Actors and directors who have won Oscars over the age of 60

Eastwood has built an extensive filmography both as an actor and as a director. He also made history when he won Best Director for “Million Dollar Baby.” He was nearly 75 at the time. And yet, he’s continued to direct well into his eighties, and picked up a Best Director nomination just before turning 77 as well for “Letters from Iwo Jima.”

Sometimes, you give somebody an Oscar and after the fact it sticks out like a sore thumb because of, um, character issues. Polanski became the oldest Best Director winner when he got the win for “The Pianist.” He wasn’t able to pick the award up, though, on account of the fact that if he ever steps foot in the United States he’ll be arrested on the spot for sexual crimes.

It took a while, but Campion finally got her Oscar. While she didn’t get the chance to make history as the first woman to win Best Director, an Oscar is an Oscar. Campion won for “The Power of the Dog,” which was also a Best Picture favorite before being upset by “CODA.”

Cukor was a stalwart of the studio system in Hollywood, beginning his directorial career all the way back in 1930. Long acclaimed, he had four Best Director nominations already when he got the nod for the iconic musical “My Fair Lady.” This time, Cukor finally won, and was the oldest Best Director winner for 38 years.

Sure, there is a feeling that Scorsese’s win for “The Departed” was a bit of a career achievement award, but what a career he had to that point! Plus, the 64-year-old director hadn’t exactly delivered schlock. Maybe “The Departed” is not his best work, but it was a crowd pleaser, liked critically, and a worthy winner that year.

The last of the seven directors (to date) that make the cut on this list. Reed made his name as a noir director, with “The Third Man” largely being considered his best work. When he finally won his Oscar, though, it was not for a searing drama, but for “Oliver!,” a musical adaptation of “Oliver Twist.”

It’s a moment that will live in infamy. At the “COVID-19 Oscars,” they decided to break with tradition and do Best Picture second to last. “Nomadland,” the winner and heavy favorite, had largely been unseen by general audiences. Instead, Best Actor was the last category. The favorite here, and the hoped for result, was a posthumous win for the late Chadwick Bosemen, allowing the telecast to end on an emotional note. Instead, Hopkins won for “The Father.” He wasn’t there, and the show just ended. To be fair to Hopkins, he doesn’t live in the United States, and traveling at that time would have been tricky. After all, he was 83 when he won, making him comfortably the oldest Best Actor winner.

Spoiler alert: You are going to see the film for which Fonda won his Best Actor Oscar later on this list once more. “On Golden Pond” gave Fonda a chance to star alongside his daughter Jane, a two-time Oscar winner in her own right. Arguably, the Academy may have felt like the writing was on the wall for Fonda, as they had given him an honorary Oscar the year prior, often done for iconic film professionals who have never won an Oscar in contest. Then, Fonda went ahead and won for “On Golden Pond” at the age of 76.

There is a sizable gap in age between Hopkins and Fonda and then the rest of the sixty-somethings to win Best Actor. Wayne is next up, and he was a couple months shy of 63 when he did it. The Western staple did indeed win for a Western, as his turn as Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit” finally got Wayne an Oscar. Although, he was also more “movie star” than “acclaimed thespian” as is.

If this name doesn’t ring a bell, that’s forgivable. Arliss won for the film “Disraeli,” which came out in 1929. He was the third-ever winner of Best Actor (and the second winner who wasn’t a Nazi). Arliss was 62 when he won, but back then, being 62 hit a little different. He was born three years after the end of the Civil War!

Newman doesn’t need the intro that Arliss did. He was perhaps the biggest movie star of his era, though it took him a bit to win an Oscar. Unusually, Newman won Best Actor for a sequel to a previous film of his. That would be “The Color of Money,” the sequel to “The Hustler.”

Nicholson’s win for “As Good As It Gets” was less a career award as it was a career capper. Of course, Nicholson kept acting for several years after the 1997 film came out, but this was his third Oscar, and his second-to-last nomination. There was something of a “Yes, you are the defining actor of your generation” to this victory for Jack.

To return to the morbidity of the Hopkins section, Finch did indeed win his Oscar posthumously. That makes this weird, because the age Finch was when he won is his age at the time of his death, which was 60 years and 100 or so days. His turn in “Network” was incredible, though, and a worthy win.

Funnily enough, Bridges could have won for his own turn as Rooster Cogburn in the Coen Brothers’ take on “True Grit.” However, Bridges didn’t win for “True Grit” and there is a decent chance it was because the Academy had already given him a career achievement win for “Crazy Heart.” Nobody remembers “Crazy Heart” these days, but it gave Bridges an Oscar just after turning 60.

Nobody has made Tandy sweat when it comes to being the oldest winner of Best Actress at the age of 80. Nobody has come within 15 years of her since her win, and only one person older than Tandy has ever been nominated. The actress, of course, won for “Driving Miss Daisy,” an Oscar darling that time has not been kind to.

It’s time for a triple dip! Hepburn won her first Oscar all the way back in 1934, and then hung back for a bit before crushing it at the end of her career. The only four-time winner for acting, Hepburn won three of those after turning 60. The capper was her win for “On Golden Pond” at the age of almost 75. We told you it was coming back!

Here is another actor with two bites of the apple after 60, and also a potential threat to Hepburn’s four-Oscar record. McDormand has three Best Actress victories, and two of them have come after turning 60. She won for “Nomadland” just before turning 64, and we could see her pulling in a couple more nominations, and maybe even a win.

Another relative unknown, even if Dressler was the oldest Best Actress winner for over half a century. Dressler was in what is often considered the first full-length comedy film, 1914’s 'Tillie’s Punctured Romance", which she starred in. Once a massive comedy star, Dressler had fallen on hard times, but bounced back with 1930’s “Min and Bill.” Her win came one day after her 63rd birthday.

In a way, it feels surprising that Streep only has one win after turning 60. However, there were 12 — yes, 12! — nominations for her between winning for “Sophie’s Choice” and “The Iron Lady.” Since that win, she has four more nominations, but no wins.

A lot of American film fans probably first heard of Mirren when she won for playing Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen.” Surely, that meant she was a stuffy, serious British actor, right? Well, delve into Mirren’s early career and you find a litany of vivacious, challenging roles. Now, she’s in the “Fast & Furious” universe!

Page had a wild life. She studied under Uta Hagen and Lee Strasberg, she was blacklisted during the Red Scare, she was nominated for four Tonys, won two Emmys, and of course won an Oscar. Also, she was married to freakin’ Rip Torn! Page won for “The Trip to Bountiful,” a 1985 film, but tragically was at the end of her career. She died in 1987 at the age of 62.

Welcome to the club, Michelle! She barely eked over the line when the beloved actress won thanks to the fervor around “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The movie came out in March 2022, when she was still 59, but thanks to an August birthday when the Oscars occurred in 2023, Yeoh crossed the age-60 threshold to join the ranks.

Plummer is both the oldest winner and oldest nominee for Best Supporting Actor, but not for the same role. He was nominated at the age of 88 for “All the Money in the World,” but his win came a few years earlier. When Plummer was 82, he won for “Beginners,” which made him the oldest winner in any acting category until Hopkins surpassed him.

Burns famously lived a long time. So much so, when he won his Oscar for “The Sunshine Boys” he was 80, and it was 1975. For many years Burns was the oldest winner of Best Supporting Actor, and even now only Plummer has bested him on the age front.

Best Supporting Actor is rife with guys who won in their seventies, much less their sixties. An esteemed actor with an Emmy, a Tony, and two Oscars to his name, Douglas first won an Oscar for “Hud” in 1963. While he was no spring chicken at that point, he won for “Being There,” a 1979 film, when he was himself 79 years old.

“Cocoon” is a movie about elderly folks who find themselves rejuvenated by aliens, and as such the cast is full of notable actors of a certain age, and also Wilfred Brimley, who turned 50 when filming the movie. Ameche had a bit of a career rejuvenation of his own in the 1980s, appearing in “Trading Places” and then starring in “Cocoon,” even if he won for Supporting Actor in an ensemble cast.

There’s a slight drop from Ameche, who was almost 78, to Palance, who had just turned 73. Surely, it’s that roughly five years that allowed Palance to famously do one-armed pushups on stage when accepting his Oscar for “City Slickers.” Though his character died in the film, Palance still was able to return in “City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold” as Curly’s never-mentioned identical twin brother.

Arkin’s death at the end of June in 2023 led to an outpouring of admiration for the beloved character actor. A chameleon on screen, Arkin could be funny, heartwarming, romantic, and even menacing. His win for “Little Miss Sunshine” was a mix of heart and acidity, but Arkin could pull it off with aplomb, which he continued to do until the end of his life.

Houseman won an Oscar for his first real acting role. He also won it when he was already 71. What happened? Well, he was an esteemed producer of theater and film, including working with a young Orson Welles on stage. Then, he founded the drama department at Julliard. Finally, after a couple small uncredited parts during his career, he co-starred in “The Paper Chase” and won an Oscar out of the gate.

Coburn was one of those consummate character actors, appearing in dozens of films and hundreds of TV episodes. We aren’t sure, but there may have been a law that he had to have a role in one out of every three Westerns. His Oscar, though, came for the crime drama “Affliction,” a largely forgotten film. It’s written and directed by Paul Schrader, though, so you know it is chill and normal.

You don’t have to be an older actor to play Santa Claus (just ask Tim Allen), though it helps. Gwenn is synonymous with one role, but it won him Best Supporting Actor, and also a spot in holiday lore. He played Kris Kringle in “Miracle on 34th Street,” the Christmas classic that has been remade, but arguably never improved upon. Gwenn, obviously, played a key part in that.

When Eastwood was setting a Best Director record, he brought along an old compatriot of his for the ride. Having worked together in “Unforgiven,” Freeman also had a role in “Million Dollar Baby.” He won, beating out another actor who would have made this list with a win, Alan Alda for “The Aviator.”

Caine already had an Oscar, having won for “Hannah and Her Sisters.” That means his win for “The Cider House Rules” was maybe not a career thing, but if not, it strikes as an unusual win. The film has largely been forgotten, but then again Caine does give the one speech that anybody remembers from the film, if they remember anything. From the “What could have been” file, Caine beat Haley Joel Osment for “The Sixth Sense,” which would have been significant on the young-winner side of things.

Let’s keep the Eastwood train rolling. We mentioned “Unforgiven” oh-so-briefly ago, and we return to the film. It won Best Picture, Best Director, and also Best Supporting Actor. Hackman, an actor as acclaimed for his talent as lamented for his temper, delivered a standout performance in one of the quintessential revisionist Westerns.

Father of actress Hayley Mills, John Mills was perhaps the definitive British character actor of his generation, or at least in the mix. Like many character actors, he was in a ton of stuff, and then got the role which finally won him an Oscar. “Ryan’s Daughter” is not the best remembered of David Lean’s films, but it’s a David Lean film, so it has some cache. Mills winning an Oscar helped on that front.

A few years before his famed turn as Grandpa Joe in “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” Albertson won his Oscar for “The Subject Was Roses.” Based on a Pulitzer-winning play, the movie basically has three characters of any note. Albertson won Best Supporting Actor, Patricia Neal was nominated for Best Actress and Martin Sheen, well, it’s an honor just to be in a film with two people who were nominated, right?

Begley was a different type of actor than his son, Ed Begley Jr. The senior Begley was gruff and hard-edged. He won a Tony for playing the William Jennings Bryan analogue in “Inherit the Wind,” and he then won his Oscar for a Tennessee Williams adaptation called "Sweet Bird of Youth." He played Tom Finley, known as “Boss.” Again, a different kind of actor than his son.

Walter is the starting point of the famed Huston family. He had a long career even before his son John directed his first film, and John was never shy about working with family. That often paid off. In the iconic Western “The Treasure of the Sierra Made,” Walter got the role that won him an Oscar, and he did it in a film directed by his son, for good measure.

This is not another case of family ties. Charles is not related to James Coburn, and they didn’t seem to have much in common anyway. This Coburn was an arch Hollywood conservative who played stuffed shirts, as opposed to James’ litany of gunfighters and desperados. Charles won his Oscar, fittingly, for playing a retired millionaire in “The More the Merrier.”

We move on to Best Supporting Actress. Ashcroft has long reigned atop this list. The British actress worked for 60 years, though largely on stage. She only appeared in 14 feature-length films, but won an Oscar for one of them, 1984’s “A Passage to India.” At the time of her win, she was 77.

The previous record holder for this award, Hull also held it for a long time, specifically 34 years until Ashcroft bested her. Hull was just over 74 when she won for the classic comedy movie “Harvey,” which also starred Jimmy Stewart and a giant rabbit only Jimmy Stewart could see.

A successful and acclaimed actor in her native South Korea, Youn made the move to American film in Lee Isaac Chung’s film inspired by his childhood, “Minari.” Her foray proved fruitful, as she won Best Supporting Actor just before turning 74. Hey, she’s one-for-one on American movies (not that only American movies are eligible for Oscars).

Gordon did some early work in film, and spent a lot of time on stage, but she was one of those people whose career really took off once she was “of a certain age.” A few years before her turn in the cult classic “Harold and Maude,” a 72-year-old Gordon won an Oscar for “Rosemary’s Baby.” And this time we don’t need to mention the director by name!

You may not be able to place Rutherford as an actress (she notably starred as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in four feature films in the 1960s), and with a name that rings as fairly old school, you might think she is one of those early Oscar winners that have popped up on this list. However, Rutherford actually won for a 1963 film. It’s just a forgotten movie called “The V.I.P.s.” The movie has an all-star cast, led by the iconic duo of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Orson Welles is in it! And yet it has fallen out of the cultural memory.

“Airport” was a potboiler of the disaster movie era. There were several of these “Airport” films, which like other disaster movies had star-studded casts. While these films were often hits, it’s a little surprising to see an Oscar winner emerge from “Airport.” Hayes was known as the “First Lady of American Theater,” so when she dropped in for a movie, it’s not surprising the Oscars gave her an award at the age of 70. Notably, she was also the second EGOT winner ever after Richard Rodgers, and she is only of only three people to achieve the “Triple Crown of Acting” as well as be an EGOT winner.

Barrymore, of the iconic Barrymore acting family was known as…the First Lady of the American Theater. Hey, when she died in 1959, the title was up for grabs! We drop a bit in age here, as Barrymore was 65 when she won. Her win came for 1944’s “None but the Lonely Heart,” a Cary Grant film based on a Clifford Odets work.

With all due respect to the winners of the 2023 Academy Awards ceremony, it definitely felt like the theme was “Wouldn’t it be nice to give these people these awards?” Ke Huy Quan the former child actor was back to acting! Didn’t we all used to love Brendan Fraser and shouldn’t we give him an award for that!? And hey, Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis are icons, and they’ve never won Oscars! Let’s give them both one! Yeoh, as we noted, was just over 60, while Curtis was 64.

Dench was 64 when she won, but that wasn’t the story at the time. People noted her screen time, or lack thereof, in “Shakespeare in Love.” We admittedly have not gotten the stopwatch out, but the general consensus is that Dench is on screen for eight minutes in “Shakespeare in Love” as Queen Elizabeth I. Hey, you can be great for eight minutes, and also there are bigger fish to fry with that movie.

We end this list sweating screen time once more. “Network” walked away with three acting Oscars, and William Holden didn’t win but he was up against cast mate Finch, from earlier on this list. One of those wins was Straight as Holden’s character’s wife. She is basically only in the film for one scene, and her total screen time is a little over five minutes. That was enough to get her the win.