The five oldest Oscar winners of all time
The Academy Awards don’t have any age limits or restrictions in their rules. Actors of any age, whether they be incredibly young or very experienced, have an equal shot of obtaining the most celebrated statuette in all of film. That’s all true, but if you take a closer look at the trends across the Oscars‘ nearly 100-year history, you’ll see that there isn’t always a level playing field for nominees and winners.
According to a 2019 feature by The Guardian, male actors who win Oscars tend to be older than their female counterparts. The average ‘Best Actor’ winner back then was 44, while the average ‘Best Actress’ winner was only 36. In the three years since those averages have only gone up: Joaquin Phoenix was 45 when he won for Joker, Anthony Hopkins was 83 when he won for The Father, and Will Smith was 53 when he won last year for King Richard. The same is true for women: Renée Zelwlweger was 50 when she won for Judy, Frances McDormand was 62 when she won for Nomadland, and Jessica Chastain was 44 when she won for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
Both the ‘Supporting Actor’ and ‘Supporting Actress’ awards skewed older than their lead actor counterparts as well. The conclusions are pretty obvious: Oscar voters love to reward experience. That’s not to say that younger actors, filmmakers, and movie industry professionals don’t have as good of a chance as their older peers. It’s just that, when taking in the historical date, they might be at a slight disadvantage.
John Williams could become the oldest-ever Oscar winner at this year’s ceremony if his contribution to The Fablemans wins ‘Best Original Score’. Williams is 90 and is currently telling retirement to go suck an egg. Until we see how that unfurls, here are the current five oldest winners of competitive Academy Awards.
The five oldest Oscar winners of all time:
1. James Ivory, 89 (‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, Call Me By Your Name)
James Ivory is the definition of a cinema lifer. With more than six decades of experience in Hollywood, Ivory has done nearly everything in showbusiness, including directing, producing, and screenwriting. But at the 90th Academy Awards, Ivory was the top dog in more ways than one when he took home the ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ award for Call Me By Your Name.
At 89, Ivory was officially the oldest person to ever win a competitive Oscar. A few nonagenarians have won honourary Oscars, but Ivory was the most seasoned individual to win his against stiff competition. Since he had been nominated for three Oscars prior to his first win, that eventual achievement must have been extra sweet.
2. Ennio Morricone, 87 (‘Best Original Score’, The Hateful Eight)
If you look up “movie legend” online, it should automatically bring you to a picture of composer Ennio Morricone. The Italian conductor and musician was as revered and respected as figures came in the movie industry, with his reputation being matched only by someone like John Williams in terms of the sheer number of legendary scores that he produced over his lifetime.
Like Ivory, Morricone had been nominated a number of times but had never won an Oscar prior to the 88th Academy Awards. In fact, Morricone had been given an honourary Oscar at the 79th Academy Awards, a tacit admission that he was likely never to win one. Quentin Tarantino evidently took that as a challenge and hired Morricone for what would be his one and only competitive Oscar win for The Hateful Eight.
3. Anthony Hopkins, 83 (‘Best Actor’, The Father)
An iconic figure of stage and screen, Anthony Hopkins could fill up an entire house with the awards and honours that he’s collected over the years. That includes a previous Oscar win for Silence of the Lambs back in 1992, and in the 30 years since, Hopkins nabbed an additional five acting nominations at the Academy Awards.
Hopkins seemed like a bit of a longshot to win the ‘Best Actor’ award at the 93rd Academy Awards. Going up against acclaimed performances from Gary Oldman, Riz Ahmed, and the recently deceased Chadwick Boseman, Hopkins seemed like the legacy vote. But it was Hopkins who was the one celebrating (from home since he didn’t attend) when he became the oldest actor to win a competitive Oscar.
4. Christopher Plummer, 82 (‘Best Supporting Actor’, Beginners)
How it took Christopher Plummer 60 years in show business to win an Oscar is anybody’s guess. Apparently, roles in films like The Sound of Music and The Last Station weren’t good enough to snag Plummer an Oscar. He kept working and kept getting the shaft from the Academy, all the way up to his eighth decade.
But Plummer’s role in Beginners was just too good for the Academy to snub him any longer. When Plumber took the stage to accept his Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the 84th Academy Awards, he went straight for good humour. While eyeing down the long-elusive award, Plummer quipped: “You’re only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life?”
5. Jessica Tandy, 80 (‘Best Actress’, Driving Miss Daisy)
Driving Miss Daisy is a film wholly reflective of its time. While cinema and stories focused on race relations have gotten more nuanced in the years since Driving Miss Daisy was a legitimate cultural phenomenon when it came out in 1989. A major part of that was Jessica Tandy, who played the malcontent title role.
Tandy’s performance garnered her Oscar acclaim that had eluded her for most of her career. At the age of 80, Tandy became the then-oldest Oscar winner in history when she took home the award for ‘Best Actress’ at the 62nd Academy Awards.
