32 Famous Older Women Who Don't Seem To Age

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In recent years, society's made enormous strides in combating systemic discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, and body size. Ageism, however, is another story, especially as directed against women. Take the Karen meme, for example. What began as a way of calling out the shrill, entitled, and vaguely racist among us has become increasingly deployed against women who attempt to assert themselves in public (via the Independent). And because older women tend to be more willing to speak up when, say, their Starbucks order is wrong, per Psychology Today, the term has been increasingly used to marginalize older women in general (via the Independent). And that's perfectly acceptable in our society, which tends to view aging as grotesque, per Jan Baars, a professor at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht (via the University of Bergen). 

But you know who's having the last laugh? Older women. First, they've managed to stay alive — a feat younger people can only hope they can achieve. Second, they know things younger people can't possibly — simply because experience is the most effective teacher of all. And one of the things many older women know is that aging is a good thing. Just ask luminous former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Paulina Porizkova proudly sporting her lustrous gray roots. Indeed, Porizkova says aging has only made her more "fabulous," per the Independent. And that, in our opinion, makes her ageless — just like these other fabulous and famous older women. 

Angela Bassett's acting career spans so many years that it includes a 1985 stint on "The Cosby Show" and the popular "9-1-1" on Fox, for which she became, in 2021, "one of the highest-paid actresses of color on a broadcast drama," according to Vanity Fair. Indeed, it's been nearly 25 years since she played an older woman romancing a much younger man. Born August 16, 1958, Bassett is, today, certainly old enough to play the Black Panther's mother, Queen Ramonda, as she does in "Wakanda Forever" (via The Mary Sue). But she doesn't look it, and more importantly, we're guessing she's too busy depositing her paycheck to give it much thought. 

Born on January 20, 1965, Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones became Her Royal Highness Countess Sophie of Wessex upon marrying the youngest child of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, HRH Prince Edward Earl of Wessex (via Town & Country, Royal.uk). Countess Sophie is a full-time working member of the royal family and patron of over 70 charitable organizations. The mother of two teens, the countess not only looks amazing but also possesses a seemingly ageless sense of athleticism and adventure. To wit, just a few years ago, in 2016, she completed a 450-mile bicycle challenge in just a handful of days, per BBC News.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus' preternaturally ageless appearance, not to mention her flawless comedic timing and delivery, helped propel comedian Amy Schumer's "Last F-able Day" into the skit-comedy pantheon, according to Vanity Fair. Louis-Dreyfus' character, a slightly over-the-top fictionalized version of herself, drinks a pint of melted premium ice cream while remarking on how surprised she is that Hollywood "allowed" her to stay "f-able" for so long past 50. But we're guessing that no one is surprised in the slightest. In fact, many would say she still is that thing that she says Hollywood says she is no longer. 

Born November 20, 1963, actor Ming-Na Wen hasn't visibly aged much since the early 1990s, around the time she appeared in "The Joy Luck Club," per IMDb. In the photo on the left, taken in 1998, according to X, she's around 35 years old. In the photo on the right, she's ... well, is it even possible to guess? Eh, fine, we won't leave you hanging. The photo on the right is from the red carpet at the premiere of 2020's "Mulan," in which she appeared as an "Esteemed Guest," having starred as Mulan in 1998's animated film about the warrior princess. That means she was around 55 or 56. Yes, seriously.

Ellen DeGeneres has been around for a long time. How long, you might ask? Well, her character, Ellen Morgan, on the hit '90s television sitcom, "Ellen," was the first in television history to come out as queer to their friends in a storyline, and a star-studded one at that (it also featured the ageless Laura Dern), per Biography. The year was 1997. DeGeneres was 39 at the time, although you wouldn't have known it then — just like you wouldn't know it from looking at her now that she is in her late 60s.

Does anyone remember the "I woke up like this" selfie challenge from circa 2013, which involved the posting to social media of a selfie taken immediately upon waking? No question, its heart was in the right place, but it was your word against your phone's as to whether you did, in fact, "wake up like this." In 2020, actor Halle Berry seemingly took that challenge a step further. In a photoshoot with Byrdie, Berry showed us not only her bare face but her bare face mid-facial. Fifty-four at the time, Berry looked better than most of us do at literally whatever age. But, arguably, what looks most amazing on Berry is her confidence. 

If it kind of seems like Elisabeth Shue has been around forever, perhaps that's because she kind of has. Now in her 60s, Shue rose to fame playing the love interest of "The Karate Kid" in the 1984 film of the same name. Starring roles in "Adventures in Babysitting" and "Cocktail" followed soon after. Somehow, Elisabeth Shue entered her 50s. But did that stop her from playing an entirely believable nursing mother having a torrid affair with the super-est of all super-hero/villains, Homelander, in Season 1 of Amazon Prime's "The Boys"? That would be a no, and her fans are eternally grateful. 

What is this witchery? That is the question that may come to mind as one gazes upon the seemingly ageless visage of the small- and large-screen actor, Rachel True. N'est-ce pas, given that True rose to fame in the 1996 cult witchcraft classic, "The Craft,'" per AV Club. See that version of her on the left? That was back then. See the one on the right? That was just last year. So, when Hello Beautiful made the observation that the now almost 60-year-old actor hasn't aged since the 1990s, what was there to do besides wholeheartedly agree?

Could the secret to Sandra Bullock's agelessness be her killer sense of humor? According to AP News, in 2018, Bullock joked that anyone can look as youthful as she does — provided they too sleep in a "sealed container" and avoid literally any substance that could be considered carcinogenic. But seriously, folks, the humble sixtysomething swears that what you see of her, while authentic, represents hours of primping in advance of pre-planned photo opportunities.

Born September 2, 1966, actor Salma Hayek looks younger than her years. Graciously, Hayek has revealed at least one of her go-to skin-care products: Crema de Tepezcohuite. And it's available on Amazon for under $10. As Hayek told Elle back in 2015, this skincare cream is "used in Mexico for burn victims because it completely regenerates the skin." Is that a bit extra? Perhaps, but apparently, Hayek was still sold on the cream's utility as recently as April 2022, per Us Weekly, which notes there may, in fact, be some scientific validity to Hayek's claims.

Born February 4, 1965, actor Laura Linney is now in her early 60s, but like her "Ozark" co-star, Jason Bateman, who is her approximate contemporary, it's impossible to know that just by looking at her. Also like Bateman, Linney has matured eons as an actor over the course of her career, which began with her first credited role in the 1992 film "Lorenzo's Oil," per IMDb. 

Although Linney was talented from the get-go, the gulf between her onscreen presence as the wide-eyed and innocent Mary Ann Singleton in 1998's "Tales of the City," versus the jaded and manipulative Wendy Byrde in the recently concluded "Ozark" series, is nothing short of breathtaking to observe (via SFFILM).

Born August 11, 1965, Embeth Davidtz may not be the most recognizable face in this round-up of age-defying famous females, but she's bound to look familiar, seeing as she's been working in film and television since the late 1980s, per IMDb — even more so because her appearance has hardly changed at all in the intervening years. Remember when she played McDreamy's older sister on "Grey's Anatomy" back in 2006 and then again in 2019? Seriously, Davidtz seems to have defied the laws of aging. Perhaps in a nod to that, M. Night Shyamalan cast her in his 2021 horror/fantasy film, "Old," in which she plays a middle-aged yet authentically childlike version of the character Maddox Cappa who, thanks to a strange and inexplicable force, ages from 11 to Embeth Davidtz (i.e., ageless) in just a matter of hours. 

Like Ming-Na Wen, actor Tamlyn Tomita took the express route to fame via 1993's "Joy Luck Club." Like Elisabeth Shue, Tomita made an appearance in both 1984's "The Karate Kid" and Netflix's "Cobra Kai," which debuted in 2018. Like both Wen and Shue, Tomita has been around for so long that it's nearly impossible to cover even a fraction of her work in just a few sentences. And like both of these contemporaries of hers, Tomita seems not to have understood the assignment to the extent that the assignment is looking one's age. Born in 1966, the Japanese American is old enough to be a grandma. May we all age so gracefully in time. 

At the age of 23, actor Julianne Moore got her start on the erstwhile soap opera "The Edge of Night," which was canceled in 1984, per IMDb. That right there should give you some idea of just how old Moore is, although you couldn't possibly know that from looking at her. Moore is now in her 60s, according to Britannica. But if you should ever meet her, you might want to refrain from gushing about how she's "aging gracefully." As she told As If magazine in 2021, "there's so much judgement inherent in the term" (via Page Six). 

The many-times Oscar-nominated Michelle Pfeiffer looks positively ageless to us, despite being in her 60s. But she doesn't think so. Nor does she seem to care. As she admitted to People in 2021, she is well aware that she doesn't look exactly as she did in her youth. "I certainly see that I've changed. I just try not to dwell on it," she told the outlet. "Aging happens to every single one of us. Once you accept that it unburdens you." 

"Janet Jackson doesn't let age stop her," Hello Beautiful points out, and that includes continuing to tour the world while also finding the energy to raise her son, to whom she gave birth at the seemingly inconceivable age of 50, according to Parade. Born May 16, 1966, the youngest of the nine siblings is living proof that age is just a number. 

Aussie-born actor Nicole Kidman recently turned 59, according to Britannica, although you wouldn't necessarily know it from the photo above. You also wouldn't know it from observing how smashingly Kidman's career has gone in recent years, according to Kidman, herself, who is well aware that ageism is rampant, especially in the entertainment industry. As she told DuJour magazine in 2021, "there's a consensus ... that as a female actor, at about 40, you're done." Luckily for Kidman and her fans, she's proven to be an exception.

Actor Sigourney Weaver, who is in her 70s (via Biography), is frequently name-dropped when people discuss women who appear to have somehow outsmarted the wages of aging. But as far as Weaver's concerned, "people are going to hire me because I'm Sigourney, not because I'm five years older or younger," as she told Parade in 2009 (via the Mirror). Nor is she on board with actors who lie about their age, per The Hollywood News. As she pointed out, "[Age] shouldn't matter."

Meryl Streep is in her 70s, according to Britannica. Over the course of her near half-century-long movie career, she's appeared in more than 90 movies (via IMDb), playing characters as diverse in age and temperament as Roseann Barr's worst nightmare of a romantic foil in the 1989 movie, "She-Devil," the sternly intellectual late British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. in 2011's "The Iron Lady," and the cartoonishly evil President Orlean in 2021's "Don't Look Up." Streep's performances, which have garnered her three Oscars, nine Golden Globes, three Emmys, and two BAFTAs, according to L'Officiel USA, utterly defy age.

Model and actor Elizabeth Hurley was born on June 10, 1965, which means she is now in her 60s. In 2021, Women's Health pulled together 40 photos of Elizabeth Hurley throughout the years to demonstrate that she's barely aged at all since first the public first laid eyes on her in 1989. And while some of the women in this roundup of seemingly ageless famous women claim they can't be bothered worrying about such things, Hurley is frank about admitting she works hard to maintain her youthful look, per Hello Magazine. In fact, Hurley says she moisturizes 10 times daily, including a nightly slathering of Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum, which she's been using for over two decades, per SheKnows.

Notwithstanding Hollywood's obsession with youth, and the fact that she is in her 80s (via Biography), prolific veteran actor Dame Helen Mirren is still in high demand in Hollywood. Like, seriously high demand. In May 2022, Entertainment Tonight reported that Mirren was joining the cast of "1932," the much-anticipated prequel to the hit television series "Yellowstone." Not that she'll be playing the ingenue, but that doesn't seem to matter to Mirren, whose philosophy on aging is "you either die young or you get older" (via Today) and whose beauty advice to young women is to "forget the word beauty" and focus, instead, on something you can control. In Mirren's case? That would be "swagger."

Multi-hyphenate Oprah Winfrey has accomplished so much in her life that one might understand if she felt it were beneath her to entertain questions about how she maintains her perpetually youthful appearance. But this is Oprah (now in her 70s), and Oprah loves to share, so, over the years, she's offered advice and recommendations here and there, which Town & Country compiled in 2021. In case you were wondering, Oprah prioritizes cleansing her skin, eating a healthy diet, and moisturizing with Philosophy's Hope in a Jar. 

At 75, actor Jane Seymour isn't having trouble booking work, as she told Prevention in February 2022. In fact, she's the busiest she's ever been, and that has figured into her decision to eschew some of the anti-aging tricks that many of her contemporaries are using, including facelifts, Botox, and injectable fillers. Among other things, "you need a face that moves," she pointed out. Besides, Seymour isn't interested in acting like she isn't exactly as old as she is. "I'm not pretending that I'm not my age, I just like to look the healthiest version that I can," she told the outlet.

Way back in 1989, Time magazine nicknamed supermodel, Elle Macpherson, "The Body," according to Daily Mail. Not much had changed by 1999, when she appeared on "Friends" as Joey's roommate and love interest. Fast forward to today and the Aussie beauty is now in her 60s, and guess what? She's still got it going on. As Inquisitr puts it, her beauty is as astonishing as it is evergreen. Fortunately, Macpherson seems willing to share her age-defying secrets, which include drinking warm water with lemon (via The Sun U.K.), eschewing sugar and alcohol, and lymphatic drainage massage, per the Daily Mail.

Now in her early 60s, Robin Wright may not be quite at the prime of her career — but only because it appears she's still on her way up, according to L'Officiel USA. Although Wright rose to fame playing the title character in 1987's "The Princess Bride" and the luminous object of the title character's undying devotion in 1994's "Forrest Gump," she's far more than just a pretty face. That's why her career is only becoming more impressive with time. 

Following her Emmy-nominated turn as the terrifying politician's wife-turned POTUS in Neftlix's "House of Cards," she directed herself, playing a grieving widow and mother, in the achingly beautiful 2021 arthouse film "Land," which earned her a "director to watch" nod at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, per the Robin Wright Site. 

Born November 5, 1964, statuesque model and actor Famke Janssen was often, in her youth, compared to the late great film actor Hedy Lamarr, per The New York Times. Most people assume this is because of Janssen's "exotic" looks, as the Times put it. But we have another theory. Lamarr was a low-key genius, per Women's History, which notes that she played a pivotal role in developing the technology that "would one day form the basis for today's WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems." So too is Janssen, whom few realize graduated from Columbia University in the 1990s with a degree in literature (via IMDb). 

Bo Derek was the original "10," having played the mesmerizing object of Dudley Moore's vacation obsession in the 1979 movie by the same name (er, number). The New York Daily News noted in 2013 that it had been three decades since the film released, and it's now been nearly another decade since that report. "But Bo Derek, now 69, is still making a splash," with her "ageless complexion, flawless figure and bright smile." It's true still today, and if you don't believe us, just ask her husband, John Corbett, who is four years younger than Derek. The two married in 2021 after 20 years of courtship, per People.

Born March 10, 1958, Sharon Stone may make aging look easy, but it's actually been somewhat challenging for the icy (as in ice-pick) blonde of the 1992 "Basic Instinct" fame. In 2001, when was in her early 40s, she suffered a stroke that nearly killed her, per Today. These days, the actor, who recently appeared as the mother of Kaley Cuoco's character on "The Flight Attendant," wants to be remembered not for her ageless beauty or even for her acting chops, but rather for reminding people that "if you have a really bad headache, you need to go to the hospital," as she told Variety.

Actor, comedian, and outspoken cancer-awareness advocate Fran Drescher rose to fame playing the loveably immature Fran Fine on television's "The Nanny," which ran from 1993 to 1999, according to Oprah Daily. Now in her 60s, she is making a name for herself as a mature woman who embraces aging. "You can't overestimate what life experience brings to a person's aura," she told Oprah Daily in a 2021 interview. "This needs to be prized, not admonished. I don't think that the maturing woman should be underestimated or marginalized. We have to embrace the new level of beauty, confidence, sensuality, and inner poise that comes with age."

Actor Geena Davis looks a good 20 years younger than her actual age (via Britannica). But that hardly seems to matter to Hollywood, according to Davis, who was once fired from a movie because the leading man, 20 years her senior, complained Davis was "too old" to play his love interest, per Deadline. Today, Davis, has been flying off the radar in Hollywood, eschewing acting in films in favor of heading up the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which, among other things, is devoted to addressing ageism in media.

Jane Fonda began her career playing a sexy astronaut in the 1968 science fiction film "Barbarella." At the time, not many were in on the joke, which is that the whole thing, including the sexy silver catsuit she wore, was intended as satire. Specifically, it was a "tongue-in-cheek satire against bourgeois morality," Fonda has said (via MovieWeb). 

Nowadays, Fonda is much more on-the-nose when it comes to telegraphing her message, which is still about female empowerment. Specifically, Fonda, along with her friend and costar, Lily Tomlin, spent nearly one hundred episodes of "Grace and Frankie" conveying that aging is #lifegoals. And what is aging to Fonda? How about "the upward ascension of the human spirit, bringing us into wisdom, wholeness, and authenticity," as she once said, per Refinery29.

Rita Moreno is one of only 17 individuals in history to have attained the entertainment industry's equivalent of a royal flush, by which we mean winning at least one of each of the following: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, per The Wrap. Born Rosa Dolores Alverío in Puerto Rico on December 11, 1931, Rita Moreno is in her 90s, but she's still got the dance moves that catapulted her career into the stratosphere in 1961 when she appeared as the fiery Anita in the original film version of "West Side Story." And she proved it in 2021 when she danced for Jimmy Fallon (and millions across the U.S. and the world) on "The Tonight Show" just days before her 90th birthday.