25 Great Movies Starring Actors Over 50

9. Bruce Willis in ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ (2007)

I’m not sure anyone would argue that this fourth Die Hard chapter tops the 1988 original, but it does show just how perfectly the role of John McClane — a guy who always seems to be in the wrong place at the right time — fit Bruce Willis. At 52 in this sequel, the actor makes viewers feel just how much all of those action-flick knocks would hurt a guy his age. He also uses his old-school cop instincts to outsmart new-school cyberterrorists. The marvel of the Die Hard franchise is that Willis’ performance gained depth and maturity — not to mention many, many bumps and bruises — as it went on.

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10. Denzel Washington in ‘The Equalizer’ (2014)

Everyone knows that Denzel Washington is one of our greatest living actors. But few appreciate how satisfying his often-dismissed Equalizer movies are. The 59-year-old Washington plays Robert McCall, a coiled, coldly efficient killer with a military background and a strong moral code who reluctantly returns to action to protect a young human-trafficking victim from the Russian mob. With anyone else in the lead, The Equalizer might have felt like a disposable revenge movie. But Washington imbues his haunted hero with a doomed sense of grace that turns it into a popcorn-movie blast.

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11. Keanu Reeves in ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ (2023)

That’s right, one of Hollywood’s best action franchises is anchored by a man now in his 60s. Granted, Keanu Reeves was a spry 58 when the giddy and brutal John Wick: Chapter 4 hit multiplexes, but let’s face it, the man is ageless. In this most recent installment, the stoic hit man still has a price on his head, but now he must seek out the help of a global underworld network of fellow contract killers to take on the shadowy and all-powerful High Table. Needless to say, the action scenes are exquisitely crunchy, but it’s Reeves’ wounded vulnerability that makes these movies soar. 

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12. Al Pacino in ‘Donnie Brasco’ (1997)

Not enough people talk about how great Donnie Brasco is anymore. That’s a shame. Not only is it a thrilling, vise-tight true-crime tale about an undercover cop (Johnny Depp, 61 now, then 33) giving up his family life to infiltrate the Mafia, it’s also a profoundly moving story about an aging mobster who puts his trust in the wrong person. We’re supposed to be rooting for Depp, of course. But as the pathetic, low-level Mafia soldier with delusions of grandeur, Al Pacino (then 57) gives the film an almost Shakespearean level of tragedy. His betrayal not only stings, it leaves a welt. 

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13. Cary Grant in ‘North by Northwest’ (1959)

One of Alfred Hitchcock’s most enjoyable and flat-out entertaining wrong-man thrillers, North by Northwest is a showcase for Cary Grant’s dry-martini charm and silky-smooth charisma. Grant was 55 when this classic arrived in theaters, but his cool is timeless, and only a grownup master could have achieved this tricky blend of drama and farce. As a suave, sharply dressed Madison Avenue ad exec, Grant mixes comedy with pure befuddlement as he’s mistaken for an American spy and pursued across the country, from the UN to Mount Rushmore. Naturally, he never has a hair out of place for even one minute of Hitchcock’s nail-biting cat-and-mouse chase. The now iconic crop duster scene is even better than its reputation. 

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14. Harrison Ford in ‘The Fugitive’ (1993)

Ford’s best movie from the ’90s featured his greatest performance in his 50s (he was 51). This fantastic update of the classic TV show puts Ford’s Dr. Richard Kimble on the run after he’s wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. Of course, we all know it was a one-armed man who did the deed! The white-knuckle cat-and-mouse game between Ford and an Oscar-winning Tommy Lee Jones (then 46) as the federal marshal in pursuit is still the model for how to make a smart summer blockbuster. And Ford’s performance is a marvel, hitting all the right emotional notes and action movie heroics.

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15. Sandra Bullock in ‘Ocean’s 8’ (2018)

It would have almost been better if this all-female spin on the Ocean’s movies came with a different title. After all, it’s a completely different animal from its ring-a-ding boys’ club predecessors. Sandra Bullock, then 53, is the mastermind behind an intricate heist that will net $150 million in diamonds worn by a movie star at the Met Gala. This is a dizzy, fizzy Rube Goldberg caper teeming with stars (Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, etc.), but it’s the cool, loosey-goosey Bullock who steals the movie like a master thief.  

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16. Liam Neeson in ‘Taken’ (2008)  

It’s never too late for second acts. Exhibit A: Liam Neeson, who at 55 kicked off a whole new chapter of his already stellar movie career, becoming an unexpected action star in this vigilante box office smash — a path he’s still on nearly two decades later. Taken works like gangbusters because the action sequences are thrillingly brutal, and because Neeson is 100 percent believable as a desperate father with “a particular set of skills” who’ll do anything to get his kidnapped daughter back from a sadistic gang of Eastern European goons. Those poor saps have no clue who they’re messing with until it’s way too late.  

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17. Katharine Hepburn in ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ (1962)

One of the all-time great American plays, Eugene O’Neill’s devastating, semi-autobiographical look at a family’s slow unraveling is an emotional workout. This 1962 film version — directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Dean Stockwell and a dazzling 55-year-old Katharine Hepburn as the morphine-addicted mother Mary Tyrone — more than does justice to the playwright. Hepburn’s performance is a wonder. Not only does she turn O’Neill’s words into poetry, she accents her performance with small physical details (just watch her shaking, fidgeting hands) that make you feel like you’re watching real life being lived in front of your eyes.  

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18. Fernanda Torres in ‘I'm Still Here’ (2024)

Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres was hardly a household name in this country when she was nominated for an Oscar last year for this heartrending political thriller. Hopefully that’s changed by now, because as the anguished wife of a man who disappears during Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1960s and ’70s, she’s a quiet force of nature — the eye of a tragic hurricane. Torres, who was 58 when this terrific import was made, is one of those rare actresses you can’t take your eyes off when she’s on-screen. Her character grabs you by the collar and refuses to let go until she gets answers. 

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19. Pamela Anderson in ‘The Last Showgirl’ (2024)

The emergence of Pamela Anderson as a serious dramatic actress was one of my favorite Hollywood storylines of last year. At 57, she was finally given the opportunity to break out of her pigeonhole as a former Baywatch sex bomb. Talk about overdue! And here’s the best part: She’s every bit as great as you’ve heard in this unvarnished, behind-the-scenes look at the life of an aging Vegas performer and a fading way of life. Without vanity or self-consciousness, Anderson shows us that we’ve all been underestimating her (and older people) for far too long. 

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20. Viola Davis in ‘The Woman King’ (2022) 

Have you seen this one? If not, you need to get on it, stat! Viola Davis (57 at the time, but looking two decades younger) summons a ferocious performance as Nanisca, a righteous 19th-century African general who leads an all-female army of Agojie warriors against the European slave trade to preserve their way of life. Davis juggles battlefield physicality with strategic political savvy and a fiery intensity that made her performance one of the best of the year. The Woman King is further proof (if any was needed) that there’s nothing this actress can’t do. 

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21. Adam Sandler in ‘Hustle’ (2022)

Adam Sandler has been keeping a secret for years: Deep down, beneath the silly man-child goofballs he plays in his more mainstream movie comedies, there’s an excellent actor itching to get out. Occasionally, though, we catch glimpses of that guy in films like Punch-Drunk Love, Uncut Gems, and this surprisingly powerful basketball drama, made when he was 55. Sandler plays a down-on-his-luck NBA scout who finds a renewed sense of hope and purpose when he discovers a new phenom overseas and fights with everything he has left to get the kid a shot in the pros. Note to Sandler: More roles like this, please. 

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22. Cate Blanchett in ‘Tár’ (2022)

One of the best-reviewed films of 2022, Tár is a showcase for the volcanic talent of Cate Blanchett. Too bad not enough people saw it in theaters. But hey, it’s never too late! At 53, Blanchett is mesmerizing as a world-famous but emotionally severe classical music conductor days away from recording an important concert. But offstage, her life is falling apart due to her carelessness with other people’s emotions. Blanchett doesn’t try to make her character likable — she’s too truthful an actress for that. Instead, she revels in the mercurial maestro’s flawed complexity and internal contradictions, leaving us shaken and stirred. 

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23. Eddie Murphy in ‘Dolemite Is My Name’ (2019)

Eddie Murphy fans are used to long hiatuses between his movies. But the wait was more than worth it for this unlikely biopic of Rudy Ray Moore, the outrageous star and creative mastermind of the seminal ’70s Blaxploitation movie Dolemite. Murphy was 58 when he starred in this comeback vehicle that’s both hilariously raunchy and unexpectedly inspiring. After all, this is a movie about following your dreams when everyone else tells you it’s impossible. Is the actual 1975 Dolemite a good movie? Not really. But that hardly matters, because Murphy’s whirlwind, foulmouthed turn is such a joy to watch. 

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24. George Clooney in ‘The Descendants’ (2011)

George Clooney always makes everything look so easy. As a result, sometimes he doesn’t get the credit as an actor that he deserves. Take his disarming, understated performance in this bittersweet dramatic comedy about a laid-back Hawaiian landowner who has to gather his kids together and figure out the family’s future after his wife gets into a boating accident and falls into a coma. Shailene Woodley is terrific as his rebellious teenage daughter, but it’s the simmering, slow-burn turn from 50-year-old Clooney that makes you lean in and really pay attention. 

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25. Stanley Tucci in ‘The Hunger Games’ (2012)

Anyone who’s seen Big Night or The Devil Wears Prada or Julie & Julia knows that Stanley Tucci can magically transform a role of any size into a sumptuous four-course meal. And in the massively popular YA franchise The Hunger Games, he pulls off yet another magic trick. As the colorful bloodsport emcee Caesar Flickerman, the then-51-year-old actor fully commits to the over-the-top eccentricities of his peacock character. Behind the false teeth, bright blue hair and outlandish makeup, Tucci never loses sight of what makes his dystopian game-show host tick. He shows you the humanity beneath the cartoon facade. 

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