Women of a Certain Age and the Best Actress Race
Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 1:30PM This list/trivia article is revamped from a 2014 article...
With Sophia Loren (86), Meryl Streep (71 if she campaigns in lead), Frances McDormand (63), Michelle Pfeiffer (62), Viola Davis (55), Amy Adams (46), and Kate Winslet (45) all looking like viable discussion points for the upcoming Best Actress race, it's time to look at one of our favourite research areas: Age and Oscar Trivia. If any combo of five from those seven women make it (unlikely of course) we'll have our oldest Best Actress lineup of all time by a big margin. If only three or four of them make it we're still likely to have the oldest line up of all time though younger contenders like Andra Day, Vanessa Kirby, Elisabeth Moss, Jennifer Hudson, and Carey Mulligan (all in their 30s) are surely hoping to spoil this 'most mature' trivia party.
Good news: The Academy is getting less ageist. We know because we've researched this for years. In fact as you can see in the "top ten most mature Best Actress lineups" after the jump, a good deal of the top ten is from recent years. When this first started happening we chalked it up to an anomaly due to Meryl Streep, but she's hardly the only senior citizen actress that they've nominated in the last 20 years. Ready for the list?
The Top Ten Most Mature Best Actress Shortlists
A funny thing occurred while researching this: the years I thought of as elderly weren't. I immediately thought of 1950, for example, with those grande dame performances by All About Eve's Bette Davis and Sunset Boulevard's Gloria Swanson (two of the best performances to ever lose the Oscar) but both of those women were barely 50 (Grande Dame used to start young!) and the rest of the category was young, younger and youngest. I was also wrong about these years which average a touch or a lot younger than I remembered or was expecting: 1960, 1962, 1974, 1990 and 1992.
RUNNER UP: (TIE) 1985 AND 2000
average age 43.4
- Anne Bancroft, Agnes of God (54)
- Whoopi Goldberg, Color Purple (30)
- Jessica Lange, Sweet Dreams (36)
- Geraldine Page, Trip to Bountiful (61)
- Meryl Streep, Out of Africa (36)
- Joan Allen, The Contender
- Juliette Binoche, Chocolat
- Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream
- Laura Linney, You Can Count on Me
- Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich
If it hadn't been for the obscenely overdue status of Geraldine Page, a living legend who died just a year after the ceremony, another kind of history might have been made in 1985 with a win for Whoopi (but not because she was the youngest nominee). The youngest nominee often wins, actually. Case in point, Julia Roberts in 2000; Ellen Burstyn didn't have Geraldine Page's advantage of being overdue for a win.
10. 2017
average age 43.8
- Sally Hawkins, Shape of Water (41)
- Frances McDormand, Three Billboards (60)
- Margot Robbie, I Tonya (27)
- Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird (23)
- Meryl Streep, The Post (68)
If only they'd given Saoirse this when she deserved it Frances could have been an easy winner this year for a better performance!
09. 2001
average age 44
- Halle Berry, Monster's Ball (35)
- Judi Dench, Iris (67)
- Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge! (34)
- Sissy Spacek, In the Bedroom (52)
- Renée Zelwegger, Bridget Jones's Diary (32)
Two years in a row at the turn of the century the major Oscar battle was between a peaking beauty /star playing a struggling poor woman versus a legendary Oscar winner in a grim deadly drama. In both cases the former won.
08. 2018
average age 44.2
- Yalitza Aparicio, Roma (25)
- Glenn Close, The Wife (71)
- Olivia Colman, The Favourite (45)
- Lady Gaga, A Star is Born (32)
- Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me (48)
Glenn Close was the frontrunner but Olivia Colman was the critical favourite having a grand year but the writing was probably on the table all along. Only two women over 63 years of age have ever won Best Actress ... and those were Oscar's all time favourite Katharine Hepburn (her fourth win) and Jessica Tandy both of whom had their films nominated or winning Best Picture which is always a considerable advantage.
07. 2016
average age 45.6
- Isabelle Huppert, Elle (63)
- Ruth Negga, Loving (35)
- Natalie Portman, Jackie (35)
- Emma Stone, La La Land (28)
- Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins (67)
The youngest contender won again. Fact: 29 is the most common age to win Best Actress but Emma was even a year shy of that.
06. 1931/1932
average age 46.6
- Marie Dressler, Emma (64)
- Lynn Fontane, The Guardsman (44)
- Helen Hayes, The Sin of Madelon Claudet (32)
It seems impossible to imagine it now but Marie Dressler, a fabulous actress, was a box office giant in her sixties way back at the dawn of the talkies. She had just won the Oscar the year before for Min & Bill
05. 1989
average age 46.8
- Isabelle Adjani, Camille Claudel (34)
- Pauline Collins, Shirley Valentine (49)
- Jessica Lange, Musix Box (40)
- Michelle Pfeiffer, Fabulous Baker Boys (31)
- Jessica Tandy, Driving Miss Daisy (80)
1989: also known as "The Year That Scarred Young Nathaniel Forever". In a somewhat atypical move, Oscar decided to go with the old lady -- Jessica Tandy was the most senior acting winner of all time until Christopher Plummer's Beginners stole that trivia answer -- when they could've had a young superstar goddess during her ascension at the peak of her beauty. A look through Oscar history will show you that this almost never happens but 1989 was a weird year with Oscar having a very conservative moment, and bristling against or trying to resist any of the sizzling contemporary stuff (see also the shunning of Do The Right Thing and that year's critical darling / indie sensation sex, lies and videotape) and La Pfeiff was sizzling contemporary stuff.
04. 1978
average age 47.6
- Ingrid Bergman, Autumn Sonata (63)
- Ellen Burstyn, Same Time Next Year (46)
- Jill Clayburgh, An Unmarried Woman (34)
- Jane Fonda, Coming Home (41)
- Geraldine Page, Interiors (54)
I don't have much to say about this lineup other than "isn't it fab?" Not only is it full of sensational actresses, it's also very womanly in its thematic concerns. Geraldine Page as "Ivy" in Interiors is everything and gets my personal vote but Jane Fonda, the winner, is pretty damn terrific at charting her sexual entanglement with a disabled vet.
03. 1967
average age 48.2
- Anne Bancroft, The Graduate (36)
- Faye Dunaway, Bonnie & Clyde (27)
- Edith Evans, The Whisperers (80)
- Audrey Hepburn, Wait Until Dark (38)
- Katharine Hepburn, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (60)
It's funny to think of Anne Bancroft as the original "cougar" since she was only 36 when The Graduate premiered, just six years older than the "young" man she was seducing, and the second youngest of the Best Actress nominees that year. Katharine Hepburn was giving the least interesting performance in the batch so of course she won. But what can you do?
02. 2006
average age 50.6
- Penelope Cruz, Volver (32)
- Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal (72)
- Helen Mirren, The Queen (61)
- Meryl Streep, Devil Wears Prada (57)
- Kate Winslet, Little Children (31)
AKA "The Year when Dame Helen Mirren Inexplicably Steamrolled and No One Raised a Fuss About It Even Though She'd Been Better Before and Most Of Her CoStars Were Doing Their (Arguable) Best Work Ever." Whew. I know that's an unwieldly title for any Best Actress year but this is a fun annual to talk about. We do it often.
01. 2013
average age 55
- Amy Adams, American Hustle (39)
- Sandra Bullock, Gravity (49)
- Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine (44)
- Judi Dench, Philomena (79)
- Meryl Streep, August: Osage County (64)
This lineup was so historic, age-wise, I was able to write about it for Vanity Fair at the time. It obliterated the previous oldest Best Actress lineup record. Do you think 2013 loses its record to 2020? We'll find out in March 2021.
Reader Comments (42)
Of the three fields that seem most plausible based on your predictions?
Field 1 (Your actual predictions)? Average Age: 52. 2nd Place.
Field 2 (Pfeiffer Misses, Streep Gets In)? Average Age: 53.8. 2nd Place.
Field 3 (Winslet Misses, Streep Gets In)? Average Age: 57.2. 1st Place.
Judi Dench is also in three of these lineups. I would argue that she skewed the average age more than Meryl.
Is your math right about the 63rd slate?
Woodward 61
Bates 42
Streep 41
Huston 39
Roberts 23
/3rtful -- you mean 1990? Yeah, that doesn't make the top ten, the average being 41.2 years old
Having just seen the trailer for THE PROM, no way Streep gets a nod this. And Winslet for AMMONITE? No way. And I love both actresses.
But I am so here for women of a certain age STILL doing great work. Kristin Scott Thomas is literally the only thing watchable in REBECCA despite the beauty of Hammer and James.
I would not count out Streep this year...especially if she goes supporting for The Prom. It is a great character not highlighted too much In the trailer which just means that Ryan may be holding back some her best moments.
Pam -- but Streep gets nominated for everything, whether or not she's any great / good / okay / or bad (and she's been all four!) Though I expect she'll go supporting even though it's a leading role on Broadway.
Winslet is getting in.
Re: 1989
It is a pity that the Academy decided to go against their tradition of awarding the youngest precisely that year. I wish they had behaved the same way in 2012...
Re: 2000
"Ellen Burstyn didn't have Geraldine Page's advantage of being overdue for a win". Well, I love Ellen Burstyn, but I am afraid that she didn´t have an iconic and career-defining performance like Roberts' one. Burstyn had no chance of winning that year, even if she had been the youngest in the group.
Have you looked at Supporting Actress? I know it skews older than Best Actress in general, but with Close, Colman (who could go Lead), Burstyn, and Youn Yuh-jung, it could be an older year for that category as well.
Nat: SIGH. If she does, Close probably loses, though. AGAIN. And Streep might actually BEAT Hepburn, netting a 5th win somewhere down the line.
I'm surprised to hear (not just here but in other Oscar sites) that people actually think Streep has a chance to win a 4th Oscar for The Prom. Is her role in it really as substantial (and baity) as those in Sophie's Choice, or Silkwood, or The Iron Lady? I'm not saying that she won't be great, just that it seems like such a light and fun character for a record tying win, no?
@Volvagia. They're not quite ready to give Streep her 4th win so soon, I reckon. She'll get a fourth, but it will be for something else, and probably not for another five years, give or take. I don't know if she'll get five, though. (She has three now.)
in 2013 Emma Thompson was the number 6 on that list. If nominated instead of Adams, that 2013 list may have been older
BVR: Personally: She has NO CHANCE to win her 4th for this if she goes lead. It'd just be another nomination. But if she accepts this as a supporting bid? Yeah, this is probably her 4th. And, as I said: Close loses. AGAIN.
Thinking about the contributing factors, here, I doubt "Hollywood is more enlightened" makes the top five.
Certainly the end of the studio system makes a big difference, but the studio system has been gone for a long time.
The *big* big difference is that mature actresses have started to get smarter about creating roles for themselves -- buying properties, producing, and so on.
Daniella: It has been nine years. That's not THAT FAR away from the thirteen year distance between Hepburn #3 and Hepburn #4.
Streep will win a 4th at some point. Whether this year?
I think the buzz for this role specifically is that the character is more akin to the Miranda Priestly/ Madeline Ashton diva variety other than the accented real life historical roles.
She has 2 really great belty songs and probably has more screen time potential than The Witch in ITW. Also, in 2020, having the movie streaming on Netflix does not seem to be a handicap at her award chances this year.
This is not even taken into consideration how her Leading role goes in Let Them All Talk which is also how being considered for award contention.
So.. she has 2 rather large roles, NOT cameos, in a really weird movie season.
Cannot imagine she is not nominated for nothing.
Pam
To me, Winslet and Streep seem much more likely to be nominated than Adams and Pfeiffer.
Viola Davis, Frances McDormand and probably Jennifer Hudson are sure things, at the moment... while I don't think Sophia Loren stands a chance, frankly.
So is Portrait of a Lady On Fire not eligible this year? As a French entry? I think it was probably last year, right?
Also, my bet is that musical theater lovers (like me) will think Sarah Lancashire as Margaret New > Meryl as Dee Dee Allen. Different kind of rolls, I know, but from what I saw filming today in Boston, Lancashire is giving Streep a run for her money on the Julia Child portrayal!
BVR -- i agree with your doubts on this. It's a musical comedy role and those dont really win Oscars... unless you count Catherine Zeta Jones who was more musical dramedy ;) They're sometimes nominated though.
Tony Awards have no problem giving statues to silly performances (and this role is very silly --- and wonderful!) but Oscar is way more obsessed with seriousness.
Pam- we will have to disagree. And I am also a musical theatre lover as well.
And just to clarify- I am not saying Streep wins this year- only that she is nominated.
It has been 3 years since her last one- which Is a relatively long time between nominations (think 5 is her longest gap)
I think the main supporting locks are Close and Coleman.... the other 3 are vulnerable and I think the same can be said for Best Actress- with Frances and Viola and... 3 other open slots
It is not out of the question that Streep could squeak by with the right role
It's weird to me how a lot of bloggers and commentators are ruling Winslet out so early and happy to put Hudson in the Top 3.
The only people I am feeling confident in are McDormand,Loren and Kirby and only McDormand feels locked up with Winslet and Mulligan following.
Ms. Lange was the oldest Best Actress winner of the 90s for playing moi.
mark -- a lot of pundits, i'm not trying to shade anyone, tend to be very in the moment boosting and dropping people in the moment with little thought of the future. I try to play a longer game in my predictions which is why i'm less volatile. I think Winslet still has a totally decent shot. Her movie isn't out for a month still and people are acting like it's old news already. lol.
I get what you mean about Helen Mirren but she was still excellent in The Queen.
Oh, how I wish Jill Clayburgh had won for An Unmarried Woman! It's among my 10 favorite movies of all time.
Hepburn's win for Guess Who's Coming... is such a joke. Had any of the other four nominees won they would have easily ranked as one of the category's best-ever wins.
Yes Pam, Sarah Lancashire is coming for that Supporting Actress nomination. I can totally see it happening, think Julie Walters in Billy Elliot.
The Prom is literally the most fun I've had watching a trailer in years. I could watch it 1000 times.
It may not be a "great" movie but I'm a huge YES. And I wouldn't be shocked to see Nicole or Meryl on my shortlist. Both do appear supporting.
Next year
Winslet
Pfeiffer
Davis
McDormand
Mulligan
That is what I am here for!!!
We're only just getting started. All of the recent trailer drops have made me excited again about the movies, even if I do have to screen them at home. This year's Actress race has some great and varied prospects, which is really nice to see. This will be a great couple of months.
Of the two younger musical biopic stars, Andra Day feels more plausible to me than Hudson simply because we know Lee Daniels is capable of directing Oscar-nominated performances (even from newcomers).
The year that Hepburn was "given" the Oscar for Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, and that was an Oscar for Spencer Tracey's death. Going into the Oscars, Dame Edith Evans was the favorite, having won the Golden Globe, NY Film Critics and Berlin for Best Actress in The Whisperers, and was far and away, the best performance of the year, PERIOD. The worse Oscar shame EVER! Anyone in doubt, simply find it on YouTube and you'll be scratching your head in disbelief after seeing her gut-wrenching performance.
these are the lists i come here for!
[but why so coy with the ages of the 2000 line up?]
I noticed some time ago that this year is potentially quite groundbreaking in terms of age related records at the Oscars, at least in the acting categories.
-If Anthony Hopkins gets nominated, he'll become the oldest Best Actor nominee. If he wins, he'll turn into not only the oldest Best Actor winner but also the oldest male winner in acting, and as long as Sophia Loren or Ellen Burstyn don't prevail, the oldest acting winner ever.
-If Sophia Loren gets nominated, she'll become the oldest Best Actress nominee, and if she wins, then she'll be not only the oldest Best Actress winner ever but also the oldest female winner in acting, and as long as Ellen Burstyn doesn't win, the oldest acting winner ever.
-Same with Ellen Burstyn: the oldest acting nominee ever, oldest female nominee in acting, oldest Best Supporting Actress winner ever and oldest Best Supporting Actress nominee.
Curiously, Frank Langella is just one day younger than Hopkins, so if he wins -presumably in supporting- and Hopkins wins in lead, then they'll become the two oldest male winners in acting by just a day.
Also, Glenn Close would become the third oldest winner in Supporting Actress ever.
And Helena Zengel would become the third youngest winner ever in acting (and I assume overall not counting the Special Juvenile Awards).
When in doubt, pick the elder actress. It works for Page, Bening, Riva, Rampling, Huppert, Close...
I still can't get over Ellen Burstyn losing to Julia Roberts. Roberts delivered a career defining performance for sure, but so did Burstyn. Her performance in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM is my favourite performance ever given by anyone I have ever seen. She managed to do so much more in that performance than Julia Roberts did in ERIN BROCKOVICH. That monologue about being old and lonely, and how wearing her red dress on her favourite TV show would change all of that, is absolutely heartbreaking. Reduces me to tears everytime I watch it.
I’m really hoping Tilda Cobham-Hervey can get some traction for I Am Woman.
Finding out that Anne Bancroft was only 35/36 in The Graduate (which I haven't seen, but I know of the "cougar" angle) is maddening.
I'm happy that as of recently, the average age has been higher. It's been skewed by a lot of the same actresses, but overall I hope it means middle aged actresses aren't getting thrown out with the garbage to the degree that they were in the past.
You forgot ages for 2000.
If Ronan had won for Lady Bird that young people would have turned against her like many did with Lawrence.
And now Aretha delayed until 8/2021!!!