The Academy Awards have gone out to many skilled and talented actors over the years. Though many of the recipients are up-and-coming young performers, others have worked long and hard to gain their crowning achievement. Some actors don't receive the recognition they deserve until the end of their careers, sometimes even posthumously.
For this list, the award recipients are those who won in the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best ing Actor, and Best ing Actress categories. It’s also worth noting that the respective ages of each winner are determined on the day they received the Award, not the age they were when appearing in the nominated picture.
Updated on March 2nd, 2022, by Shawn S. Lealos: Age is just a number, and with the Oscars swiftly approaching, this list could change again with three actors older than several of these past winners. While there are many young actors vying for Oscars this year, there are just as many veteran actors still turning in great performances.
In 2021, the Oscars even set a new record, with the oldest actor to ever win the biggest individual honors at the Academy Awards, with Anthony Hopkins winning for his role in The Father. Here are five more of the oldest Academy Award winners who have spent years perfecting their craft to earn recognition.
Morgan Freeman (67)
Morgan Freeman is 84 years old and he is still acting, appearing in four different movies in 2021 alone. Throughout his amazing career, he has also picked up five Oscar nominations, winning only one of them. The first was in Street Smart, followed by Driving Miss Daisy, in which his co-star Jessica Tandy won an Oscar at the age of 80.
As for Freeman, he picked up a third nomination for Million Dollar Baby at the age of 67. He earned one more nomination a few years later for playing Nelson Mandela in Invictus.
Edmund Gwenn (70)
Edmund Gwenn had a long and successful filmography, but he remains known today for one iconic role, and it won him an Oscar at the age of 70. In 1947, Gwenn played Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street.
Gwenn became the only person in movie history to win an Oscar for playing Santa Claus or at least a man who believed he was Santa. What is most impressive about Gwenn winning an Oscar at the late age of 70 was that he wasn't close to finished yet. He appeared in 23 more movies after this, and he even picked up one more Oscar nomination for Mister 880.
Helen Hayes (70)
The 1970 movie Airport was a disaster movie and one of the earlier success stories in the genre. Today, it is a movie rarely talked about outside of the fact it was the basis for the spoof movie Airplane!, which itself is considered a cult classic.
However, Airport was a box office success and critics loved it. The movie even picked up 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. The only award that it won was for Best ing Actress, which went to 70-year-old Helen Hayes for playing a stowaway. Hunt was the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting, with an Oscar, Emmy and Tony win.
James Coburn (70)
James Coburn was a very prolific actor, appearing in 70 movies and over 100 television episodes over his career. Many of his appearances were as a tough guy in westerns and war movies, but it was for a later role that he picked up his only Oscar win at the age of 70.
The movie was Affliction in 1997 and starred Nick Nolte as a sheriff investigating a hunting accident while dealing with personal issues. Coburn played his father Glen, a man who constantly pushed his son and was at least partially responsible for his problems. He would continue acting for five more years before dying at 74.
John Houseman (71)
John Houseman was 71 years and 192 days when he received an Academy Award for Best ing Actor for his role as Professor Kingsfield in The Paper Chase (1973). Houseman held the record for the oldest winner for two years from 1974 to 1976. The comedy-drama also received nominations in Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The story is about James Hart, a first-year law student at Harvard, and his relationship with Kingsfield, who is somewhat eccentric and demanding. Hart also has a relationship with the professor's daughter. The film was so successful that it was turned into a television series that followed Hart's three years at law school. Houseman reprised his role, while Timothy Bottoms was replaced by James Stephens.
Margaret Rutherford (71)
In 1963, Margaret Rutherford appeared in V.I.P.s, a British drama film with an all-star ensemble cast. Other cast include Orson Welles, Maggie Smith, Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan, Rod Taylor, Elsa Martinelli, and Elizabeth Taylor.
Rutherford portrayed the Duchess of Brighton, who is on her way to Florida for a job that will save her historic home. The film itself is set primarily in Heathrow Airport as a fog delays everyone's flights. The VIPs in question are all dealing with some sort of personal or financial crisis, and their stories are intertwined.
Ruth Gordon (72)
Roman Polanski's 1968 cult horror flick, Rosemary's Baby, was nominated for Best Screenplay (Based on Material from Another Medium) and Best ing Actress, which Ruth Gordon won at the age of seventy-two.
Gordon is one member of an extensive all-star cast. The film follows a young pregnant woman in Manhattan, who comes to fear that her neighbors are part of a Satanic cult and preparing to take her baby to use in their rituals. The film is based on the eponymous novel by Ira Levin and was later adapted into a miniseries starring Zoe Saldana.
Alan Arkin (72)
One of the more recent entries on this list, Alan Arkin was seventy-two when he won an Academy Award for Best ing Actor for his role in Little Miss Sunshine in 2006.
The movie centers around the Hoover family when their daughter Olive (Abigal Breslin) decides she wants to participate in a beauty pageant. They pack up their things and travel around the country, unaware of what the journey has in store for them. Arkin plays Olive's grandfather, alongside Paul Dano, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, and Bryan Cranston.
Jack Palance (73)
City Slickers is a 1991 Western comedy about three married men who begin to experience midlife crises. They move from the comfort of their urban environments and decide to rediscover their masculinity by taking a cattle drive around southwestern America.
Jack Palance won an Academy Award for Best ing Actor for his role as Curly Washburn, the trail boss at the ranch these three men visit. Curly has a tough exterior but ends up revealing more of himself as the film progresses.
Josephine Hull (74)
Though Josephine Hull was best known for her successful stage career, that didn’t stop her from also picking up an Oscar in 1951. At age 74, she appeared in her fifth film, Harvey. She earned an Academy Award for Best ing Actress for portraying a character whom she originally played on Broadway.
Harvey is a comedy-drama about a middle-aged man who is friends with a large, imaginary rabbit. It also focuses on his family , who are worried about his mental health. Hull plays the man’s sister, Veta.
