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While Hollywood tends to keep the spotlight on youth, it also makes space for older stars to shine, including (from left) Alan Arkin, Catherine O'Hara, Morgan Freeman and Sigourney Weaver.
Sam Island (Getty Images, 4)
Hollywood has always been obsessed with youth. But as we get older, we learn that experience reveals real character on the silver screen. Which is why AARP advocates for both talents and viewers over 50 through our Movies for Grownups program (including the annual Movies for Grownups Awards, annually one of the highest-rated presentations on PBS’s Great Performances).
We recently shined a spotlight on stars who gave indelible performances in their 50s and their 60s. Now we’re traveling a bit further down the road to appreciate some of the best on-screen turns from actors in their 70s.
There were many terrific candidates to choose from. They include thousand-watt Tinseltown icons from yesteryear, stunning comebacks, underappreciated masterpieces, films that took an actor to a new level of excellence, and movies that have something to say about what it means to get older. Here is AARP’s rundown of 25 great performances from stars in their 70s and beyond.
1. Judi Dench in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)
John Madden’s charming travelogue features a Murderers’ Row of seasoned talent: the late Maggie Smith and Tom Wilkinson, as well as Bill Nighy, 75, and Penelope Wilton, 79. But the straw that stirs the drink is then-77-year-old Judi Dench, who steals every scene she’s in (no small feat in this company). Dench, who got a Movies for Grownups Award nomination for the part (and won best supporting actress for 2018’s All Is True), plays a British widow who heads to India to live out her retirement years as an expat. But her new digs are hardly the luxurious Taj Mahal that was advertised. While this is a breezy, light ensemble film, Dench gives it real emotional heft, showing us how life’s final chapter can be a new beginning if you approach it the right way.
2. Robert De Niro in Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Robert De Niro was 31 when he won his first Academy Award (for 1974’s The Godfather Part II). Nearly 50 years later, he showed he’s still capable of delivering high-caliber performances (he was Oscar-nominated for best supporting actor for Killers of the Flower Moon and also won a Movies for Grownups award, on his fifth nomination; earlier, he earned AARP’s 2010 career achievement award). In this stunning collaboration with his longtime cinematic patron saint Martin Scorsese, 82, De Niro (then 80) gives a master class in restrained evil, turning what could have been a showy cartoon villain into something far more chilling, insinuating and interesting. As the Oklahoma land baron who manipulates those around him like a puppet master, De Niro turns a real-life tale of race, greed and cold-blooded murder into something out of a Greek tragedy.
3. Joe Pesci in The Irishman (2019)
Speaking of Scorsese, the director called on another trusted onscreen partner (see Raging Bull, Goodfellas) for this lion-in-winter crime saga — which won Movies for Grownups awards for best picture and director — about the inevitable power struggle between the Mafia and Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Joe Pesci doesn’t appear in many movies these days, but when he does, he brings something special to the screen. As the ruthless mobster Russell Bufalino, Pesci showed moviegoers that he was still at the peak of his powers at 76, aging several decades over the course of the film without losing an ounce of his spark — or his brutal power. One day we’ll look back at The Irishman and see it for what it is: perhaps the greatest performance of Pesci’s career.
4. Paul Newman in Road to Perdition (2002)
At 77, Paul Newman delivered one of his friskiest and most hypnotic turns in Sam Mendes’ Prohibition-era noir about the Irish Mob. Sure, Tom Hanks, 69, is the top-billed lead here, but Newman commits a sly bit of larceny whenever he’s on screen as John Rooney, the criminal kingpin who considers Hanks’ lieutenant as more of a son than he does his own flesh and blood (a fantastic, pre-007 Daniel Craig, 57). Newman radiates backslapping charisma and backstabbing menace in equal doses in what can only be seen as a miraculous performance. If you’ve never seen Road to Perdition, do yourself a favor. This is Newman’s last truly great role.
At 73, Sigourney Weaver used her voice skills to bring an alien teenager to vivid life in the sci-fi smash hit "Avatar: The Way of Water."
Sam Island (Getty Images)
5. Sigourney Weaver in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Two decades after they first partnered for 1986’s Aliens, director James Cameron, 71, and Sigourney Weaver recaptured movie magic in the 2009 sci-fi juggernaut Avatar. In this 2022 eye-candy sequel, Weaver (then 73) returns to the blue-hued paradise of Pandora. This time she’s not playing Dr. Grace Augustine, who didn’t make it out of the original chapter alive. Instead, she lends her voice to Kiri, the Na’vi teenager adopted by Sam Worthington’s Jake and Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri. It’s an interesting choice; surprisingly, it works, thanks to Weaver’s emotional realism and Cameron’s boundless creativity. It’s also further proof that there’s nothing Weaver can’t do. She earned Movies for Grownups nominations for 2002’s The Guys and 2016’s A Monster Calls.
6. John Gielgud in Arthur (1981)
It’s easy to run out of superlatives when discussing John Gielgud’s on-screen talent, even in a mainstream Hollywood confection like Arthur. The legendary stage actor was 77 when this unlikely Dudley Moore blockbuster hit theaters. But while this high-concept comedy about a rich alcoholic man-child is loaded with sitcom punchlines, it also leaves room for moments of bittersweet poignancy. Gielgud gets plenty of laughs as the faithful butler Hobson thanks to his bone-dry British delivery, but the scenes where he drops the icy veneer and talks to Moore’s Arthur like a son transform the film into something deeper.
7. Walter Matthau in Grumpy Old Men (1993)
If you look up the word “rascal” in the dictionary, chances are you’ll find a picture of Matthau’s hangdog mug. At 73, the comic curmudgeon reunited with his Odd Couple costar Jack Lemmon for this unofficial opposites-attract sequel. Listening to Matthau grouse and complain about anything is one of life’s great joys. And the grumpy old rascal more than delivers his share as Max Goldman, a prickly crank who turns snippy senior-citizen sarcasm into an art form.
8. Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond (1981)
When we say Hollywood doesn’t make ’em like they used to, this is exactly the kind of picture we’re talking about: a mature, emotionally layered tearjerker that emphasizes subtle acting over special effects. Then 76, Henry Fonda soars as a crotchety old coot spending his final summer with his devoted wife (Katharine Hepburn) while looking after the teenage son of their estranged daughter’s new boyfriend. The fact that the estranged daughter is played by none other than Fonda’s real-life daughter, Jane (she’s now 87), adds an extra level of poignancy. Throughout his legendary career, Henry Fonda always conveyed can-do decency. Here, he’s a tougher nut to crack, masking his vulnerability with stubborn pride.
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