hollywood's golden age might seem like
it took place countless lifetimes ago
but the truth is that a few actors and
actresses from that era are very much
still around
from oscar winners to industry veterans
these are the oldest hollywood stars
still alive today he's best known for
voicing two very famous movie fathers
but 90 year old actor james earl jones
has done a whole lot more over the
course of his decades-long career
still he first hit the big time after
providing darth vader's terrifying tones
in 1977's star wars
later returning for multiple
installments in the franchise that
followed with the most recent being
2019's the rise of skywalker
i have been every voice you have
ever heard inside your head
he reprised his other famous voice role
that same year
returning to play mufasa and disney's
live-action remake of 1994's
the lion king jones voice is what
ultimately made him famous
which is why people are often surprised
to learn that jones started to stutter
when he was a kid
in fact he was nearly speechless for
years until
one of his teachers encouraged in him a
love of poetry which eventually helped
him develop his voice
jones later pursued an acting career and
things clearly worked out pretty well
for him his most memorable on-screen
performances
include admiral greer in the hunt for
red october and king jaffe jaffer in
coming to america
despite having been born in california
91 year old oscar winner gene hackman
took the long road to hollywood
hackman went to live with his
grandparents in illinois during his
youth
after which he spent a few years in the
military after that
he lived in new york for a while before
heading back to cali to study acting at
the pasadena playhouse
he made his first on-screen appearance
in a 1959 episode of the united states
steel
hour and would go on to notch over 100
credits before his retirement he didn't
fall out of love with acting though he
was simply following medical advice
hackman told empire in 2009 the straw
that broke the camel's back was actually
a stress test that i took in new york
the doctor advised me that my heart
wasn't in the kind of shape that i
should be putting it under any stress
alfred hitchcock may have made her
career but according to legendary 91
year old actress tippy hedren he almost
ruined it too
hitchcock had offered her a movie
contract after spotting her in a
commercial and they made two films
together but things quickly went south
when the director tried to make the
relationship
personal according to hedren things came
to a head when the jealous filmmaker
attempted to kiss her against her will
he told me he'd ruined my career i said
do what you have to do
i don't care i'm out
hitchcock stuck to his word keeping
hedren locked into her contract while
refusing to give her any good roles
she was out of the game for three years
and when she returned it was in a
smaller
supporting role in 1967's account is
from hong kong a charlie chaplin
directed rom-com hedron made appearances
on a number of tv shows in the following
years and even showed up in the odd film
but her career never again reached those
early highs
born in florida to two bahamian farmers
in 1927
hollywood legend sidney poitier charmed
his way into american hearts
at a time of great unrest after spending
the first several years of his life in
the bahamas his parents sent him to live
with an older brother in florida he
eventually found his way to new york
city where he used the advice his mother
had once given him to become a film star
charm them son into neutral poitiers
quickly went from washing dishes in
manhattan to being the biggest name in
hollywood
all at the height of the civil rights
movement in 1967
three years after becoming the first
black actor to win a best actor oscar
sydney poitier dominated cinema screens
around the world with appearances
in no fewer than three hit movies to sir
with love
in the heat of the night and guess who's
coming to dinner the success of these
pictures
cemented his status as an icon of the
silver screen
now 94 his last credit was 2001's the
last brick maker in america
in which he starred as a lonely widower
comedy legend
mel brooks joined the us army at just 17
years old
and served in europe during world war ii
clearing landmines ahead of the allied
advance
he was already writing his own comedy
sketches at this point and once even
used a bullhorn to play the al jolson
song
to to tutsi to nearby enemy troops along
the german french border
after returning to the states he came
under the stewardship of your show of
show's creator sid
caesar and later went on to become an
egot the 94 year old is one of the few
people who have won an emmy
a grammy an oscar and a tony brooks has
long been known as both an actor and a
filmmaker but he's perhaps
best known for his directorial endeavors
helming farcical classics like the
producers
robin hood men in tights spaceballs
young frankenstein and many more
he's still active today too having
recently worked with whoopi goldberg and
jane lynch on the upcoming animated
musical anthology
fairy tale forest according to brooks he
has his late wife
anne bancroft to thank for that she
believed in me right from the beginning
as a songwriter as well as a screenplay
writer or
whatever i wanted to do during his youth
dick van dyke would spend his saturdays
in the movie theater
most often enjoying the works of comedy
greats such as laurel and hardy he
subsequently dabbled in theater before
joining the us army air corps where the
future movie star stayed busy
singing and dancing in variety shows for
the other soldiers
jobs in local radio and tv followed his
time in the military
but it was a stage show that eventually
put him on the map the multi-tony
award-winning
bye bye birdie he reprised the role of
unsuccessful songwriter albert peterson
when the show was adapted for the screen
three years later van dijk cemented his
stardom playing variety show writer rob
petry on beloved 60's sitcom the dick
van dyke show
based on writer carl reiner's real life
experiences
he went on to star in musical fantasy
classics mary poppins and chitty chitty
bang bang and even returned to play the
surprisingly nimble mr dawes jr in the
2018 sequel
mary poppins returns other notable
recent credits include the night of the
museum
series in which he went against type as
the villainous security guard
cecil he turned 95 in december of 2020.
the daughter of a british politician and
an irish actor
angela lansbury was born in london in
1925 but moved to the states during the
blitz in world war ii
she found a job in bullock's department
store and that's where she caught the
attention of screenwriter john van
drewten
lansbury was signed to mgm within days
and made an immediate impression in
hollywood
she was nominated as best supporting
actress for her very first movie
1944's gaslight and remarkably was up
for the same oscar the very next year
this time for her turn as sybil vein and
fantasy horror the picture of dorian
gray
it would be the early 1960s by the time
lansbury received her third oscar
nomination
this time for the manchurian candidate
she's also known for her 12-year stint
playing belated style icon jessica
fletcher and the tv series murder she
wrote and for her work with disney she
gave a memorable turn as miss price
and bed knobs and broomsticks voiced mrs
potts and beauty and the beast and more
recently showed up as the balloon lady
in mary poppins returns
perhaps one should retire i don't know
but i
i've never had the chance when olivia de
havilland died in 2020
at the age of 104 eva marie saint became
the oldest living recipient of an
academy award for acting
she landed the best supporting actress
statuette for her turn as edie doyle and
crime thriller on the waterfront
which took home a total of eight oscars
including best picture and best actor
for marlon brando saint had learned her
craft at the world famous actors studio
in new york city which is also where she
got her start on the radio
she flitted between the stage and the
small screen as she found her feet in
the early 50s but when on the waterfront
dropped in 1954
she became an overnight sensation the 96
year old actor appeared in
dozens of flicks over the decades but
her best known film is probably alfred
hitchcock's north by northwest in which
she plays a spy
who falls for cary grant you may not
know 97 year old leslie phillips by his
face
but if you're a fan of the harry potter
film franchise you'll most definitely
recognize his voice
the world war ii veteran played the
sorting hat in a number of the potter
movies
[Music]
another weasley i know just what to do
with you
gryffindor now in his 90s
phillips career began not out of a love
for acting but a need to put food on the
table
he later told the chap i started as an
actor at such an early age
11 or 12. it was purely a means to earn
some extra money for the family
as my dad had died his mother recognized
his natural talent and was able to
arrange a meeting with someone from the
prestigious italia conti
academy of theater arts over the years
philip's distinctive cockney twang
slowly vanished
and he quickly became known for playing
the quintessential well-spoken british
type
showing a so-called stiff upper lip in
dozens of tv shows during his career
born in illinois in 1922 betty white was
actually working on her first small
screen project
the same year nbc made its first regular
television broadcast in 1939
meaning she has quite literally seen it
all in the world of television
she became a household name playing the
sickly sweet suanne nivens on the mary
tyler moore show in the 1970s
and was later known for her turn as rose
nyland on the golden girls the following
decade
she fronted three different iterations
of the betty white show as well as
multiple game shows over the years and
she's still working steadily today
white starred in tv land sitcom hot in
cleveland from 2010 to 2015
and more recently voiced the character
bitey white in toy story 4 and forkey
asks a question
marcia hunt came to los angeles as a
model looking for a career on screen
at age 17. paramount was the first
studio to table an offer
and execs threw hunt in at the deep end
luckily she was up for the challenge
she debuted as a leading lady in 1935
the virginia judge but quickly realized
that supporting roles were actually more
interesting
hunt later told the associated press i
didn't want to always play the sweet
young things
being a lead and winning the leading man
that was not the point
hunt was putting out several movies a
year for well over a decade
until she was blacklisted in hollywood
after her name appeared in the infamous
anti-communist document
red channels she continued to appear
sporadically in the decades that
followed with her last on-screen credit
being a low-budget tv movie in 2008 she
turned 103
in october 2020 a true veteran of the
industry who has enjoyed a nearly
hundred year career
norman lloyd turned 106 in november 2020
born a few months after the breakout of
the first world war
in 1914 lloyd was a paid singer and
dancer by the time he was nine years old
about a decade after that he hit
broadway for the first time
and would go on to feature in one of the
most talked about productions of the day
playing cinna the poet and orson welles
julius caesar
lloyd made his big screen debut a few
years later and the 1942 hitchcock film
saboteur hitchcock was on hand to help
again when lloyd fell out of fashion
during the mccarthy era
offering lloyd a producing job on his
show alfred hitchcock presents
then lloyd was booked to appear on four
episodes of the 80s medical show
saint elsewhere but ended up becoming a
regular for the remainder of the six
season series
he has continued to perform in both tv
and film roles since then
with his most recent film credit being
in judd apatow's 2015 movie train wreck
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