World's Oldest Celebrity

Eubie Blake, who had a Broadway musical based on his life, lived to be 100.

Charles Lane, perpetually grumpy character actor, made it to 102.

Gloria Stuart, the actress who played the elderly version of Rose in Titanic is still alive and will celebrate her 100th birthday next month.

The Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira is still working at the age of 101:

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.

Norman Corwin is 100 and still working. He is a writer, essayist, did radio dramas.

Daniel Schorr will be 94 this August, and has had a career that encompasses modern journalism. He’s still active as NPR’s senior news analyst.

Not the oldest, but Pete Seeger is 91.

Luise Rainer won Oscars consecutively and is still alive at 100.

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

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.

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.

Mitch Miller, who had a mixed record in the music industry in the 1950s, is alive at age 98.

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.

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.

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]

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.

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.

For the still working after 100 file (from Wikipedia):

I wonder who was the first historical centenarian for which we have solid records.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (aka “the Queen Mum”) lived to 101: Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother - Wikipedia

Others in the medical field include hemodialysis inventor Willem Kolff who lived to 98 and pioneering heart surgeon Michael DeBakey who practiced medicine until his death at age 99.