henreid (1908-1992). He is best known for his role as the noble anti-nazi hero in “Casablanca” (1942). He married Elizabeth Gluck (1936 – 1992; his death). They had 2 adopted daughters. 56 years married.
9. Richard Witmark (1914 – P). Married to Jean Hazlewood for 55 years until her death. His daughter married Sandy Koufax (Dodger baseball star) in 1969. He played alongside John Wayne in “The Alamo.”
10. Walter Brennan (1894 - 1974). He was one of the finest character actors ever to live. He was married to Ruth Wells (1920) for 54 years. He won three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor. Once, an interviewer asked him the secret of his long marriage, despite living in Hollywood. He replied; “Respect!”
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