8 Screen Partnerships That Spanned Five or More Films

Plenty of actors and directors share a movie or two. Far fewer keep coming back to each other for years, through changing studios, tastes and technology.

The eight pairings below each worked together on at least five films, and most worked together on many more. They span Hollywood’s golden age, postwar Japan and the present day.

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn

Tracy and Hepburn made nine films together, beginning with Woman of the Year in 1942. Their run continued through Adam’s Rib in 1949 and Pat and Mike in 1952. It ended with Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner in 1967.

The span covers 25 years. Tracy died shortly after the last film wrapped, so the partnership ended only when his career did. Their appeal came from a dry, sparring chemistry that audiences kept returning to.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

Astaire and Rogers made ten films together. Flying Down to Rio in 1933 was the first, and nine of the ten were made at RKO. Top Hat, Swing Time and Shall We Dance are among the best known.

The last was The Barkleys of Broadway in 1949, made at MGM. Their dance numbers were often filmed in long, unbroken takes, so the choreography stayed visible. That style shaped how movie musicals were shot for years afterward.

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro

Scorsese and De Niro have made ten feature films together. The list begins with Mean Streets in 1973 and includes Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino and The Irishman. The most recent is Killers of the Flower Moon in 2023.

That is a gap of fifty years between first and latest. The pair worked in different genres, from crime dramas to the musical New York, New York and the dark comedy The King of Comedy. Few director and actor pairings in modern cinema match that length.

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp

Burton and Depp made eight films together. They started with Edward Scissorhands in 1990 and followed it with Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows completed the run.

Dark Shadows, released in 2012, was the last of the eight. Burton’s gothic, offbeat style found a natural fit in Depp’s willingness to play oddballs. Together they made some of the most recognizable character designs of their era.

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis

Martin and Lewis made sixteen films together at Paramount. Their first was My Friend Irma in 1949. The last was Hollywood or Bust in 1956, shortly before the act split.

They paired Martin’s smooth crooner with Lewis’s manic physical comedy. The formula worked well enough to keep them busy for roughly seven years. Both stars went on to separate careers afterward.

Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune

Kurosawa directed Mifune in sixteen films, starting with Drunken Angel in 1948. The collaboration produced Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and Yojimbo. It ended with Red Beard in 1965.

Mifune’s intense, physical screen presence anchored many of the director’s best known works. Critics often point to these films as a major influence on Western action cinema. After Red Beard, the two never worked together again.

William Powell and Myrna Loy

Powell and Loy appeared in fourteen films together. Six were entries in the Thin Man detective series, which started in 1934 and ended with Song of the Thin Man in 1947. Their other pairings included Libeled Lady and Love Crazy.

As Nick and Nora Charles, they played a married couple who traded quips over cocktails while solving crimes. The series was notable for showing a relaxed, affectionate marriage on screen. Their timing kept the franchise popular across more than a decade.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor

Burton and Taylor appeared together in at least six theatrical films, including Cleopatra, The V.I.P.s, The Sandpiper, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedians and Boom! Many fans also count additional projects. Their most celebrated joint work is Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966.

Taylor won the Academy Award for Best Actress for that film, and Burton received a nomination. Their real life marriage drew heavy press attention, which fed public interest in each new project. Their pairing remains one of the best known in film history.