NEED TO KNOW
June Squibb became the oldest acting Tony Award nominee for her role in Marjorie Prime in 2026 at 96 years old
At 83, Anthony Hopkins became the oldest person to win an Oscar for acting in 2021
President Jimmy Carter won a Grammy Award following his death, making him the oldest Grammy winner
Many celebrities — like June Squibb — have proven that age is only a number.
The 96-year-old made Tony Awards history when she earned a nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play in May 2026 for her work in Marjorie Prime, making her the oldest acting Tony Award nominee.
“I’m thrilled with what this nomination will do for my career,” Squibb told PEOPLE in a statement.
Squibb’s nomination was the second time she set a record relating to her role in the play, which also made her the oldest performer to open in a Broadway show in history.
The Eleanor the Great star isn’t the first to receive critical acclaim for her work later in life. In 2018, Christopher Plummer set the record for oldest Oscar nominee for acting at 88 years old. Meanwhile, Anthony Hopkins holds the title of oldest person to receive an acting Academy Award.
Here are the oldest stars to be nominated for — and win — major Hollywood awards.
Emmy AwardsOldest Nominee & Winner: Norman Lear
Norman Lear
Credit: Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic
Norman Lear holds the distinction of being both the oldest Primetime Emmy Award nominee and winner.
The All in the Family creator received 17 Emmy nominations and six awards across his career, even breaking his own previously set record as the oldest winner.
At age 98, his sixth Emmy Award came in 2020 during the virtual Creative Arts Emmys, where he was awarded the golden statuette for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) for Live In Front of a Studio Audience: ‘All in the Family’ And ‘Good Times,’ which he executive produced.
Lear was nominated two years later in 2022 for the same award for Live In Front Of A Studio Audience: ‘The Facts Of Life’ And ‘Diff’rent Strokes,’ at age 100.
Lear died at age 101 on Dec. 5, 2023.
Grammy AwardsOldest Nominee & Winner: President Jimmy Carter
Former President Jimmy Carter in Feb. 2015
Credit: Larry Busacca/Getty
Jimmy Carter was nominated for 10 Grammy Awards between 1998 and 2024 within the Best Spoken Word album category, bringing home four awards in total. He is also the most nominated and awarded person within the category.
The former president’s 10th nomination came just a month after his 100th birthday in 2024 for Last Sunday in Plains: A Centennial Celebration, making him the oldest Grammy nominee of all time.
Following his death on Dec. 29, 2024, Carter posthumously won his fourth Grammy Award for Last Sunday in Plains: A Centennial Celebration, which also made him the oldest Grammy Award winner. His grandson Jason Carter accepted the award on his grandfather’s behalf at the Feb. 2, 2025, ceremony.
“My grandfather was incredibly important to me,” Jason said while accepting the award. “Over these last few weeks, we’ve felt this enormous outpouring of love from all around the world, from many of the people in this room, and I just want to say that having his words captured in this way for my family and for the world is truly remarkable.”
Academy AwardsOldest Nominee: Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer at the Academy Awards in March 2018
Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage
At age 88, Plummer made history with the Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in All the Money in the World as J. Paul Getty, becoming the oldest person nominated for an acting Academy Award.
“I am absolutely thrilled to have received this nomination by the Academy. It was quite unexpected but incredibly gratifying,” he said in a statement at the time following the 90th Academy Award nominations. “Everything has happened so quickly of late that I am still a trifled stunned but excited by it all.”
Previously, the Canadian actor was nominated at the Oscars for his supporting role in The Last Station in 2010. In 2012, he became the oldest person to win an acting award for his supporting role in Beginners, a position he held until Hopkins’ win in 2021.
Plummer died at age 91 on Feb. 5, 2021.
Oldest Winner: Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins at the Academy Awards in March 2022
Credit: David Livingston/Getty
Nearly 30 years after his first win at the Academy Awards, Hopkins became the oldest person to receive an Oscar for acting in 2021.
The 83-year-old won the Best Actor Award for his role in The Father, in which he starred opposite Olivia Colman. The Welsh actor did not attend the ceremony, and his award was accepted by presenter Joaquin Phoenix, who won in the category for his performance in Joker the previous year.
Between his 1992 win for the chilling portrayal of Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs and his 2021 victory, Hopkins was nominated for four additional Oscars.
Tony AwardsOldest Nominee: June Squibb
June Squibb at the 5th Annual Academy Museum Gala in October 2025
Credit: Monica Schipper/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty
Squibb’s first Tony Award nomination was also a record-breaking one. At age 96, she earned a 2026 Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play for her part in Marjorie Prime.
In addition to her own nomination, Squibb’s costar Danny Burstein’s nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play was also historic. The nomination was his ninth, the most for any male actor in Tony Awards history.
“Over the moon for Danny as well!” Squibb said in a statement. “I share this nomination with everyone who worked so hard to bring Marjorie Prime back to life.”
Oldest Winner: Lois Smith
Lois Smith in Nov. 2016
Credit: Roy Rochlin/Getty
At age 90, Lois Smith set a record as the oldest person to win an acting Tony Award. At the 74th annual Tony Awards in 2021, she brought home Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play for her work as Margaret in The Inheritance.
“I love the processes of the live theater,” she said in her acceptance speech. “I first worked on The Inheritance in a workshop where Matthew López was finishing a play about the AIDS plague, and it was partly based on E.M. Forster’s book Howards End, which had been my favorite novel for as long as I can remember.”
Smith was first nominated for a Tony in 1990 for The Grapes of Wrath, and again in 1996 for Buried Child, both for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play.
Read the original article on People