# World's Oldest Celebrity **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 12, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885 "2010-06-12T03:59:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/21 "2010-06-12T22:29:29Z")
[Eubie Blake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eubie_Blake), who had a Broadway musical based on his life, lived to be 100. [Charles Lane](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0485272/), perpetually grumpy character actor, made it to 102. [Gloria Stuart](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001784/bio), the actress who played the elderly version of Rose in _Titanic_ is still alive and will celebrate her 100th birthday next month. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/22 "2010-06-12T23:12:21Z")
The Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira is still working at the age of 101: > **[Manoel de Oliveira](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manoel_de_Oliveira)** > > Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira GCSE GCIH (Portuguese: \[mɐnuˈɛl doliˈvɐjɾɐ\]; 11 December 1908 – 2 April 2015) was a Portuguese film director and screenwriter born in Cedofeita, Porto. He first began making films in 1927, when he and some friends attempted to make a film about World War I. In 1931, he completed his first film Douro, Faina Fluvial, a documentary about his home city Porto made in the city-symphony genre. He made his feature film debut in 1942 with Aniki-Bóbó and continued to make... His most recent film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival this year. It will be released in U.S. theaters later this year. His wife, who he married in 1940, is still alive. He has grandchildren in their 30’s who he sometimes casts in his films. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/23 "2010-06-12T23:36:46Z")
Norman Corwin is 100 and still working. He is a writer, essayist, did radio dramas. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/24 "2010-06-13T00:55:15Z")
[Daniel Schorr](http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=schorrdanie) will be 94 this August, and has had a career that encompasses modern journalism. He’s still active as NPR’s senior news analyst. ---
**Author:** ![Sinisterniik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Sinisterniik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinisterniik)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/25 "2010-06-13T01:13:51Z")
Not the oldest, but [Pete Seeger](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger) is 91. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/26 "2010-06-13T01:28:36Z")
Luise Rainer won Oscars consecutively and is still alive at 100. > **[Luise Rainer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luise_Rainer)** > > Luise Rainer (/ˈraɪnər/ RY-nər, German: \[ˈʁaɪnɐ\]; 12 January 1910 – 30 December 2014) was a German-American-British film actress. She was the first thespian to win multiple Academy Awards and the first to win back-to-back; at the time of her death, thirteen days shy of her 105th birthday, she was the longest-lived Oscar recipient (and the longest-lived female star from Classic Hollywood), a superlative that has not been exceeded as of 2023. > Rainer started her acting career in Germany at age 16... Leopold Stokowski (“Fantasia”) was always vague about his age (and where he was born) but was around 98 when he died Hockey Hall of Famers Elmer Lach and Milt Schmidt are still alive at 92 (Lach is slightly older). Butch Bouchard is a year younger. Baseball Hall of Fame manager Al Lopez reached 97 and saw his former team the Chicago White Sox win the World Series in 2005 Negro League player Silas Simmons (don’t think he was very famous) lived to 108 or 111, depending if you believe census or World War I draft papers ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/27 "2010-06-13T01:48:49Z")
Senator Strom Thurmond was famous or infamous depending about how you view his politics. He lived to be 100. Also married a 22 year old when he was 66 and had four children with her. William O Douglas, his political opposite on the Supreme Court, didn’t live as long but also married a woman in her 20s when he was in his 60s. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/28 "2010-06-13T01:55:49Z")
Although not the oldest celebrity, at 92, the semi-retired NBC announcer Don Pardo still announces Saturday Night Live from the studio and flies weekly from his home in Tucson to New York to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/29 "2010-06-13T02:11:59Z")
Mitch Miller, who had a mixed record in the music industry in the 1950s, is alive at age 98. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/30 "2010-06-13T15:34:31Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > [Eubie Blake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eubie_Blake), who had a Broadway musical based on his life, lived to be 100. I was going to post this, but I checked on IMDb and it says he was born in 1887, therefore 96 when he died. I was pretty sure he had gotten to 100, but assumed I had misremembered. I should have checked Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/31 "2010-06-13T15:52:21Z")
Fascinating reading, and thanks all! Looks like Vietoris has the lead, though he qualifies by my “famous within his field” rule. Fascinating how many people continue to work after age 100. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/32 "2010-06-13T16:25:55Z")
Centenarian celebs not yet mentioned in this thread: Alf Landon (Kansas governor, ran for President, lost to FDR): 100 Robert F. Boyle (film production designer, won an Honorary Oscar): 100 (still living) Miep Gies (helped hide Anne Frank & family): 100 Claude Levi-Strauss (French philosopher): 100 Ancel Keys (nutritionist, developed K-rations and the Mediteranean Diet): 100 Bruce Bennett (actor, portrayed Tarzan): 100 Hastings Banda (President of Zambia): 101 Jimmie Davis (singer of ‘You Are My Sunshine’/governor of Louisiana): 101 George F. Kennan (diplomat, father of Cold War containment policy): 101 Grandma Moses (artist): 101 Marina Semyonova (Bolshoi prima ballerina): 101 Thomas Sopwith (aircraft designer): 101 Albert Hoffman (synthesizer of LSD): 102 Amos Alonzo Stagg (football coach): 102 Senor Wences (ventriloquist): 103 George Seldes (muckracking journalist): 104 Brooke Astor (heiress/philanthropist): 105 Marjory Stoneman Douglas (advocate for preserving the Everglades): 108 And one from the “famous in their field” department to break the Vietoris mark: Leila Denmark, pediatrician who co-developed the vaccine for pertussis (whooping cough). Is 112 and still alive. Was a practicing physician until age 103. [[Leila Denmark - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leila_Denmark)] ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/33 "2010-06-13T19:30:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Is 112 and still alive. Was a practicing physician until age 103. You kind of have to wonder, when someone makes it to 103 still working, what prompts them to finally retire? His health obviously didn’t deteriorate _too_ much, given that he’s managed to live 9 more years and counting. I just looked up physicist Hans Bethe (dunno how famous he is among non-physicists), and he was a mere 99 when he died, but he’s another one who kept working right up until the end. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/34 "2010-06-13T22:00:20Z")
Singer-actor Tony Martin is now 96, and gigged as recently as January 2009 in San Francisco, his hometown. He made his first record in 1932 and had his first movie role in 1936. ---
**Author:** ![Visual\_Purple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5daacb/32.png) [@Visual\_Purple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Visual_Purple)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/35 "2010-06-13T22:12:38Z")
For the still working after 100 file (from Wikipedia): > [@](#): > > Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. (born December 11, 1908) is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. \*\*\* > > He has been extremely productive in his latter years, publishing more than 40 works between the ages of 90 and 100, and three more since he turned 100. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/36 "2010-06-14T01:09:09Z")
I wonder who was the first historical centenarian for which we have solid records. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/37 "2010-06-14T01:34:55Z")
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (aka “the Queen Mum”) lived to 101: [Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_mum) ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885/38 "2010-06-14T01:58:43Z")
Others in the medical field include hemodialysis inventor [Willem Kolff](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Johan_Kolff) who lived to 98 and pioneering heart surgeon [Michael DeBakey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_DeBakey) who practiced medicine until his death at age 99. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-celebrity/542885.md?page=1)