You know their names and you've probably seen their movies, but it's easy to forget that
some of the iconic pioneers of Old Hollywood are still alive today.
And some of them really have seen it all.
Here are some of the oldest living actors in Hollywood today.
Best remembered as the ultimate, cool Hitchcockian blonde, Tippi Hedren starred in some of the
iconic director's most famous movies, including The Birds and Marnie.
Born in 1930, Hedren got her start as a model in California.
Initially, Hedren did commercial work, and it was through one of her commercials that
she was discovered by Alfred Hitchcock, who offered her a seven-year contract and the
starring role in The Birds.
Working with a legendary director like Alfred Hitchcock should have propelled Hedren to
stardom, but things sadly didn't turn out that way.
This was largely down to the fact that Hitchcock was very much a bully, preying on Hedren and
frequently sexually harassing her.
When she refused his advances, Hitchcock threatened her career, and Hedren called his bluff.
"He told me he'd ruin my career.
I said, 'Do what you have to do, I don't care.
I'm out.'"
Feeling that any further dealings with Hitchcock weren't worth the stardom, Hedren told Hitchcock
to do what he wanted, and the director kept his promise by keeping the star under contract
but refusing to cast her in any movies, essentially blacklisting her career.
Hedren wouldn't be cast in another major film until 1967, three years after Marnie was released.
While none of Hedren's future roles carried quite the same prominence as her work with
Hitchcock, she managed to find some success on television, and became a passionate defender
of animal rights.
Both her daughter, Melanie Griffith, and her granddaughter, Dakota Johnson, are now well-known
film actresses.
A Shakespearean-trained actor, Christopher Plummer is best known for his role as Captain
von Trapp in The Sound of Music.
Born in Toronto in 1929, Plummer began his theatrical career in Canadian repertory theater
groups and found his big break in New York City.
His critical acclaim led to him joining the American Shakespeare Festival Company in Stratford,
Connecticut, and Plummer continued to perform onstage all around the world.
Plummer's breakout movie role came in the form of the 1956 film Stage Struck, and he
was later cast in The Fall of the Roman Empire.
But Plummer will likely always be remembered best for The Sound of Music.
Although Captain von Trapp is his most famous role, Plummer has stated on record that this
was far from his favorite part to play.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor explained why he disliked The Sound
of Music so much, saying,
"Because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey.
You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some miniscule bit of humor into it."
Plummer has maintained a varied body of work even well into his later years, spanning from
film to stage to voice acting.
He won his first Academy Award at the age of 82 for the film Beginners, and has most
recently performed in movies such as All The Money in the World and Knives Out.
Sidney Poitier made his mark in Hollywood and history as the first male Black actor
to win an Academy Award.
Poitier was born in Miami in 1927, but spent his childhood in the Bahamas.
He returned to the U.S. to serve in World War II and, after his discharge, tried to
apply to the American Negro Theatre in New York City but was rejected due to his heavy
Bahamian accent.
In order to lose his accent, Poitier retrained his voice by listening to American radio shows.
He reapplied to the Theatre six months later, and this time, he was accepted.
Poitier has been credited with redefining the role of Black people in cinema, avoiding
any parts that would paint African Americans in a stereotypical light.
He's best remembered for playing collected and refined gentlemen, and people loved him
for it.
1967 was a time of significant unrest, and the Civil Rights Movement was in full force.
But this was also the year that Sidney Poitier had three of his most famous pictures released:
To Sir, with Love, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
Poitier's characters in these movies flew against the racist stereotypes many movies
had depicted up to that point, and, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the message
behind these movies was clear: Hollywood had to do better.
Comedian, writer, actor, director, and producer Mel Brooks is pretty much a living icon.
Born in Brooklyn in 1926, Brooks was already an accomplished pianist, drummer, and mimic
by the time he was in high school, having studied under the legendary musician Buddy
Rich.
After serving in World War II, Brooks worked as a comedian and entertainer at resorts in
the Catskills before landing his big break in television as the co-creator of Get Smart.
Next came his first full-length feature film, The Producers, which he wrote and directed.
Although it wasn't too well-received at the box offices at first, The Producers won Brooks
an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.
"This is fate, this is destiny, this is kismet!
There's no avoiding it!"
In later years, the movie became a well-known cult classic and would even be adapted into
a hit Broadway musical.
Brooks went on to produce a number of other legendary comedies, including Robin Hood:
Men in Tights, Spaceballs, and Young Frankenstein.
He also started his own production company, Brooksfilms, to showcase his more serious
work, such as The Elephant Man.
Brooks was also a longtime partner and friend of comedian Carl Reiner.
Up until Carl Reiner's death in 2020, Brooks and Reiner saw each other almost daily, and
the two spent most of their golden years trading jokes on entertainment and politics.
Cloris Leachman is usually remembered best for her role as Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary
Tyler Moore Show.
Born in Iowa in 1926, Leachman studied drama at Northwestern University.
After competing in a Miss America beauty pageant and winning Miss Chicago, Leachman was given
the scholarship she needed to go to New York City and study with acting coach Elia Kazan.
Under her studies and tutelage, Leachman became a hugely accomplished method actor.
Her iconic role as Phyllis Lindstrom earned Leachman her own spinoff series and a number
of Emmy Awards.
She's since gone on to work with comedians such as Mel Brooks, and always strived to
keep her comedic characters fresh and avoid being typecast in a single role.
But although she's best known as a comedic actress, Leachman has some serious film work
on her résumé as well.
In fact, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the dramatic coming-of-age
film, The Last Picture Show.
In recent years, Leachman has continued to perform voice and television roles.
Born in 1925, dancer, comedian, and actor Dick Van Dyke is still going strong today.
After serving in the military during and after World War II, Van Dyke held a variety of acting
jobs, including a number of game show host gigs.
His big break, however, came when he was cast in the Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie,
which earned him a Tony Award.
After his success on Broadway, Van Dyke was approached by Carl Reiner about starring in
a sitcom based around Reiner's own experiences as a comedy writer.
Van Dyke signed on, and The Dick Van Dyke Show was born.
In addition to his TV successes, Van Dyke went on to star in major motion pictures such
as Mary Poppins and Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang.
While critics skewered Van Dyke's Cockney English accent in Mary Poppins, he received
considerable acclaim for his acting and dancing skills, and his role as Bert is one of his
best known and most highly praised film appearances.
Van Dyke continues to act today, and has been seen in recent films such as Night at the
Museum and Mary Poppins Returns.
Born in London in 1925, Angela Lansbury was the daughter of a politician father and a
stage actress mother, but she came by her acting talents honestly.
Her father died when she was only nine, and the young Angela spent part of her preadolescence
attending acting school in Ireland.
When World War II broke out, Lansbury, her mother, and her siblings immigrated to the
United States to escape the London Blitz.
Her breakthrough Hollywood role came in the 1944 film Gaslight, for which Lansbury was
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
A year later, Lansbury starred in The Picture of Dorian Gray, for which she received another
Academy Award nomination.
However, while Lansbury enjoyed steady work after these major parts, she was often cast
in secondary roles, so she took to Broadway instead, and after a hit performance in Mame,
Lansbury found that Broadway offered her more variety, and more opportunities for starring
roles.
Over the years, Lansbury's career varied from television to stage to the big screen, and
she has amassed an impressive body of work.
In her later years, she received acclaim for her role as Jessica Fletcher in the TV series
Murder, She Wrote, a role she would play for 12 years.
In 2013, Lansbury finally received an honorary Academy Award in recognition of her cinematic
achievements.
Born in 1924, Eva Marie Saint is currently the oldest living Academy Award winner.
Saint received her degree from Bowling Green State University in 1946 and jumped straight
into a radio acting career in New York City, while simultaneously taking classes at the
Actors' Studio.
Her role in the TV, film, and Broadway production of The Trip to Bountiful attracted Hollywood's
much-desired attention, leading to Saint being cast in her debut film On the Waterfront.
It was this role that earned Saint her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
For a long time, Saint was often typecast in parts where she usually played sweet, saintly
characters with flowing, blonde hair.
But she did a turnabout when Alfred Hitchcock cast her in North by Northwest as a dangerous,
badass spy, and with a shorter hairdo, to boot.
After the 1960s, Saint worked more on TV movies than in big-screen films, with her most recent
notable role being a voice acting part on the hit cartoon series The Legend of Korra.
Betty White has enjoyed a long and illustrious career in comedy.
Born in 1922, her first real job was as an assistant at a local TV station in Los Angeles.
In the 1950s, she launched her first sitcom, Life With Elizabeth, which made White one
of the first women to maintain creative control over her own show, both behind the camera
and in front of it.
Life With Elizabeth lasted only a few seasons, but it earned White an Emmy Award and plenty
of clout in Hollywood.
White next appeared as the conniving Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which
won her massive praise and much more work.
In the 1980s, she went on to star in what is probably her most memorable role, as Rose
Nylund in The Golden Girls.
Today, White is the only surviving member of that show's main cast.
Then, in 2010, at the age of 88, White became the oldest person to host Saturday Night Live.
And in that same year, she joined the main cast of the sitcom Hot in Cleveland, which
she starred in for all five of its seasons.
Even today, White shows no signs of slowing down.
"I respect you!"
"That's why you fail!"
Norman Lloyd is currently the oldest living Hollywood actor, and is still working to this
day.
Born in Jersey City in 1914, he became captivated by the acting profession through visits to
the weekend matinees with his mother.
If you're wondering why you haven't heard as much about him, it's probably because he
was a victim of the blacklist in 1950s Hollywood.
Through only his association with other accused Hollywood subversives, Lloyd's career quickly
stagnated.
He was saved, however, when Alfred Hitchock hired Lloyd as an associate producer on his
TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
In the 1980s, Lloyd received a lead role in the medical drama St. Elsewhere.
He was originally just supposed to be a guest star on the show, but he was so loved that
he became a series regular.
In recent years, Lloyd has continued to perform in small TV and film roles, with his most
recent film credit being in Judd Apatow's 2015 movie Trainwreck.
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