Reaching 99 years old is a rare feat for anyone, requiring a healthy lifestyle and a good dose of luck. But there are a number of Hollywood icons who have achieved just that, living to the age of 99 and beyond.
These entertainers, many of whom started their careers during the Golden Age of Hollywood when cinema was still in its infancy, wowed audiences on screen and stage for decades. They have each etched their names into the annals of entertainment and Hollywood due to their sheer talent and longevity.
Betty White
GettyUnlike some Hollywood icons, Betty White is perhaps better known for her television work. Widely regarded as a pioneer of early television, she has over 130 screen credits to her name and worked up until just two years before her death in 2021. She was just a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday when she passed away.
White rose to prominence as the star and producer of the sitcom “Life with Elizabeth” and went on to appear as a panelist in a wide array of game shows in her career after moving away from radio to television. But she is probably best known for her roles in the likes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Golden Girls.” Later, she had recurring roles in series such as “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “Boston Legal.”
She does have a number of significant film credits to her name, though. These include “The Proposal,” “Toy Story 4,” “Lake Placid,” and “The Story of Us.”
Dick Van Dyke
GettyA prolific actor who has worked on screen and stage, Dick Van Dyke recently reached his 100th birthday. Born on December 13, 1925, Dyke continues to perform and remain active. He made his Broadway debut in the 1950s, starring in a production of “The Girls Against the Boys” and subsequently moved away from radio and nightclub work to become a household name thanks to his sitcom “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
He went on to have roles in “Diagnosis: Murder” and more recently in “Murder 101” on television, alongside being cast in movies such as “Mary Poppins” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” In recent years, he has appeared in “The Masked Singer,” “Days of Our Lives,” and “Mary Poppins Returns.”
Recognized as a Disney Legend, inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, and the recipient of a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, Dyke is only an Oscar win away from the elusive EGOT, having won six Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and a Tony Award.
Lee Grant
GettyWith a career that spans eight decades, Lee Grant is one of the longest serving actors within the film.and television industries. Born on October 31, 1925, Grant is a survivor of the Hollywood blacklist era and has over 100 screen credits to her name. She got her big break when she portrayed the Shoplifter in the 1949 production of “Detective Story,” a role she reprised for the 1951 film adaptation.
That earned her the first of her four Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress, with Grant eventually winning for her performance in “Shampoo” in 1976. Grant won another Oscar in the 1980s for the documentary “Down and Out in America,” which she directed in the same year as “Nobody’s Child.”
Her television roles included parts in “Peyton Place,” and she was also part of the casts of “The Landlord” and “Voyage of the Damned.”
Kirk Douglas
GettyThe Douglas name is now inextricably linked to Hollywood thanks to Kirk Douglas. The father of actor Michael as well as producers and comedians Joel, Peter, and Eric, he started a showbusiness dynasty that has stretched more than 80 years.
Following his debut in “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers” in 1946, Douglas went on to appear in “Champion,” “Detective Story,” “The Bad and the Beautiful,” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” He also founded the production company Bryna Productions and collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on the likes of “Spartacus.” He also starred in a Broadway production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and later purchased the rights to the story, which his son Michael later adapted into the hit film.
He passed away on February 5, 2020 at the age of 103, leaving behind a legacy that sees Douglas regarded as one of the icons of the Golden Age of cinema.
Mel Brooks
GettyMel Brooks is one of the Hollywood legends who have reached the age of 99 who is still alive today. Born on June 28, 1926 in New York, Brooks had done everything from acting and directing to working as a playwright and a songwriter. Starting his career in showbusiness in the early 1950s, Brooks worked as a writer for shows such as “Your Show of Shows” before transitioning to sketch comedy and eventually co-creating the comedy series “Get Smart.”
However, Brooks is most closely associated with his successful comedy films that he often both wrote and directed. These include “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Spaceballs,” “Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” and “History of the World, Part I.”
He is one of the few entertainers who have achieved a career EGOT. He won an Academy Award for his work on “The Producers,” three Tony Awards for his Broadway adaptation of “The Producers,” four Emmy Awards – including three for his guest roles in “Mad About You” – and three Grammy Awards that were won mainly for his album “The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000.”
Eva Marie Saint
GettyNow retired at the age of 101, Eva Marie Saint was born on July 4, 1924. She has the distinction of being the current oldest-living winner of an Academy Award, which she won in 1955 for her supporting role in the film “On the Waterfront.” Part of the Golden Age of Hollywood, she made her debut in the aforementioned film opposite Marlon Brando and went on to star in dozens of classic movies.
These include the likes of “Raintree County,” “North by Northwest,” “The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming,” and “A Hatful of Rain.” In recent years, she had guest roles in a number of television series and continued to act on film up until 2019. She was nominated three times for an Emmy Award, winning in 1990 in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special category for the show “People Like Us.”
Olivia de Havilland
GettyOlivia de Havilland was a British-American actress born in Japan on July 1, 1916. At the time of her death in 2020, she was 104 years old. Alongside her sister Joan Fontaine, Havilland became one of the leading actresses during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Her early career is marked with a close collaboration with actor Errol Flynn, who she appeared alongside in a number of films such as “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”
She then went on to star in “Gone with the Wind” and was nominated for an Academy Award before making a career shift, appearing on “Hold Back the Dawn” and “The Snake Pit.” She eventually went on to win Academy Awards for Best Actress for her performances in both “To Each His Own” and “The Heiress.”
