Let’s toast Sir Anthony Hopkins for making history as the oldest nominee ever to compete for a Best Actor trophy and also now is the oldest champion. The 83-year-old Welshman won for his role as an elderly patriarch in the throes of increasingly debilitating dementia in “The Father.” He beat the nomination record held for 21 years by Richard Farnsworth, who was 79 when he was recognized for his lead performance in 1999’s “The Straight Story.” He also took over the Best Actor record of oldest winner from Henry Fonda (“On Golden Pond”).
Hopkins previously won the Best Actor prize for his portrait of the diabolical Hannibal Lecter in 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs” and would go to be nominated as a male lead as a reticent butler in 1993’s “The Remains of the Day” and as the disgraced 37th U.S. president in 1995’s “Nixon.” Hopkins also competed in the supporting category twice, as the sixth U.S. president John Quincy Adams in 1997’s “Amistad” and as Pope Benedict XVI in 2019’s “The Two Popes” at the age of 82.
Having accomplished this feat twice now, Hopkins is far from being the only octogenarian performer to compete in the Oscar race over the years. Tour our photo gallery featuring the 14 actors and actresses for 18 roles that were nominated (or even won at the Academy Awards) at age 80 and beyond. Our list includes Jessica Tandy, Christopher Plummer, George Burns, Ruby Dee, Max von Sydow and more.
-
Anthony Hopkins
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Classics Sir Anthony Hopkins has now been nominated at the Oscars twice after age 80. The first time was for the 2019 film “The Two Popes.” The second time was for Best Actor in the 2020 film “The Father” (which brought him a second career victory).
-
Christopher Plummer
Image Credit: Courtesy Image You could say that the late Canadian actor who died in February who was best known for his role as Captain von Trapp in 1965’s “The Sound of Music,” was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to cinematic awards recognition. He was first Oscar-nominated for his 2009 supporting role as Russian writer Leo Tolstoy at the age of 80. He would then go on to be the oldest supporting winner at the age of 82 as a senior citizen who comes out as gay in 2010’s “Beginners.” He also claimed the honor of being the oldest winner in any acting category. At 88, he would cap off his career by replacing Kevin Spacey in the role of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty in 2017’s “All the Money in the World,” who was facing sexual misconduct accusations. Plummer would earn a third supporting Oscar bid for his efforts while shooting 22 scenes in eight days. He then claimed the title of being the oldest nominee in any category.
-
Gloria Stuart
Image Credit: Courtesy Image This actress from the Golden Age of Hollywood signed a film contract with Universal in the 1930s, starring in “The Invisible Man” and in Shirley Temple movies. She returned to the big screen in the late 1970s and appeared in 1982’s “My Favorite Career.” She was 87 when her supporting role as the elder Rose in 1997’s “Titanic” led to her lone Oscar nomination. She has held the record for oldest supporting actress nominee for 22 years.
-
Emanuelle Riva
Image Credit: Courtesy Image This French actress, who first made a splash in 1959 when she starred in the French New Wave romance “Hiroshima mon amour,” holds the record for oldest lead actress contender at 85. She would receive her lone Academy Award bid as an elderly music teacher who suffers after multiple strokes in 2012’s “Amour.”
-
Robert Duvall
Image Credit: Courtesy Image In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Duvall has collected seven Oscar nominations for acting, beginning with his role as Tom Hagen in 1973’s “The Godfather.” He would would win for his lead role as a recovering alcoholic country singer who turns his life around in 1983’s ”Tender Mercies.” His most recent nomination at the age of 84 was for his supporting part in 2015’s “The Judge,” whose character is a suspect in a fatal hit and run accident.
-
June Squibb
Image Credit: Merie W. Wallace This actress spent decades seeking parts on Broadway, regional theater, summer stock and bit roles in films. But at the age of 84, she finally got her break-out role in 2013’s “Nebraska” as Bruce Dern’s foul-mouthed Midwestern missus whose best scene shows her lifting her skirt at the gravestone of a deceased lover.
-
Hal Holbrook
Image Credit: Courtesy of Paramount Vantage The late actor, much lauded for performing as Mark Twain on stage for over 60 years, earned a supporting slot at age 82 for his role in 2007’s biographical “Into the Wild.” The film directed by Sean Penn follows a young man named Christopher McCandless who drops out of society while hiking across America in the 1990s. Holbrook played Ron Franz, a lonely retired widower who lost his family in a car accident while he serving in the U.S. Army, who generously provides shelter for his visitor and teaches him visitor the art of leatherwork.
-
Max Von Sydow
Image Credit: Francois Duhamel This Swedish actor regularly starred in 11 of Ingmar Bergman’s films throughout his 70-year career. He scored his first Oscar nomination for his lead role in 1987’s Danish film “Pelle the Conqueror about a father and son who try to build a new life in Denmark in the 19th century. He would collect a supporting Oscar nod at age 82 for his a silent grandfather who tends to his traumatized grandson in a post-9/11 New York City in 2011’s “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.”
-
Ralph Richardson
Image Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. This lauded British actor was twice nominated for a supporting Oscar, the first at the age of 47 in 1949’s “The Heiress” opposite Olivia de Haviland. The second bid arrived posthumously 35 years at the age of 82 for his role as the 6th Earl of Greystroke, the grandfather of the ape man known as Tarzan in “Greystroke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.”
-
Ruby Dee
Image Credit: Courtesy Image This late actress starred in the 1959 landmark stage and 1961 film versions of “Raisin in the Sun” in 1959 and 1961. Dee was 85 when competed for a supporting Oscar while she co-starringBe opposite Denzel Washington as his mother who is afforded a lavish lifestyle thanks to her son’s criminality in 2007’s “American Gangster,” a harrowing truth-based mob saga about a Harlem drug kingpin who rules the street trade.
-
Jessica Tandy
Image Credit: Courtesy Image This esteemed actress managed to grab two Oscar nominations before she died at age 85 in 1994. She reigns as the oldest Best Actress winner at age 80 for her role as a Southern widow opposite Morgan Freeman as her driver Hoke in 1989’s “Driving Miss Daisy.” She would also earn a supporting perch at age 82 for her role as a nursing home resident who befriends Kathy Bate’s disgruntled homemaker who slowly takes control of her life in “Fried Green Tomatoes.”
-
Eva Le Gallienne
Image Credit: Courtesy of Universal Pictures The British-born stage actress worked mainly on Broadway for most of her career and also was a respected stage director, coach, producer and manager. At age 82, she would make a rare appearance on the big screen in the 1980 drama “Resurrection” as the grandmother of Ellen Burstyn’s Edna Mae, who survives a car accident that has paralyzed her and kills her husband. She becomes an unlikely celebrity, claiming to have the power to heal people.
-
George Burns
Image Credit: Courtesy Image This popular funny man in multiple mediums who lived to be 100 is the second oldest winner of a supporting Oscar for his role opposite a typically cranky Walter Matthau as legendary comics who stage a testy reunion and revive their act for TV in 1975’s “The Sunshine Boys.” Incredibly enough, Burns would have triple bypass surgery six weeks before filming started.
-
Edith Evans
Image Credit: Courtesy of Lopert Pictures Corporation This esteemed English actress was best known for her work onstage. She was known for playing haughty aristocratic women, one which led to her first supporting bid for her role as Miss Western in the 1963 rowdy costume romp “Tom Jones” opposite Albert Finney. Evans also was up for the same prize in 1964 for her concerned grandmother in “The Chalk Garden” who hires a governess to keep an eye on her granddaughter. At age 80, she finally competed for a Best Actress trophy in 1967’s “The Whisperers” as a deranged, impoverished old woman who finds a stash of cash hidden by her criminal son in her flat and thinks that somehow it is hers.
