The Oldest Academy Award Winners
Conventional wisdom says that entertainment is fixated on youth and that there’s no place for older actors or directors in Hollywood. Although there are plenty of instances where this is true, these older artists are here to give that thinking a run for its money.
Henry Fonda
Film legend Henry Fonda won his only Academy Award for Best Actor in 1981 for the film On Golden Pond. He was 76 years old at the time and he held the record for oldest Best Actor winner for 39 years (1982-2021).
Universal, On Golden Pond (1981)
John Wayne
Before Henry Fonda, the record for oldest Best Actor winner was held by John Wayne. Winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1969 for True Grit at the age of 62, Wayne held that record for 12 years. This was Wayne’s only win after one previous nomination for Best Actor. As the producer of the 1960 film The Alamo, Wayne was also nominated for Best Picture (the Best Picture award goes to the producer(s)).
George Arliss
Not a household name, British actor George Arliss was nevertheless well-respected for his work in theater and films. At the age of 62, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1929 film Disraeli. He was the first British winner of Best Actor, the earliest-born winner of any Academy award in any category, and his Best Actor win held the record for oldest actor for 40 years.
Paul Newman
Paul Newman was a beloved American actor, known for his easygoing style, his good looks, and his philanthropy. Between 1959 and 1983 he was nominated seven times for Best Actor before he finally won with his eighth nomination in 1987 at the age of 62 for The Color of Money. Newman was nominated for a ninth time in 1995 and again for Best Supporting Actor in 2003 for a total of 10 acting nominations with one win.
Touchstone, The Color of Money (1986)
Jack Nicholson
Film legend Jack Nicholson is one of six people to win three Academy Awards in any of the acting categories and he is also the most nominated male in the acting categories with 12 nominations. The last of his three wins came in 1997 at the age of 60, for the film As Good as It Gets. As of this date, Nicholson received his most recent nomination in 2003 for Best Actor.
TriStar, As Good as It Gets (1997)
Peter Finch
Peter Finch is an unusual case—he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the age of 60, posthumously. Finch, a renowned Australian actor, was nominated in 1970 for Best Actor for the British film Sunday Bloody Sunday. In 1976, Finch was nominated for Best Actor for the satirical black comedy Network, but he passed away in 1977 before the awards ceremony. He was the only posthumous Academy Acting Award winner until Heath Ledger’s 2008 Best Supporting Actor win for The Dark Knight.
United Artists, Network (1976)
Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges is one of those steady and reliable actors and he has so far been nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor seven times between 1972 and 2017. Bridges won Best Actor in 2009 for Crazy Heart at the age of 60. Since then, he has been nominated twice, once for Best Actor (at age 61) and once for Best Supporting Actor (at age 67).
Searchlight Pictures, Crazy Heart (2009)
Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman has had a great deal of success as an actor in independent films and then moving into more mainstream fare. His intensity seems well-suited for playing villains, but as he got older, he began to settle into roles such as retired spy George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, for which he received his first nomination for Best Actor. In 2017, at the age 59, he won Best Actor for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
Universal, Darkest Hour (2017)
Ronald Colman
Ronald Colman was an English actor who found success in Hollywood playing suave characters. His career spanned the Silent Era and into the post-WWII period. He was nominated four times for an acting Oscar, winning Best Actor in 1947 for A Double Life at the age of 57.
Universal, A Double Life (1947)
Jessica Tandy
Jessica Tandy holds the current record for the oldest recipient of the Best Actress Award. With a lengthy career and theater, this British actress had never been nominated for an Academy Award when she won Best Actress at the age of 80 in 1989 for Driving Miss Daisy. Two years later, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
Warner Bros., Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn is famed for her independence and outspokenness, for her longevity in the industry, and for being nominated 12 times for Best Actress, winning four times—a record for a performer. Her fourth and final win was in 1982 for On Golden Pond, at the age of 74, a record she held for eight years.
Universal, On Golden Pond (1981)
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn is on this list of oldest Academy Award winners three times. In 1968, at the age of 61, she won Best Actress for The Lion in Winter. Just a year before that, at the age of 60, she won Best Actress for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Her first of four Best Actress wins was in 1934 for the film Morning Glory, when she was a youthful 27.
Haworth, The Lion In Winter (1968)
Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand is an American actress noted for her work in independent films, including the films of the Coen Brothers (she’s been married to Joel Coen since 1984). She has been nominated for an Academy Award eight times—six for acting, and two for producing. She has won Best Actress three times, most recently at the age of 63 for the film Nomadland, which she also produced, winning the Best Picture Award.
Searchlight Pictures, Nomadland (2020)
Frances McDormand
Three years before her win for Best Actress for Nomadland, Frances McDormand, at the age of 60, won Best Actress for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). As of this writing, she was nominated one more time, for Best Picture, in 2023.
Searchlight Pictures, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Marie Dressler
Marie Dressler was a Canadian actress who worked steadily throughout the Silent Era and into early sound films in the 1930s. She won the Best Actress award in 1930 at the age of 63 for the film Min and Bill. She held the record for oldest Best Actress winner for 51 years.
Meryl Streep
Considered by many to be the greatest actress of her generation, Meryl Streep, to date, has been nominated 21 times for Academy Awards for acting, a record for any acting category, and has won three times. At the age of 62, she won her most recent Best Actress Award for The Iron Lady (portraying British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher) and her most recent nomination was in 2018 for Best Actress.
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren is British acting royalty and she’s been nominated twice for Best Actress and twice more for Best Supporting Actress. At the age of 61, Mirren won Best Actress for the 2006 film The Queen, where she portrayed Queen Elizabeth II.
Geraldine Page
Geraldine Page is an American actress with a lengthy career on stage, on television, and in films, winning numerous awards. She was nominated eight times for Academy Awards in acting, winning for her final nomination at the age of 61 for the film The Trip to Bountiful (1985).
FilmDallas, The Trip to Bountiful (1985)
Christopher Plummer
Canadian actor Christopher Plummer’s career spanned seven decades, on stage, film, and television. He’s won an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, making him the only Canadian to win the American Triple Crown of Acting. At the age of 82, he won the Best Supporting Actor Award for Beginners (2011), a record he held until 2021, and was nominated at age 88 for Best Supporting Actor for All the Money in the World, a record nomination in any acting category.
Focus Features, Beginners (2010)
George Burns
Comedian and actor George Burns lived to be 100 and was, for many years, famous for being old and still working, a distinction he held with pride. Although he was mainly a television performer, he had a late-in-life movie career, which included winning Best Supporting Actor for The Sunshine Boys at the age of 80, in 1975. This was a record held until Christopher Plummer’s win in 2012.
Melvyn Douglas
American actor Melvyn Douglas gained fame for playing suave leading men. He had a lengthy career and late in life, at 79 and a year before he passed away, he won Best Supporting Actor for the 1979 Peter Sellers film Being There. He had previously won Best Supporting Actor in 1963 for the film Hud and was nominated in 1970 for Best Actor for the film I Never Sang for My Father.
United Artists, Being There (1979)
John Gielgud
Sir John Gielgud, along with Sir Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, Baron Olivier, dominated the British stage in the 20th century, with all three actors winning countless accolades and titles. Gielgud won numerous awards over the years, and having been nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1965 for Becket, Gielgud had a late-in-life career revival, winning Best Supporting Actor at the age of 77 for the 1981 comedy Arthur.
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an American actor whose career went all the way back to the vaudevillian stage. Mostly working in theater and television, Ameche had a late-career revival and is probably most recognized by today’s audiences as Mortimer Duke in Trading Places in 1983. In 1985, at the age of 77, Ameche won the Best Supporting Actor Award for Cocoon.
Twentieth Century, Cocoon (1985)
Jack Palance
Jack Palance was an American actor who mostly played tough guys and villains, particularly in Westerns, and he had great success in Europe. In 1991, he appeared in the comedy City Slickers, poking fun at his tough guy image. Palance won the Best Supporting Actor Award for the role at the age of 73.
Columbia, City Slickers (1991)
Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin was a reliable and steadily working character actor, often in comedic roles, on stage, on television and in movies. Arkin was nominated twice for Best Actor and twice more for Best Supporting Actor, winning Best Supporting Actor at the age of 72 for Little Miss Sunshine in 2006.
Big Beach, Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft had an acting career spanning six decades. The British actress won numerous accolades and was renowned for both her work in Shakespeare and also for a commitment to modern theater, regularly appearing in plays by Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. She was only nominated once for an Academy Award, winning Best Supporting Actress at the age of 78, for 1985’s A Passage to India, a record held to this day.
Columbia, A Passage to India (1984)
Josephine Hull
Josephine Hull was a stage and film actress as well as a theater director, with most of her acclaimed work taking place on stage. She originated the role of Veta Louise Simmons in the Broadway production of Harvey (1944-1949). She again played the role in the film adaptation in 1950, winning Best Supporting Actress at the age of 74, a record held for 34 years.
Youn Yuh-jung
Youn Yuh-jung is a South Korean actress who has had great success in South Korea and internationally, winning numerous awards in the US and Britain. In 2020 she appeared in Minari, a film about a South Korean family moving to rural Arkansas in the 1980s. At age 73, she won the Best Supporting Actress Award for her work in Minari.
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon was an American actress, playwright, and screenwriter known for her nasal voice and renowned for her stage and film appearances. Gordon appeared in the 1968 horror film Rosemary's Baby and at 72 years old, she won Best Supporting Actress. She was nominated for an Oscar five times: three times for Best Screenplay, and twice for Best Supporting Actress.
Paramount, Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Margaret Rutherford
Dame Margaret Rutherford was an English actress known for her work on stage and for playing Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple in four films. At the age of 71, Rutherford won Best Supporting Actress for 1963’s The VIPs.
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes was an American actress regarded as The First Lady of the American Theater. She was the first woman to win an EGOT—winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and she was also the first person to win the Triple Crown of American Acting (the Emmy, Oscar, and Tony). She won a Best Actress Award in 1931 and, at the age of 70, she won the Best Supporting Actress Award for the 1970 film Airport.
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was a member of the Barrymore acting dynasty (Drew Barrymore is her grandniece) and was known as The First Lady of the American Theater during her time. Her career spanned six decades and she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress four times, winning in 1944 for None But the Lonely Heart, at age 65.
RKO, None but the Lonely Heart (1944)
Clint Eastwood
For directors, age doesn’t seem to be a barrier and Clint Eastwood at 94 is still going, most recently writing and directing the film Juror No. 2 in 2024. Eastwood appears on this list twice and currently holds the record for the oldest director to win the Best Director Oscar (since 2005). In 2004, at the age of 74, he won for Million Dollar Baby.
Warner Bros., Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Clint Eastwood
Back in the 90s, when he was a mere 62, Clint Eastwood won Best Director for Unforgiven (1992). Eastwood has been nominated for an Academy Award 11 times in three different categories, winning Best Picture and Best Director for both Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby.
Warner Bros., Unforgiven (1992)
Jane Campion
New Zealand director Jane Campion has been nominated five times for two films. She won Best Screenplay for The Piano and in 2021 she won Best Director for The Power of the Dog, at age 67. She was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
New Zealand Government, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
George Cukor
George Cukor was part of old Hollywood during the studio system, beginning to direct in 1930. Throughout his lengthy career, he was nominated five times for Best Director, winning with his final nomination for My Fair Lady in 1964 when he was 65. After My Fair Lady, Cukor only directed sporadically, completing six films between 1969 and 1981, his final film being Rich and Famous, made when he was 82.
Allan Warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Martin Scorsese
For many, Martin Scorsese is the finest director of his generation, making his mark starting in the early 1970s. Scorsese has been nominated 11 times as Best Director, the most of any living director, and second only to William Wyler (who had 12). Remarkably, Scorsese has only won Best Director once and not until 2006 for The Departed, when he was 64.
Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Carol Reed
Sir Carol Reed was only the second Brit to be knighted for directing films and he had a lengthy career in the UK and Hollywood. He was nominated three times for Best Director, winning on his third try for Oliver! in 1968 when he was 62. He made only two more films after that and passed away in 1976.
Jack de Nijs, Wikimedia Commons
Fred Zinnemann
The youngest of the oldest directors list, Austrian director Fred Zinnemann was nominated 10 times for Academy Awards in various categories. He won in four: Best Documentary Short, Best Director (From Here to Eternity, 1953), and Best Picture and Best Director for A Man For All Seasons in 1966. He was 59 when he won Best Director for the last time, although he was nominated one more time for Best Director in 1977.
Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins first won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Silence of the Lambs in 1991 when he was 54. In 2021, at the age of 83, Hopkins won a second Academy Award for Best Actor for the film The Father. He is the current record holder for the oldest Best Actor winner and is the oldest acting winner in any category.
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