7 Actors Who Played the Same Character for Over 20 Years

Hollywood careers rise and fall, contracts expire, and franchises reboot with fresh faces almost every decade. Yet a handful of performers have managed something rarer: sticking with a single role long enough to watch the character age alongside them, sometimes across generations of fans. These are not quick cameos or one-off sequels but genuine decades-long commitments, the kind that turn an actor and a character into nearly the same cultural entity.

1. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones

Harrison Ford first cracked his whip as Indiana Jones in 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” a role that became one of the defining adventure heroes in film history. He returned for “Temple of Doom” in 1984, “The Last Crusade” in 1989, and then, after a long gap, “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in 2008. The character kept going even as Ford himself grew older on screen, with the story leaning into that reality rather than hiding from it.

In 2023, Ford closed out the saga with “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” bringing the total span to 42 years with the same actor in the fedora. Few franchises have allowed their lead to age in real time quite like this one, and audiences largely embraced watching Indy get older rather than replacing him with a younger actor. It stands as one of the longest single-character runs by any actor in a major film franchise.

2. Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker

Mark Hamill became Luke Skywalker in 1977’s original “Star Wars,” a role that made him a household name almost overnight. He carried the character through “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi,” then stepped away from live-action Star Wars for decades while continuing to voice other characters, most notably the Joker in various animated projects. Luke Skywalker never really left, though, thanks to novels, games, and animated series that kept Hamill connected to the role.

He returned physically to the part in 2015’s “The Force Awakens,” continuing through “The Last Jedi” in 2017 and a brief but emotional appearance in “The Rise of Skywalker” in 2019. That gives Hamill a span stretching back to 1977, making Luke Skywalker one of the longest-running characters ever tied to a single actor in a major film series. His voice was even digitally recreated for a younger Luke in “The Mandalorian” and “The Book of Boba Fett,” extending the character’s presence further still.

3. Anthony Daniels as C-3PO

Anthony Daniels has worn the golden suit of C-3PO since the original 1977 “Star Wars,” and unlike most of his castmates, he never really stopped. Anthony Daniels is best known for playing C-3PO in 11 Star Wars films, from 1977’s Star Wars to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. That makes him the only actor to appear in every mainline entry of the saga, a distinction that sets him apart even from Ford and Hamill.

He has played the character in every single theatrically released movie and provided the voice of the character in countless animated projects and video games. That is a run of more than four decades in the same costume, playing a character whose fussy, formal mannerisms Daniels himself helped shape during the production of the very first film. Few actors anywhere have matched that kind of uninterrupted franchise loyalty.

4. Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane

Kelsey Grammer introduced Dr. Frasier Crane to television audiences in 1984 during the third season of “Cheers,” originally intended as a minor romantic complication for the main cast. First appearing in Season 3 of Cheers back in 1984, Kelsey’s role as everyone’s favorite psychiatrist was to serve as the newest romantic foil to Sam and Diane, and once the series creators saw how fantastic his on-screen chemistry was with Ted Danson in particular, they decided to keep his character around, and Kelsey continued to appear as Frasier Crane until Cheers closed its doors for good in 1993. The spin-off series “Frasier” picked up almost immediately, running from 1993 to 2004 on NBC.

Grammer played Frasier Crane on Cheers from 1984 to 1993 and its spin-off Frasier from 1993 to 2004, and again from 2023 to 2024, giving the character more than 20 years on air, one of the longest-running roles played by a single live-action actor in primetime television history. That original run alone tied him with a record that had stood since the 1970s. He had been playing Dr. Frasier Crane for 20 years, long enough to become the longest-running character in American primetime television, matching a benchmark that had stood alone for decades. When Paramount+ revived “Frasier” in 2023, Grammer extended that legacy even further into a fourth decade with the character.

5. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine

Hugh Jackman first clawed his way onto screens as Logan in 2000’s “X-Men,” an unexpected casting choice for a role that was traditionally shorter and more animalistic in the comics. It’s now been a quarter century since Hugh Jackman made his debut as Logan/Wolverine in the first X-Men film, which premiered in 2000 and elevated the Australian actor to A-list status. He carried the character through nearly a dozen films across two decades, including standalone entries like “The Wolverine” and the acclaimed 2017 finale “Logan.”

Jackman initially treated “Logan” as his farewell to the role, given the story’s finality, but he returned once more for 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine for over 24 years, one of the longest times any actor has ever played the same superhero. That quarter-century run makes him one of the longest-serving actors in modern superhero cinema, spanning multiple studio eras from Fox’s original X-Men franchise into the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself.

6. James Earl Jones as Darth Vader

James Earl Jones lent his unmistakable bass voice to Darth Vader starting with the original 1977 “Star Wars,” though he went uncredited for that first film. Jones has voiced Vader since 1977’s A New Hope, though his role was uncredited for that project. He continued voicing the character across the original trilogy, later projects like “Revenge of the Sith,” “Rogue One,” and “The Rise of Skywalker,” building a run that spanned more than four decades.

In 2022, Jones stepped back from actively recording new lines but agreed to let Lucasfilm use his archival recordings through artificial intelligence technology to keep Vader’s voice alive. James Earl Jones famously voiced Star Wars villain Darth Vader for nearly 40 years before signing off on AI tech recreating his younger voice. Jones passed away in September 2024, but thanks to that agreement, his voice as Darth Vader continues to appear in new Star Wars content, extending a connection to the character that began nearly half a century earlier.

7. Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson

Dan Castellaneta has voiced Homer Simpson since “The Simpsons” debuted as a full series in 1989, following short appearances on “The Tracey Ullman Show” a couple of years earlier. That makes his run with the character stretch across nearly four decades, a remarkable stretch for any voice actor working on a single ongoing production. Homer’s voice actually evolved noticeably over the early seasons, deepening and softening from its initial gruffer tone into the more familiar sound most fans recognize today.

“The Simpsons” remains in active production heading into 2026, with Castellaneta still voicing Homer alongside the show’s other long-serving cast members like Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, and Yeardley Smith. Few animated roles anywhere have lasted this long with an unbroken run by the same performer, making Homer Simpson one of the longest continuously voiced characters on television. The show’s longevity has effectively turned Castellaneta’s vocal performance into as much a piece of pop culture history as the character himself.

These seven cases share a common thread beyond sheer longevity: each actor found a way to keep a character relevant across shifting industry trends, changing technology, and in some cases their own aging bodies and voices. Some, like Ford and Jackman, let time visibly shape their characters. Others, like Jones, found ways to let the role continue even after their own involvement had to change. Either way, these long partnerships between actor and character remain rare enough that each one stands out as its own small piece of entertainment history.