UPDATED 5/3/2022
It is quite the celebration to be able to turn 100 years old. Not many pass this milestone, but there are some famous celebrities who have successfully done so. You may remember them from old black and white movies or even more recent movies and television shows.
Here are some of the most famous celebrities who have lived to be 100 years old.
1. Olivia de Havilland
Olivia lived to be 104, having passed away on July 26, 2020. She is a Golden Age Hollywood star and was in Gone With the Wind in 1939 — and was also the last living star of the film. Olivia was active until the end and feisty, having in recent years sued FX Networks for an unflattering depiction of her in a miniseries called Fued: Bette and Joan. In 2009 she was a narrator for a documentary called I Remember Better When I Paint, a film about treating Alzheimer’s disease with art.
2. Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas was 103 years old when he passed away. He was a great leading man in the 1940s and 1950s and, of course, has a famous son, Michael Douglas. Kirk was married to Anne Douglas for 62 years. What another amazing accomplishment! He has also written 11 books. He had suffered a severe stroke at the age of 79 in 1996, and the cause of his death on February 5, 2020 was never released. His classic films include The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Spartacus (1960), Seven Days in May (1964), The Man from Snowy River (1980) and Tough Guys (1986).
3. Ellen Albertini Dow
Ellen has now passed, but she was 101 years old at her time of death. You might remember her for many popular shows and movies and her role as a feisty older lady. She is best known for being a rapping grandma in The Wedding Singer (1998), but you can also see her as a guest star on Golden Girls, Seinfeld, Scrubs, Star Trek: The Next Generation and many more. We really miss her charm!
4. Bob Hope
Bob Hope was a popular fixture in our culture spanning from the 1920s to about 2000. He worked in vaudeville, movies and television from his teens to his mid-90s. He died on July 27, 2003 when he was 100 years old. He was also a popular award show host, hosting 19 Academy Award ceremonies; and spent decades traveling overseas to entertained our troops in different wars Do you remember watching him?
5. Queen Elizabeth
England’s “Queen Mum” or “the Queen Mother” — not to be confused with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II — lived to be 101 years old. British citizens loved her, especially during World War II. Her full name was Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon and she ruled England from December 11, 1936 until her death on February 6, 1952.
6. Estelle Winwood
Do you remember Estelle Winwood on Betwitched as Aunt Enchantra? She was famous for this role but was also a stage actress. She died at 101 years old and was the oldest Screen Actors Guild member in the history of that organization.
7. George Burns
“Say goodnight, Gracie!” — that was the prompting George Burns would give wife Gracie Allen on their radio turned television show, Burns and Allen. George was another one of those performers whose career moved from vaudeville to radio, film and television. Later in life he found a whole new audience with movies like The Sunshine Boys (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) and the Oh, God! trilogy. He died on March 9, 1996 at the age of 100.
8. Gloria Stuart
Although she’s probably best known for her role as the elderly Rose in James Cameron’s Titanic, her film career spanned from 1932’s Street of Women to 2004’s Land of Plenty, in between appearing in dozens of productions. Her role as Rose earned her nominations for Academy and Golden Globe Awards, and she won the Screen Actors Guild Award. She died on September 26, 2010 at age 100.
9. Norman Lloyd
Best known as Dr. Daniel Auschlander on the ’80s ensemble drama St. Elsewhere, Norman’s career began on the stage starting in 1932, where he enjoyed extensive credits as actor and frequently director between the 1930s and 1950s; in the 1940s he was a performer on the radio series Cavalcade of America. He made his movie debut in Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur (1942) and appeared in three dozen movies between that and Trainwreck (2015). On television, he made many guest appearances, with recurring roles on Wiseguy, Home Fires and The Practice. He was a series regular on Seven Days between 1998 and 2001. He died on May 11, 2021 at age 106.
10. Louise Currie
Louise Currie’s career spanned from the 1940s to the 1950s, during which she appeared in quite a number of movie serials, including The Green Hornet Strikes Again (1940) and Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941). She had an uncredited role in the classic film Citizen Kane (1941) and her final part was in Queen for a Day (1951). She died on September 8, 2013 at the age of 100.
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