When Michelle Yeoh won her Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once, she told the ladies watching at home never to let anyone tell them when they’re past their prime. She’s not old enough to be on this list, but her words of wisdom apply to everyone that follows.
Some of these actors had success their entire careers and then just kept having success as they got older. Some of these actors didn’t find a ton of success until much later than life. All reached the mountaintop of acting past the point when many others stop working because they kept pushing and doing groundbreaking work. Here’s a look at great actors who had Oscar success later in life…
Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins didn’t get his first Oscar nomination until his mid-50s, but once he got his first recognition, the praise did not stop. His work was consistently recognized well into his eighties when he was nominated in consecutive years for The Two Popes and The Father in which he gave very different performances.
Bill Nighy
Nighy mostly acted in theater productions for the early portion of his career, but he turned to films later in life and found incredible success with Love Actually. That led to key roles in a variety of huge franchises like Pirates Of The Caribbean and Harry Potter, and eventually in his mid-70s, it led to Living, which netted the popular actor his first Oscar nomination.
Bruce Dern
Bruce Dern worked from the sixties forward on a wide variety of interesting projects in many different genres. He picked up his first Oscar nomination back in ‘79 for his work in Coming Home and got another surprise nomination at 77 more than three decades later for his work in Nebraska, a fantastic Alexander Payne road trip movie shot in black and white.
Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling made a fantastic career for herself as a model and actress drawn to unusual and daring projects, but it was her work much later in life that attracted huge recognition. Her performance in Swimming Pool was particularly popular with critics and awards voters, but it was 2015’s 45 Years that finally broke through at the Oscars and gave her a well deserved first nomination at age 69.
Clint Eastwood
There aren’t many total people who have had more Oscar success than Clint Eastwood. Over the course of his life, he picked up more than ten nominations, but only two of those were in the acting categories. He got one in ‘93 for Unforgiven and another in ‘05 for Million Dollar Baby. In both, he was also the director and clearly knew how to get the best out of himself as an actor.
Henry Fonda
A movie based on a play about a couple in their mid-70s doesn’t sound like a likely box office winner, but On Golden Pond won seven weekends in a row at the box office in 1981. It also netted its leads late in life Oscar nominations including one for Henry Fonda at 76. It marked his second acting nomination, more than four decades after the first one for The Grapes Of Wrath in 1940.
Jessica Tandy
Jessica Tandy experienced a ton of success throughout her career in a variety of mediums, but it was her work on the stage that drew the most acclaim. At least that was the case until her 80s when she picked up two Oscar nominations for Driving Miss Daisy and Fried Green Tomatoes. She won for the former and the latter capped a fantastic six year run that also saw her earn raves for her work in Cocoon.
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce was ten years younger than Anthony Hopkins when the two picked up acting nominations for their work in The Two Popes. It was his first recognition from The Academy, but it was far from his first recognition overall, as he netted both Emmy and Tony nominations earlier in his career.
Judi Dench
Judi Dench didn’t pick up her first Oscar nomination until her 60s, but that’s mostly because she was too busy crushing the British theater scene. She somehow netted an astonishing eight nominations after her 62nd birthday, including one at age 78 for Philomena and age 87 for her performance in the touching Belfast. In between all that, she also found time to appear in eight James Bond movies, which introduced her to a new generation of fans.
Katharine Hepburn
Between 1934 and 1969, Katharine Hepburn was nominated for an astonishing eleven Best Actress Oscars. It’s arguably the greatest run in movie history, and yet, she wasn’t finished. At the age of 74, thirteen years after what everyone assumed was going to be her last nomination, she walked the red carpet one more time as a Best Actress nominee for On Golden Pond in 1982. The win made it that much sweeter.
Laurence Olivier
There aren’t many people on this list that had more success throughout their careers than Laurence Olivier. The beloved thespian won Emmys, Oscars and now is the namesake for London’s version of the Tony’s. At 71, he picked up his last Oscar nomination for The Boys From Brazil but continued to act for another full decade.
Peter O’Toole was nominated for acting Oscars in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’00s. The last of those recognitions came when he was 74, and while he famously lost all eight of his Best Actor nominations, he was given an honorary Oscar by The Academy, who recognized him for his entire body of work, including the fantastic performances he gave late in life.
Morgan Freeman
Many of the nominations on this list came as a bit of a surprise. Not Morgan Freeman’s for Invictus. Playing Nelson Mandela sounded like the sort of thing that could pick him up an Oscar nomination for Invictus, and that’s exactly what happened when the movie came out and at 72, he was quickly given a nomination. It was his fifth overall.
Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer’s entire career was accompanied by praise from critics and numerous nominations, including three at the Oscars, all past the age of 75. None were a bigger surprise than the one he got at age 88 for All The Money In The World. The role was originally shot with Kevin Spacey, but after allegations of misconduct surfaced, producers reshot everything with Plummer in just 8 days.
Judd Hirsch
From Taxi to Dear John to The Goldbergs, Judd Hirsch was a part of numerous popular television shows and worked constantly from the mid-70s forward. Along the way, he was in a ton of good movies, but it was his work first in Ordinary People in 1980 and then in The Fabelmans in 2022 that were singled out by Oscar voters.
Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall was nominated for seven Oscars, but six of those came between 1973 and 1999. His last one was, by far, the biggest surprise, as it came for The Judge when he was 84. It was proof that the popular actor was still capable of greatness, and it was also a sign of how much fans and critics connected with his work at various stages of his life.
Max Von Sydow
During his incredible career that spanned seven decades, Max Von Sydow played everyone from Jesus Christ to the Three-Eyed Raven on Game Of Thrones. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1987 for his work in Pelle The Conqueror, but he wound up getting recognized one more time at the age of 82 for his incredible work in Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close.
George Burns
George Burns had a fantastic run as a radio star and then an early huge name in television, but he started losing momentum as an actor and shifted to producing until he signed on for The Sunshine Boys in 1975. It was his first movie in 36 years and won him an Oscar at 80, as well as paved the way for the fantastic final act of his career.
Jack Palance
After a successful stage career, Jack Palance became a huge movie star in the early 1950s, picking up tons of fans and multiple Academy Award nominations. He later went to Europe and made a series of popular movies, but his career was starting to fizzle out by the 1980s. Then he was hired to host a revival of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, and the popularity of that show, netted him a bunch of parts including in City Slickers, which proved so popular it won him an Oscar at 73.
Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin worked constantly for sixty years because what director wouldn’t want to hire him? He was seemingly always in very highly seen projects, often in key supporting roles. Little Miss Sunshine and Argo are, of course, the two most notable examples, as both netted him Oscar nominations in his seventies and the former landed him his only win.
Ethel Barrymore
There aren’t many, if any, bigger families in the history of Hollywood than The Barrymores. They were firmly established when Pinky came out in 1949 and netted Ethel Barrymore another Oscar nomination. For much of her career she focused on the stage, but she later shifted to mostly Hollywood and picked up four nods in her 60s and 70s. What a run.
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon had a lot of success earlier in her career as a screenwriter. She picked up three nominations for her writing between 1947 and 1952. Later in her career, she found new life as an actress, picking up multiple Oscar nominations, the last at 72 for Rosemary’s Baby, and starring in cult classics like Harold And Maude.
Youn Yuh-jung
With fantastic reviews and strong word of mouth, Minari made a lot of noise throughout award season. It eventually picked up six Oscar nominations, but it was the one for Youn Yuh-jung that fans were most delighted with. The 73-year-old wound up winning in the most feel good moment of the entire ceremony, becoming the first Korean actress to pick up a trophy at The Oscars.
Helen Hayes
You won’t find many people on this entire list with more success than Helen Hayes. She’s an EGOT winner with at least one additional nomination from all four of those award shows. She picked up her last Oscar at age 70 for her work in Airport, where she stood out next to a ton of other acting legends including Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster, Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset and more.
June Squibb
Mostly a theater actress, she didn’t appear in her first movie until she was in her sixties. In her mid-80s, she found the perfect role opposite Bruce Dern in Nebraska. Audiences fell in love with her performance, and she picked up a surprise feelgood nomination. That opened the door for a ton of fun parts in everything from Pixar movies to Shameless.
Gloria Stuart
I’m not sure there’s a single quote from Titanic referenced more often than Gloria Stuart’s “It’s been 84 years.” For her, it took 87 years to find a performance that resonated with that many people, but it was so good and connected with so many people that she picked up an Oscar nomination. Well deserved too. One of the most famous movies ever just wouldn’t have the same emotional punch without her.
Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft made less than twenty film appearances during a career that was mostly dedicated to the stage, but despite that limited output, she was nominated for four BAFTAs and won an Oscar at 77 for her supporting work in A Passage To India. She then turned her focus toward television, where she was picking up Emmy nominations into her 80s.
Hal Holbrook
Holbrook had plenty of success in his career with wins at the Tonys and Emmys, but it wasn’t until later in life when he was finally singled out by The Oscars for his work in Into The Wild. With more than 130 acting credits, his nomination at 82 was a good reminder that sometimes the best way to get acclaim isn’t by shopping for possible Oscar roles, it’s by consistently doing good, creative work and waiting for the right project to resonate.
Don Ameche
Cocoon features a ton of fantastic performances from older actors, but it was veteran funnyman Don Ameche’s supporting role that voters most gravitated toward. He picked up a surprise win at 77 for his work as the revitalized Arthur Selwyn. It was a fantastic outcome, especially after the studio fired an early-in-his-career Robert Zemeckis from the director’s chair during pre-production.
Melvyn Douglas
If you want to have prolonged success in Hollywood, you need to find a way to reinvent yourself and start playing different kinds of roles. Melvyn Douglas had a great run early as a leading man, who acted opposite some of the industry’s top leading ladies, but it was later in his career, when he started playing more mature characters that he found Oscar success with three separate nominations, including one for Being There when he was 79.
John Houseman
Probably best known for his work alongside Orson Welles, John Houseman worked regularly as a director and especially producer, but he also found time to be an actor. Late in his career, he picked up an Oscar at 71 for The Paper Chase in a role fans loved so much he later played it on TV too.
Edmund Gwenn
You never know what your defining role as an actor is going to be until it happens. Edmund Gwenn carved out a really nice career for himself on the stage and screen, but his biggest success came when he was seventy. His role as Santa Claus in Miracle On 34th Street is still being watched decades later, and it also opened up the door for some great late career work, including another Oscar nomination in Mister 880.
