Is This The Longest Celebrity Marriage Ever? ‘Boy Meets World’ Star William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett Celebrate 74 Years
Bonnie Bartlett turns 96 on June 20, 2025, and just ten days later, she and William Daniels will celebrate an incredible 74 years of marriage — which is the longest marriage between two currently living celebrities. Daniels, now 98, is best known to many as Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World; a decade earlier, the couple appeared on St. Elsewhere together. But their love story began decades earlier, when both were college students. And despite early struggles, personal loss and the unpredictable nature of show business, they stayed the course together.
Bartlett and Daniels married on June 30, 1951, but Daniels already had a long performance career, if you can believe it — as a small child in Brooklyn, New York, he sang and danced alongside sister Jackie, and by age 15, he appeared on Broadway in the play Life With Father. In 1945, he was drafted, and served as an Army radio station DJ in Italy. A mentor suggested he take advantage of the GI Bill to attend college, so once he arrived back stateside, Daniels headed to Northwestern, where he met Wisconsinite Bartlett. She told People that while she felt she was “too tall” for him, “I loved his leather jacket. Oh, I loved his leather jacket. It was really exciting.”
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The two tied the knot when Bartlett graduated, and headed to New York City, where both embarked on acting careers; Daniels pursued Broadway work, while Bartlett landed a role on the early soap opera Love of Life.
In the coming decades, Bartlett became an acclaimed Broadway star, most notably playing John Adams in the original 1969 production of 1776. He also branched into film, appearing as Dustin Hoffman‘s father in The Graduate and tackling the role of John Adams yet again in the film version of 1776. Bartlett continued her TV career, appearing on Little House on the Prairie from 1974 through 1977 as Grace Snider Edwards, bride of Victor French‘s Isiah Edwards.
Then, in 1982, the pair got the chance to take their love to the TV airwaves together: beginning in 1982, they both starred on medical drama St. Elsewhere, playing married couple Ellen Craig and Dr. Mark Craig. They made history in 1986 when they became only the second-ever married pair of actors to win Emmy Awards on the same night (the first couple was Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt). At the same time, Daniels provided the voice of KITT the car on Knight Rider, from 1982 to 1986.
They reunited again on Boy Meets World, when Bartlett appeared in a season five episode as a college dean who hires Daniels’ Mr. Feeny. Their chemistry was as sharp as ever, and in a sweet twist, their characters eventually marry on the show.
Behind the scenes, both also served on the board of the Screen Actors Guild and continued to champion the rights of performers
However, life for Bartlett and Daniels was not always perfect; the pair suffered a devastating loss in 1961, when Bartlett gave birth to a son who died 24 hours later. They would later adopt two sons.
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Their relationship was also not without its missteps. Reflecting on a brief period of trying to maintain an open marriage, Bartlett told PEOPLE, “It’s not good for any marriage to be separated a lot, and there were times that we were separated a lot, a long time. We didn’t think we’d make it, but we did.”
But despite — or perhaps because of — their ups and downs, Bartlett and Daniels’ love remains strong. Bartlett once joked that their bond was forged not through ease, but endurance, crediting years of therapy and tough conversations as key to staying together.
In a 2021 interview with Forbes, Daniels said of their love, “I think our relationship is based on mutual respect and I think she is smarter than me, better actor than me, and so I just hang on, you know, and try to get along.” Bartlett added that “he makes me laugh … His humor, his sense of humor and his ability during every day to find something funny is really good for me, because I’m very intense.”
In a town not known for long love stories, theirs is a rare gem. With almost 74 years under their belt, Bartlett and Daniels have quietly become the gold standard of Hollywood marriages.
Though Bartlett and Daniels have the longest marriage between two celebrities who are currently living, a handful of other couples have logged more years, most notably actors Norman and Peggy Lloyd, who were married for just a hair over 75 years. But Daniels and Bartlett may soon have them beat.
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