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This month’s most-anticipated new film is the Super Bowl comedy 80 for Brady, starring a quartet of actresses who seem to just keep getting better: Jane Fonda (85), Lily Tomlin (83), Rita Moreno (91) and Sally Field (76). Fonda and Tomlin recently ended their celebrated Netflix sitcom Grace and Frankie, Moreno is set to join the Fast & Furious franchise this year in Fast X alongside Helen Mirren, and Field — who still has a few more years before she joins the octogenarian club! — recently starred in the tearjerker Spoiler Alert. But they’re far from the only performers who are keeping busy after 80. Here, eight more performers who are proving that 80 is the new 50.
Dionne Warwick performs at City National Grove of Anaheim on Dec. 15, 2022 in Anaheim, California.
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Dionne Warwick, 82
The six-time Grammy winner has been following in the footsteps of the late Betty White by becoming newly popular with a much younger generation of fans: Thanks to her hilariously blunt observations on social media, she’s been dubbed the Queen of Twitter, and she even rode the wave to a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live. A 2019 recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, she was the subject of the recent CNN Films documentary Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over, and in the fall, she showed off her legendary activist side by releasing the new single “Free.” International artists will cover the song in their own languages, which will be collected on a compilation album, with proceeds going to displaced refugee groups around the globe.
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Paul McCartney in concert during his "Got Back" tour on June 16, 2022, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
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Paul McCartney, 80
Yep, we needed him when he was 64, and we’re even more grateful to have him around at 80. Following the success of the 2021 Hulu docuseries McCartney 3,2,1 and Peter Jackson’s Emmy-winning The Beatles: Get Back, Macca has seemingly been everywhere recently; last year, he embarked on a cheekily named tour called “Got Back” and he appears in the Disney+ documentary about Abbey Road Studios, If These Walls Could Sing — the first feature doc directed by his daughter Mary McCartney. This summer, McCartney is set to release a new photo book called 1964: Eyes of the Storm, a collection of images he snapped on his 35mm camera just as Beatlemania was beginning to take off, and it will accompany an exhibit at London’s National Portrait Gallery when it reopens after renovations.
Willie Nelson playing at Farm Aid at Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek on Sept. 24, 2022 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Gary Miller/Getty Images
Willie Nelson, 89
It really wouldn’t be accurate for the Red Headed Stranger to say that he “can’t wait to get on the road again,” because the truth of the matter is that he never left: September marked the 60th anniversary of his debut studio album, and Nelson’s been touring regularly ever since. In 2021, he teamed up with his sister, Bobbie, and four of his children for The Willie Nelson Family album, followed in 2022 by A Beautiful Time — his 72nd solo studio album! — which earned a Grammy nod for best country album. The Texas outlaw legend is also the subject of a new docuseries, Willie Nelson & Family, which had its world premiere at January’s Sundance Film Festival, and that won’t be the only celebration of his legacy this year: For his 90th birthday in April, Nelson will be honored with a two-night tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl, featuring performances by the likes of Neil Young, Tom Jones, Sheryl Crow and Rosanne Cash.
