The Most Iconic Movie Duos of All Time

One of the greatest comedy duos of all time, Laurel and Hardy released 106 films released between 1921 and 1951, most of them silent or sound shorts, but including 27 full-length feature films.

The most famous dance team in cinema. It’s almost impossible to say one name without the other. They made 10 films together during the golden age of musicals in the 1930s and helped lift America’s spirits during the Depression. (The famous saying was that Rogers did everything Astaire did on the dancefloor, “but backwards, and in heels.”)

The husband and wife team of George Burns and Gracie Allen triumphed in vaudeville, radio, motion pictures, and television. George was the straight man, always a bit befuddled by the delightfully daffy Gracie. Among their films were “Lambchops” (added to the National Film Registry in 1999), “The Big Broadcast,” and “A Damsel in Distress.”

Two of filmdom’s most famous character actors appeared in nine films together in the 1940s, many of them with an espionage or wartime theme. Greenstreet was the corpulent villain whose barely whispered lines to his enemies portended doom while the often-lampooned Lorre played beady-eyed conspirators.

Bob Hope and Bing Crosby made seven Road movies, whose plots centered around two clueless Americans getting themselves in difficult situations in exotic locations. Sometimes the two would talk to the audience and poke fun at the movie industry. Hope and Crosby created the romantic singer-sidekick combo that was later replicated by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn made nine movies together over three decades. They had a relationship off camera – Hepburn said she was “blindingly in love” with Tracy – but they never wed because Tracy, a devout Catholic, was married and would not divorce his wife.

The on- and offscreen relationship of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Becall had tongues wagging when they first met in the mid-1940s because of their nearly 25-year age difference. Their relationship became so famous that singer Bertie Higgins sang about it in his song “Key Largo.” They made five movies together and were married for 12 years until Bogart’s death in 1957.

Jersey boys Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were Hollywood’s most successful comedy duo in the 1940s, with several wartime-themed films such as “Buck Privates” and “In the Navy,” paranormal send-ups like “The Time of Their Lives,” and a series of films in which the pair meet ghouls such as Dracula and the Wolfman. They’re most famous for their interpretation of the vaudeville routine “Who’s on First?,” performed in the film “The Naughty Nineties.”

John Wayne and John Ford teamed up for 14 films, such as Ford’s homage to Ireland “The Quiet Man” and WWII-themed movies like “The Expendables.” They are most famous for their collaborations on Westerns, however, including the classics “The Searchers” and “Stagecoach.”

The most famous and prolific movie-making comedy team in the 1950s was Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Martin was the suave singer and Lewis was the goofy second banana. They made 16 films before they broke up in 1956.

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau were frequent collaborators on film, beginning with their pairing in “The Fortune Cookie.” Lemmon often played victims of circumstance while Matthau portrayed cynical characters. Between 1966 and 1998, they made 10 films, including such memorable movies as “The Odd Couple,” “Grumpy Old Men,” and “The Front Page.”

The pairing of the meek and neurotic comic take of Gene Wilder with the explosively funny Richard Pryor worked well in the movies in the 1970s, such as “Silver Streak” and “Stir Crazy.” Before they were on screen together, Pryor co-wrote the Western-themed comedy “Blazing Saddles,” which starred Wilder.

The chemistry between Woody Allen and Diane Keaton was real onscreen and offscreen. They collaborated on eight movies together such as “Manhattan” “Love and Death,” and his four-time Oscar triumph “Annie Hall.”

Director Martin Scorsese tapped into the boiling rage of Robert De Niro in searing films like “Mean Streets” and the Oscar-winning “Raging Bull.” They’ve made nine movies together.

Robert De Niro has been paired with Joe Pesci in Scorsese-directed movies such as “Goodfellas,” “Casino,” and “The Irishman.” Pesci also had small parts in De Niro’s directorial efforts “A Bronx Tale” and “The Good Shepherd.”

Famous duos can also be animated. Sheriff Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) have appeared in four Toy Story movies, all of them runaway hits.

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are a perfect pairing of a director and actor who march to the beat of their own drummer. Burton’s goth vision of live-action films like “Edward Scissorshands” and animated movies like “Sleepy Hollow” found a receptive performer in Depp. They’ve made nine films together thus far.

If your film taste includes romantic comedies from the late 1980s and 1990s, chances are you saw Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan together in three memorable films, all of them hits which set the standard for rom-com entertainment.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who’ve known each other since they were kids growing up in Massachusetts, were the wunderkind duo who won a Best Writing Oscar for “Good Will Hunting” in 1998, a movie in which both starred. Their first film together, though, was 1989’s “Field of Dreams” in which they had uncredited roles. They’ve been in seven other movies together, among them, “The Last Duel,” “Dogma,” “Chasing Amy,” and “School Ties.”

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson have been a successful comedy duo in the films “Starsky and Hutch,” “The Wedding Crashers,” and “The Internship.” Vaughn has played cocksure characters intent on getting their way, while Wilson’s roles have been more offbeat.

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly have appeared in movies that aren’t exactly known for their sophisticated repartee. Films like “Step Brothers” and “Holmes & Watson” plumb new depths of dumb humor. Of the four movies they’ve made together, the most successful was “Talledega Nights.”

A highly effective director-actor collaboration was Paul Thomas Anderson and Philip Seymour Hoffman. They made five films together before Hoffman’s untimely death in 2014, and Hoffman had scene-stealing parts in all of them.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who first met in 1993, worked together on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” before transitioning to the big screen.

Massively built action star Dwayne Johnson and the more diminutive Kevin Hart have used their complementary humor styles – Johnson is subdued and Hart can be manic – to generate onscreen chemistry. Their differences in size are also used for comedic effect. They’ve appeared in four films together, including the two box-office gold Jumanji films.

The collaboration between James Franco and Seth Rogen began in 1999 when both appeared in the brief but fondly remembered TV series “Freaks and Geeks.” They went on to make nine films together, among them “Pineapple Express,” “The Disaster Artist,” and the highly controversial “The Interview.” Their partnership appears to have ended, however; Rogen has said that he won’t work with Franco again because of sexual misconduct claims made against him.

The more contemporary rom-com queen and king than Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, who are friends off camera as well.

Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara first gained fame as cast members with the sketch comedy television show “SCTV.” Their film work includes director Christopher Guest’s arch mockumentaries like “Mighty Wind,” “Best in Show,” and “For Your Consideration.” The two got a late-career boost with their star turn in the Emmy award-winning streaming series “Schitt’s Creek.”

From 2013 to 2015, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence shared the screen in four films. Three of the four were nominated for Oscars: “American Hustle” got 10 nominations, and Lawrence won the Best Actress statuette for “Silver Linings Playbook.”

George Clooney and Brad Pitt were male eye candy in the Ocean’s heist films as well as the Ethan and Joel Coen CIA farce “Burn After Reading”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been very good to Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson. They’ve starred in six films in the most successful motion picture franchise of all time. Variety said the two have been friends since they met on the set of “The Perfect Score” in 2004.

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling made “Crazy Stupid Love” and “Gangster Squad,” before they collaborated on “La La Land,” a major hit that won six Academy Awards and helped revive the movie musical.