These 12 Stars Over 60 Prove Age Is Just a Number
12View galleryHollywood used to have an expiration date, especially for women. Once you hit a certain age, the leading roles dried up and the magazine covers went to someone younger.
These 12 stars didn’t get the memo. Well past 60, they’ve won major awards, starred in blockbusters, fronted beauty campaigns and headlined world tours. Here’s how they’re rewriting the rules.
1. Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis has been a star since Halloween in 1978, but her biggest honor came decades later. In 2023, at 64, she won her first Oscar, for Best Supporting Actress in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
She didn’t stop there. A year later she won an Emmy for her guest role on The Bear. She’s also been refreshingly open about embracing her age instead of hiding it.
2. Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh built her career doing her own jaw-dropping stunts in Hong Kong action films, then won over Western audiences in Tomorrow Never Dies and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
In 2023, at 60, she made history as the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress, for Everything Everywhere All at Once. “Don’t let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime,” she said in her acceptance speech.
3. Jennifer Coolidge
For years, Jennifer Coolidge was the scene-stealer in comedies like American Pie and Legally Blonde. Then, in her 60s, came the role of a lifetime.
As the lovable, chaotic Tanya McQuoid in HBO’s The White Lotus, she won Emmys in both 2022 and 2023, plus a Golden Globe. Her acceptance speeches, full of gratitude for this late-career moment, went viral.
4. Harrison Ford
At 80, Harrison Ford put the fedora back on for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), more than 40 years after Raiders of the Lost Ark.
He’s hardly slowing down. He starred in the western drama 1923 opposite Helen Mirren, joined the comedy series Shrinking, and entered the Marvel universe as President Thaddeus Ross in Captain America: Brave New World (2025).
5. Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren won her Oscar at 61 for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and she’s been busier than ever since.
In her 60s she played a retired spy in the action comedy RED, and in her 70s she joined the Fast & Furious franchise and became a face of L’Oréal Paris. She’s become a symbol of aging with confidence and style.
6. Tom Cruise
Most action stars slow down in their 60s. Tom Cruise went the other way. Top Gun: Maverick, released in 2022 when he was about to turn 60, became the biggest box-office hit of his career.
For Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023), he performed a motorcycle jump off a Norwegian cliff himself, a stunt he trained for over months.
7. Christie Brinkley
Christie Brinkley became one of the most famous models of the 1970s and ’80s, with three consecutive Sports Illustrated Swimsuit covers.
In 2017, at 63, she returned to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, this time posing alongside her daughters Alexa Ray Joel and Sailor Brinkley-Cook. She’s since built a successful skincare and wine business.
8. Maye Musk
Maye Musk has modeled for more than five decades, but her career truly took off after 60, when she stopped dyeing her hair and let her silver locks become her signature.
At 69 she became a CoverGirl ambassador, the brand’s oldest ever. In 2022, at 74, she landed the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.
9. Mick Jagger
The Rolling Stones’ frontman has been strutting across stages since the early 1960s. In 2023, at 80, Mick Jagger released Hackney Diamonds with the band, their first album of original songs in 18 years.
The band then went on a North American stadium tour in 2024, with Jagger still delivering the high-energy performances that made him famous.
10. Cher
Few stars have reinvented themselves as often as Cher. She’s the only solo artist to score a No. 1 hit on a Billboard chart in six consecutive decades.
In 2024, at 78, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and published the first volume of her memoir, which became a bestseller.
11. Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington has two Oscars and a Tony Award, but he’s still taking on new challenges. At 69 he played a scheming power broker in Gladiator II (2024).
In 2025 he returned to Broadway in Othello, starring opposite Jake Gyllenhaal. The production became one of the hottest tickets on Broadway.
12. Viola Davis
Viola Davis became an EGOT winner in 2023, meaning she has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. She was the 18th person ever to reach the milestone.
A year earlier she had led an action epic. For The Woman King (2022) she trained intensively to play a fierce warrior general in her late 50s, proving that action heroines don’t have to be young.
Better With Age
These stars show that talent doesn’t come with an expiration date. Their biggest awards, boldest roles and most memorable moments arrived long after Hollywood’s usual cutoff. Some of them are just getting started.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons, cropped. Jamie Lee Curtis: Gabriel Hutchinson (CC BY-SA 4.0). Michelle Yeoh: Harald Krichel (CC BY-SA 4.0). Jennifer Coolidge: Thibault from Paris, France (CC BY-SA 2.0). Harrison Ford: Kevin Paul (CC BY 4.0). Helen Mirren: Sarran Hamilton (CC BY-SA 4.0). Tom Cruise: Kevin Paul (CC BY 4.0). Christie Brinkley: David Shankbone (CC BY-SA 3.0). Maye Musk: Vbrunophotog (CC BY-SA 4.0). Mick Jagger: Raph_PH (CC BY 2.0). Cher: Raph_PH (CC BY-SA 4.0). Denzel Washington: Gabriel Hutchinson (CC BY-SA 4.0). Viola Davis: Nomoretitanic (CC BY-SA 4.0).
