by Nathaniel R
Maggie Smith (Gosford Park), Ethel Barrymore (Spiral Staircase) and Rosemary Harris (Tom & Viv)... all just a bit TOO YOUNG for this list!
We recently published an "Oldest Best Actor Nominees of all time" list since TWO men this year (Gary Oldman and Sir Anthony Hopkins) landed in the mix. (Related lists "Youngest Best Actor" and "Youngest Best Actress"). Given that unusual two-for-one accomplishment we figured we needed to update the correlative Oldest Best Supporting Actress list where the exact same thing has happened. We first published this list only three months ago but then the focus was on the possibility that Ellen Burstyn would make history as the oldest nominee ever in that category. But Pieces of a Woman proved polarizing when it "opened" and was ignored outside of Vanessa Kirby's Best Actress bid.
So an update to the list. Which elder women have been looked at fondly by Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category? Supporting (for both men and women) skews older than Lead since Hollywood prefers midtwenties to mid fortysomethings for protagonists. Herewith the women who broke through the wall of ingenues, girlfriends, wives, and mothers, to score Oscar nominations in Best Supporting Actress category later in life...
25 OLDEST NOMINEES IN BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
stars indicate an Oscar-winning role
Just outside this "oldest" list: Jacki Weaver in Silver Linings Playbook, Ethel Barrymore in None but the Lonely Heart ★ , and Meryl Streep in Into the Woods were all 65 when they were nominated for those films, Judi Dench and Sally Field, were both nominated at 66 for Chocolat and Lincoln respectively. Maggie Smith in Gosford Park, Lilia Skala in Lilies of the Field , Rosemary Harris in Tom & Viv and Ethel Barrymore (again) in The Spiral Staircase were all 67 years of age. But our list begins at 68 years of age.
25 ETHEL BARRYMORE at 68 for The Paradine Case (1947)
All four of Ethel Barrymore's nominations arrived in the span of just six years (she was their everything in this category in the 1940s). This was the third of them and it's also notable as one of the shortest Oscar performances to ever be nominated in any category; she's onscreen for about four minutes. [Discussed on the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
24 FAY BAINTER at 68 in The Children's Hour (1961)
This amazing actress had previously won the Oscar for Jezebel (1938). Twenty-three years later she returned for her final nomination for a film which brought her out of big screen retirement (though she'd continued working on the stage and in television during the 1950s). It was her final role and she died in 1968 at the age of 74.
23 RUTH GORDON at 69 for Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
Her first three Oscar nominations were in the Screenplay categories but after she began focusing on acting (which she'd only done very sporadically before this role) in her later years the Academy got even more excited about her. [Discussed on the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
22 HELEN HAYES at 70 for Airport (1970) ★
Hayes is the only EGOT winner on this list but that's not her only awards-claim to fame. She still holds the record for the performer with the longest stretch inbetween Oscar wins. She won for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) and then again for Airport (1970) thirty-nine years later. The longest stretch between nominations record is held by Henry Fonda who was honored for The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and did not return until On Golden Pond (1981). [Discussed on the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
21 ETHEL BARRYMORE at 70 for Pinky (1949)
It's funny that 50% of Barrymore's nominations came for performances where she barely ever leaves her bed and the dramatics happen around her or are contingent upon her death (see also The Spiral Staircase). This was the last of her four nearly consecutive nominations. She made nine more films after Pinky and passed away in 1959 at the age of 79.
20 KATHY BATES at 71 for Richard Jewell (2019)
After a long Oscar absence post-About Schmidt, Bates finally returned playing the sad mom of a man accused of a deadly bombing. Next up for Kathy is the ex-con drama Home (directed by the German actress Franka Potente) and after that she's supposedly making a comedy with both Dame Maggie Smith and The Lovely Laura Linney. PLEASE LET THAT PROJECT HAPPEN!
19 (DAME) MARGARET RUTHERFORD at 71 for The VIPS (1963) ★
This is a strange Oscar win but 1963 is one of the strangest lineups ever in the Supporting Actress category given that it's the only time three women from the same film competed. Though you'll see plentiful "Dames" on this list, Margaret Rutherford did not receive the Dame title until after her Oscar-winning role and the other women listed were already Dames when these nominations arrived. [Discussed at the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
18 RUTH GORDON at 72 for Rosemary's Baby (1968) ★
It's one of the greatest supporting performances of all time so thankfully Oscar didn't let their anti-horror bias get in the way. [Discussed on the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
17 LAUREN BACALL at 72 for The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
A surprise Oscar night loss for this movie legend with her only nomination. But Oscar would make it up to her with an Honorary Oscar, fourteen years later. She died in 2014 at the age of 89.
16 DAME MAY WHITTY at 72 for Night Must Fall (1937)
More on her later in this same list.
15 YOUN YUH-JUNG at 73 for Minari (2020)
We couldn't have imagined that she would become the frontrunner for the win this season when we first saw the beautiful Minari. Aside from her brilliant and endearing performance as the grandmother who "smells like Korea" everything was working against her even snagging the nomination. Oscar historically does not embrace non-English language performances in supporting categories (they're kinder to those in lead) and Oscar has been epically stingy with Asian actors even passing them over when they're in buzzy Best Picture winners (Slumdog Millionaire, The Last Emperor, Parasite received 0 acting nominations between them). But here we are and after her SAG and BAFTA wins she could well become the second Asian and the second oldest woman to ever win this category! We'll find out later this month. DISCUSSING TOMORROW NIGHT AT THE SMACKDOWN
14 GLENN CLOSE at 73 for Hillbilly Elegy (2020)
She turned 74 shortly after receiving her eighth nomination. Only five women in history have ever received 8 or more Oscar nods. Should she lose on Oscar night again she'll tie Peter O'Toole's record of most nominations without ever winning. She's currently in second place at 7-0 having beaten Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter's 6-0 record when she lost for The Wife (2018). DISCUSSING TOMORROW NIGHT AT THE SMACKDOWN.
13 PEGGY WOOD at 74 for The Sound of Music (1965)
She turned 74 just before the nominations arrived. [Discussed on the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
12 JOSEPHINE HULL at 74 for Harvey (1950) ★
She held the record of "oldest Supporting Actress winner" for over three decades. She won this statue for reprising her popular stage role. A handful of years earlier she'd done the stage to film transfer with another big comedy hit, Arsenic and Old Lace.
11 DAME EDITH EVANS at 76 for Tom Jones (1963)
The first of her two appearances on this list. [Discussed at the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
10 GLADYS COOPER at 76 for My Fair Lady (1964)
Her screen career stretched from silent films in 1917 through her death in 1971. This was her last major role and a "comeback" with Oscar since she hadn't been nominated in 21 years (The Song of Bernadette, 1943). She only made two more films after My Fair Lady but was working in television up until her death. [Discussed on the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
09 DAME EDITH EVANS at 77 for The Chalk Garden (1964)
Dame Evans was like a Maggie Smith of her day (albeit less famous), popular whenever playing haughty elderly snobs. After two quick Oscar nominations in supporting in her seventies she was nominated for lead actress in her eighties for The Whisperers (1968), her greatest performance. She died in 1976. [Discussed on the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
08 DAME PEGGY ASHCROFT at 77 for A Passage to India (1984) ★
She's still the oldest winner of all time in this particular category. She's now held the record longer than her predecessor Josephine Hull in Harvey (1950) did. Will anyone ever take this mantle from her? Ashcroft only appeared in 12 movies in her life stretching from 1933's The Wandering Jew through Madame Sousatzka in 1988. She died in 1991. [Discussed on the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
07 DAME MAY WHITTY at 77 for Mrs Miniver (1942)
Some people find the rose competition subplot in Mrs Miniver a distraction. We call it 'bliss'. This was Whitty's second Oscar nomination and she kept working in cinema until her death in 1948.
06 ANN SOTHERN at 79 for The Whales of August (1987)
Oscar did her wrong by ignoring her rich work in Lady in a Cage but after a fine career in film which began in the silent era she received one of those "career achievement" style nominations for this, her final film, which briefly brought her out of retirement. She died in 2001 at the age of 92. [Discussed on the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
05 EVA LE GALLIENNE at 82 for Ressurection (1980)
She was the very last Oscar nominee to be born in the 19th century! She only made three films in her long life, and Resurrection was the last of them. She was a legend of the stage though, famous there by the age of 21. In fact, during the Oscar season for Ressurection, she was busy headlining a Broadway play "To Grandmother's House We Go" which brought her a Tony nomination for Best Actress (she'd previously won a Special Tony honoring her career in 1964). She died in 1991. [Discussed on the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
04 JESSICA TANDY at 82 for Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
This beloved actress followed up her Oscar win for Driving Miss Daisy (1989) with one more Oscar honor. Call it a victory lap. She was very busy in the last years of her life, making three more films and one telefilm after Tomatoes before her death in 1994. [Discussed on the Supporting Actress Smackdown]
03 JUNE SQUIBB at 84 for Nebraska (2013)
This character actress has been well employed since her Oscar-nominated breakout. Since Nebraska which was barely nine years ago, she's made over three dozen films or tv shows. She's not slowing down in her nineties either. She recently co-starred in the Apple TV+ film Palmer and next she'll be seen in two ensemble comedies: the stage-to-film adaptation The Humans (2021) and something called Shoot the Rooster with a pretty fun cast list.
02 RUBY DEE at 85 for American Gangster (2007)
Oscar didn't honor her for her most famous big screen showcase A Raisin in the Sun (1961) or her strong supporting work in Edge of the City (1957) but they grabbed the chance for a 'career achievement' style nomination for her very brief but stinging role in this crime drama opposite Denzel Washington. She amassed an impressive 100+ credits in film and television. (About 10 of those came after this honor and her death in 2014.)
01 GLORIA STUART at 87 for Titanic (1997)
What an epic send-off for this list ... though it wasn't quite for Gloria who was able to make three more pictures after Titanic before her death in 2010 at the age of... 100! The centerian's big screen career stretched from the early talkies with six films in 1932 alone, her debut year (by far the most famous being James Whale's The Old Dark House) through 2004's Land of Plenty though there was a huge gap in the middle. She didn't make any films or TV shows from 1947 through 1975! So she disappeared from screens from the age of 37 through the age of 65... which is, if you think about it, a kind of darkly comic visualization of Hollywood's problem with women. They love both the ingenues and the grandmothers but in between they tend to be all over the place and confused about their affections! P.S. We'll be discussing 1997 this year in the final season of the Supporting Actress Smackdown.
What do you make of this list dear readers?