Turning 100 is rare enough on its own. Doing it while having spent decades in the public eye, under constant scrutiny, pressure, and the physical demands that fame often brings, makes it rarer still. These nine figures didn’t just survive long lives. They stayed recognizable, sharp, and in many cases active, well past the point where most people have faded from memory.
Some had obvious advantages: wealth, access to excellent medical care, and the kind of purposeful routine that researchers consistently link to longevity. Others seem to have gotten there through sheer stubbornness. Either way, the list is worth knowing.
1. Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas was born on December 9, 1916, and died on February 5, 2020, at 103 years old. He survived a stroke in 1996 that left him with significant speech difficulties, relearned how to communicate, and went on to write books and make public appearances for years afterward. Douglas was one of Hollywood’s last surviving links to the golden age of studio filmmaking, known for Spartacus, Paths of Glory, and Champion.
His son Michael Douglas has spoken at length about how his father’s recovery from that stroke, and the emotional reckoning it prompted, transformed their relationship in the final decades of Kirk’s life.
2. Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland was born on July 1, 1916, and died on July 26, 2020, at 104. She had been living quietly in Paris for decades when she died, largely removed from the Hollywood machine that had once consumed her. De Havilland is best remembered for Gone with the Wind and her two Academy Awards, but her legal battle against Warner Bros. in the 1940s may have left an equally lasting mark.
The California court ruling that came out of that fight, known as the De Havilland Law, fundamentally changed how studios could control actors under contract. She outlived her famous rivalry with sister Joan Fontaine, who died in 2013.
3. Bob Hope
Bob Hope was born on May 29, 1903, and died on July 27, 2003, at 100. He spent much of his final decade in declining health, but the sheer volume of what he had produced, from Road to Morocco to decades of USO tours entertaining American troops in active war zones, remains staggering.
Hope performed for soldiers in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. In 1997, Congress recognized his efforts by naming him an Honorary Veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, the only civilian to have received that designation at the time.
4. Norman Lloyd
Hal Holbrook falls just outside the 100 mark, so this slide belongs to Norman Lloyd, born November 8, 1914, and died May 11, 2021, at 106. Lloyd worked in Hollywood across an extraordinary span, appearing in films directed by Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin early in his career, and later becoming a producer and director himself.
He had a long run on St. Elsewhere in the 1980s and was still giving interviews and attending events into his 100s. His career stretched from the 1930s to the 2010s, an almost incomprehensible arc.
5. Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter was born on October 1, 1924, and died on December 29, 2024, at 100 years old. He became the longest-lived U.S. president in history. Carter entered hospice care in February 2023 and remained there, at home in Plains, Georgia, for nearly two years, far longer than most medical observers expected.
His post-presidential work through Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center defined his legacy as much as anything he did in the White House. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for decades of diplomatic and humanitarian efforts.
6. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
The Queen Mother, born August 4, 1900, died March 30, 2002, at 101. She was one of the most recognizable figures in British public life for most of the 20th century, serving as queen consort during World War II alongside King George VI.
Her decision to remain in London during the Blitz, rather than evacuate with her daughters, became a defining image of British wartime resilience. She was known for her love of horse racing, her fondness for gin, and her ability to project warmth in public settings across more than seven decades of royal duties.
7. Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer was born on January 12, 1910, and died on December 30, 2014, at 104. She won back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Actress in 1937 and 1938, for The Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth, and then largely walked away from Hollywood.
She found the studio system suffocating and spent most of her long life in Europe, rarely discussing her film career. For decades she was treated as a footnote. By the time she was in her 90s, film historians had begun reassessing her work, and she started giving interviews again, often with a dry wit about how strange it was to be rediscovered so late.
8. George Burns
George Burns was born on January 20, 1896, and died on March 9, 1996, at 100. He had joked for years about living to 100, and he made it, though only by about seven weeks.
Burns was 79 when he won an Academy Award for The Sunshine Boys in 1976, launching the final chapter of a career that had begun in vaudeville in the early 1900s. He was still performing stand-up into his late 90s. The cigars he was famous for smoking daily became one of the great ironies of his longevity, though he himself seemed to find it more amusing than anyone.
9. Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks was born on June 28, 1926, and turned 100 in 2026. His milestone places him among a rare group of major entertainers who have reached a full century.
Brooks directed Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and The Producers, and he continued to perform, record, and appear publicly well into his late 90s. Reaching 100 while still being recognizably sharp, opinionated, and funny makes his longevity especially remarkable.
