You can’t put a price on love.

If you ask three of Hollywood’s most revered, experienced directors if that is true, they will not deny it.

Take Sidney Lumet as a foremost example. With films such as “12 Angry Men” and “Dog Day Afternoon,” he cemented a silver screen legacy that lives on to this day. In 2005, that legacy was honored when he received a long-overdue Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy.

For lesser men, that would have been enough. It was a sure sign to call it quits, and the cap on a most brilliant career. But Lumet, ladies and gentlemen, is no mere mortal. At 84 years old, he is hard at work writing and directing his next feature film, “Getting Out,” set to hit theaters next year.

It would be difficult to tell such an iconic Hollywood presence to up and leave the profession he loves. But when the number one film in the country is “High School Musical 3,” it would be considerably more difficult to see him go.

Another director who has stuck around far longer than anyone expected is Mel Brooks, whose body of work speaks for itself. In the mid-’70s, he gave the satire scene a punch in the face with “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein,” two films that were released the same year. The ’80s and ’90s were also rather solid decades for Brooks, but after the release of “Dracula: Dead and Loving It,” he more or less disappeared from the directing scene. That, of course, changed this year with the airing of “Spaceballs: The Animated Series,” in which he also supplies the voice to President Skroob and Yogurt.

At 82, Brooks doesn’t have the zip he had 30 years ago, but that is to be expected. And while the new “Spaceballs” toon is a little flat, he is to be commended for hanging around a game dominated by the Shyamalans and Spielbergs.

It’s hard to find anybody in Hollywood more impassioned in his trade than Clint Eastwood. After releasing two films in 2006, the 78-year-old will release three films over the next 14 months, with his latest movie “Changeling,” going wide this past weekend. In addition to all his work behind the camera, he has also continued to act in and compose the scores of the films he directs.

Like Lumet and Brooks, Eastwood continues to take a multi-faceted approach to his career, finding varied levels of success in the process. It seems just as you can’t put a price on the love these directors have for film, you can’t put an expiration date on experience in Hollywood.