Acting is a peculiar profession. In no other occupation do you see children as young as ten winning the highest award in an entire field alongside adults entering their eighties. In acting, age is no limit to what you can achieve.

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The Academy Awards is an extremely inconsistent awards ceremony, as “For Your Consideration” campaigns, politics, and personal connections all can influence the results, not to mention that artistic aptitude can’t be quantifiably measured. This being said, the talent of the men and women on this list is beyond reproach. The following actors are amongst the most revered performers of the past century, and the fact that they were able to attain such a coveted award so late in their careers is a testament to that fact.

Anthony Hopkins (83) — ‘The Father’ (2020)

Anthony Hopkins, The Father, Elevator, Olivia Coleman, Oldest Oscar Winning Performances

The Father is one of the most heart-wrenching and empathetic portrayals of mental illness ever. In 2021, Anthony Hopkins became the oldest person to ever win an acting Oscar for his devastating performance as an elderly man struggling with dementia. Director Florian Zeller and his brilliant cast (including Olivia Coleman and Imogen Poots) thoughtfully relay the agonizing misperceptions one must suffer through when afflicted with such a vicious disorder. It’s a movie that gaslights the viewers to put them in the protagonist's mindset.

Hopkins' role in The Father is easily one of the best performances to win an Academy Award; even his iconic enactment of the villainous Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs can’t live up to his masterclass in confusion and distress here.

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Christopher Plummer (82) — ‘Beginners’ (2010)

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Christopher Plummer held the record for the oldest Oscar-winning performance for ten years before Anthony Hopkins wowed in The Father. In stark opposition to The Father, Beginners is a feel-good romp maintaining that it’s never too late for you to be true to yourself. Plummer plays Hal, a septuagenarian who comes out of the closet five years before his death, which rekindles his passion for life.

Plummer shines in a fantastic performance in what is a pretty good movie. His joyous attitude, frantically racing to live a life’s worth of freedom in a few years, won’t fail to warm your heart. Plummer’s smile and the twinkle in his eyes sell the whole movie. Though he’s not technically the main character, his performance is what vividly remains in your memory long after you’ve seen it.

Jessica Tandy (80) — ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ (1989)

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One of the most controversial best picture winners ever, Driving Miss Daisy is a safe and rather inoffensive look at race relations in the American south. Critics were upset that the much more transgressive Do the Right Thing wasn’t even nominated, and Driving Miss Daisy was accused of pandering to white Oscar voters instead of challenging prejudice. Unfortunately, time has only shed further light on how bland and mediocre this film is.

What isn’t mediocre, however, is Jessica Tandy’s acting as the titular Miss Daisy, a stubborn wealthy woman who slowly builds a friendship with her personal driver Hoke, played by an equally brilliant Morgan Freeman. Towards the movie's end, Miss Daisy’s mental barriers start breaking down, and she becomes much more vulnerable. This is where Tandy’s facial nuances add an extra layer to the character, and she successfully wins the viewers over.

George Burns (80) — ‘The Sunshine Boys’ (1975)

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The first movie George Burns made in over 30 years, The Sunshine Boys stars Burns and Walter Matthau as a famous vaudeville duo who ruled the comedy landscape for 47 years. Now, 11 years after they unceremoniously broke up, they come together for one last show.

Burn’s Lewis is the deeply sardonic and less animated partner to Matthau’s Clark and comes across as the more level-headed and contented of the pair. One must assume that the role of the over-the-hill vaudeville performer came naturally to Burns, who was a massive vaudeville sensation in the early 20th century. In his acceptance speech, Burns summed it up best: "if you stay in the business long enough, and you get to be old enough, you get to be new again.”

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Melvyn Douglas (79) — ‘Being There’ (1979)

Being There, Melvyn Douglas and Peter Sellers shaking hands, Oldest Oscar Winning Performances

Being There is beloved by cinephiles all over the world. This satire on societal elitism, white privilege, and the wealthy is perhaps most famous as the movie where Peter Sellers almost won an Oscar—helmed by Harold and Maude director Hal Ashby, Being There earned veteran actor Melvyn Douglas his second Academy Award.

Douglas plays the stern, commanding businessman Ben Rand, who instantly likes Seller's slow, gardener protagonist, Chance. Douglas has to walk a tightrope by making the powerful, gruff businessman a warm and likable character we also care about. Interestingly, Douglas became the second-oldest winning actor with this win in 1980, when he beat fellow nominee, 8-year-old Justin Henry (for Kramer vs. Kramer), the youngest Oscar nominee of all time.

John Gielgud (77) — ‘Arthur’ (1981)

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John Gielgud was just shy of his 78th birthday when he won the 1981 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the comedy classic Arthur, starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli. Ten years after winning for Arthur, he won a Grammy, making him only the fourth person in history to achieve an EGOT, known as the “the grand slam” of entertainment (an EGOT is an individual who wins an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award)

Gielgud plays the fan-favorite Hobson, the sarcastic and dead-panned valet with a heart of gold. He’s a fantastic foil to the spoilt, ignorant drunkard Arthur Bach (Moore). Hobson is exceptionally witty, rude, snobbish, and hilarious. Gielgud is responsible for the biggest laughs in the entire film, but he’s also the heart. It’s a performance by a true master of his craft.

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Don Ameche (77) — 'Cocoon' (1985)

Cocoon, Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Oldest Oscar Winning Performances

Cocoon is a feel-good sci-fi drama directed by Ron Howard, channeling his inner Steven Spielberg. It’s a whimsical narrative about a group of elderly citizens who stumble across an alien fountain of youth of sorts. Soon, they discover their ailments and pains are alleviated by the aliens' life force. It’s kind of like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by way of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

More than most movies, Cocoon is an ensemble piece, so Don Ameche’s win for Best Supporting Actor feels like a collective recognition of the entire cast. Ameche is great, but so are Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, and the rest of the performers. Perhaps it was Ameche’s sweet moves on the dance floor in the disco scene that elevated him above the rest of his peers in the mind of the Academy.

Peggy Ashcroft (77) — 'A Passage to India' (1984)

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Peggy Ashcroft had a long and prolific theater career. Though her primary love was the stage, she had an impressive, albeit limited, filmography, including The 39 Steps and The Nun’s Story. A Passage to India was the final film in the intimidating and influential career of David Lean, the director behind the desert classic Lawrence of Arabia. A Passage to India is somewhat of a spiritual successor to Lawrence of Arabia, as it is a historical epic about white Britons traveling to a foreign land and clashing with the culture and scenery.

Ashcroft won her Supporting Actress Oscar in 1985 and remains the oldest woman to win the award. She steals the show as Mrs. Moore, one of the few characters to call out the abusive power dynamics imposed upon India by British colonialism. Mrs. Moore is comforting and charming when she needs to be but ruthless whenever anyone tries to shovel her any BS.

Henry Fonda (76) & Katharine Hepburn (74) — ‘On Golden Pond’ (1981)

Oldest Oscar Winning Performances, Henry Fonda, katherine Hepburn, norman and ethelOn Golden Pond Cropped

On Golden Pond is an adaptation of the stage production of the same name, starring legendary stars Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn as a retired couple vacationing at their lake house for the Summer. Norman (Fonda) is a cantankerous grump preoccupied with death, while his wife, Ethel (Hepburn), refuses to give up her youthful exuberance and optimism.

Unfortunately, the directing in On Golden Pond doesn’t do much to justify the play being adapted to the silver screen. The music is obnoxiously insistent (frequently telegraphing what’s about to happen), the stakes are agonizingly low, and the conflicts often feel contrived. Luckily, the dialogue is witty, and both actors do a tremendous job bringing Norman and Ethel to life. The second their characters interact, you instantly understand their relationship dynamics. Fonda and Hepburn are so convincing that you’ll forget you’re watching famous actors by the picture's end. They were class acts right until the end. On Golden Pond is a rare feature where both leads won an Oscar for their role, and it deserves that honor.

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