The 10 Best Examples of Aging Awesomely

By Sherrie Gulmahamad on November 10th, 2009

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I was at Trader Joe’s recently where I watched a cashier patiently dealing with an older woman, who was complaining about the small bruise on her avocado. She was tiny, ancient, and a little mean — and it just got me thinking about THE INEVITABLE: getting older, walking slower, squinting more, having a bony old flat behind, gray hair, menopausal maelstroms, and so on. Sure, I could have written that list to sound a little more respectful, but frankly, watching my body change is gonna freak me out big time.

But, chicas, for every freakout, there is an equal and opposite counter-freakout. There are plenty of hip old ladies who are making getting older look very cool and not scary at all.  And while I’ve seen plenty of print about “hot women over 50″ that focus solely on looks and lack of wrinkles, I factored in creative longevity and something I call “general awesomeness” to create this list.

Every time you think about your sagging rack, think about these rocking chicks (everyone over the age of 50) who are defying the passage of time by continuing to be smoking hot, extremely talented, and inspirational.

1) Yoko Ono

Now before you start screaming at me that she broke up the Beatles, you need to stop and check yo’ self. Any self-respecting true Beatles fan knows a number of factors contributed to their breakup, and it wasn’t just the machinations of this diminutive Japanese artist (plus, why doesn’t anyone blame Linda?). Before Yoko even met John, she was a successful artist in her own right, working loosely within the Fluxus movement, but always maintaining creative independence from them through her performance art and conceptual installations. Many people like to focus on her caterwauling musical performances in John Lennon’s post-Beatles work, but I like to focus on the fact that she’s in her 70s and can still rock a spiky short haircut, short shorts, and big black sunglasses — all while being a constant advocate for peace and understanding. Plus, how many 76-year-old women are performing songs with Basement Jaxx? Go on, tell me.

2) Helen Mirren

Well duh. Did you see her rocking a bikini recently? Did you see her hyper-focused performance in “The Queen”? How about that same razor-sharp acting talent throughout seven seasons of “Prime Suspect”? Again, did you see her in a bikini recently? This lady is making us all look terrible. And she truly makes me feel better about getting older.

3) Martha Stewart

Well, you see a lady who went to prison for insider trading, I see a lady who helped me win a cupcake contest at work recently (muahahaha)! Say what evil things you will about Martha, she has built her own media empire while managing to live a gracious life and while trying to make ours a little nicer around the edges too. She’s still looking good, still churning away at her TV shows, supporting her daughter at her own (”Whatever, Martha!” is an excellent show, BTW), and can still put the ganache icing on a cake with her trademark panache. Don’t mess with her either. I think she’d cut you.

4) Sophia Loren

How could I make a list like this and not throw this name into the hat? Every year you see pictures of her at Cannes, at the Oscars, and every year she still manages to look like a sultry Italian goddess.  In 1963, in Vittorio De Sica’s anthology film “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow“, she performed one of cinema’s most memorable strip teases for an always-devilishly good looking Marcello Mastroianni. In 1994, the now much older couple came together to nearly stage the same scene in Robert Altman’s fashion world satire, “Pret a Porter”. In one fail swoop, *both* these giants of cinema proved that getting older doesn’t mean you get less sexy (although the 1994 Marchello couldn’t keep up with 1994 Loren!). Sophia Loren is still working too, you will be able to see her in the much anticipated Fellini-esque musical from Rob Marshall, “Nine”.

5) Jane Fonda

Very few people on this planet can go from being the offspring of a famous but emotionally detached father, to floating in space in a sexy costume, to being a hated and controversial critic of American foreign policy, to making 80s workout videos, to being married to one of the richest men in America, all the way to making a movie with Lindsay Lohan, and surviving that somehow. For that last one alone, we salute you.  I’m sure we will get the standard “you must hate America” comments for adding this lady to the list, but I’m gonna give it up for J-Fon for evolving from Barbarella to Klute in only 3 years.

6) Isabelle Huppert

This woman was in her prime in Michael Cimino’s mega-beautiful mega-flop “Heaven’s Gate”, and then she shows up in another misunderstood movie in 2004, David O. Russell’s  “I Heart Huckabees” — again, as a beautiful siren that leads men off their paths. That’s 24 years of being beautiful, poised and talented. She’s on the other side of 50 now, and still playing the sexy one, most recently in “Ma Mere“.  Huppert is one of many Frenchwomen (see also: Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau) that have us on our knees praying to the gods that we too will be as alluring into our later years.

7) Patti Smith

Long long before there was Karen O, there was Patti Smith, The Godmother of Punk, who wove spoken word into her songs and was admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.  Her iconic 70s albums – Horses, Radio Ethiopia, Easter and Wave continue to inspire musicians – fellow rock behemoths Morrissey and Michael Stipe claim her as a primary influence.  And like some of the other women on this list, she is an visual artist as well. An exhibition of her art was shown at the Andy Warhol Museum in 2002 and in 2008, the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain hosted a major retrospective of her visual works, spanning from 1967 to 2007.  And like Yoko Ono, Patti Smith remains an political advocate for peace and human rights.  At 63, Smith remains as ineffably cool and strong as she looked on that Mapplethorpe cover for Horses in 1975.

8 ) Cloris Leachman

Yes yes reality TV show junkies, I am aware of the fact that she was 82 years old when she was on season 7 of Dancing with the Stars, and that she was subjected to some mildly traumatic dance moves during her pairing with Corky Ballas.  But did you know Cloris Leachman was an OG cinema cougar? Think back to The Last Picture Show, in which she plays a lonely Texas housewife who takes up with a much younger man played by Timothy Bottoms – her performance in that plaintive black and white film was heartbreaking and sincere.  Since then, she’s been nominated for Emmys more than 20 times (some of those noms for her work on Mary Tyler Moore), has starred in 3 classic Mel Brooks movies, and played the crazy grandma on Malcolm in the Middle.  Leachman proves to us that a life full of good work and lots of epic laughs can keep you forever fabulous.

9) Pam Grier

No woman, and I mean it, no woman, is cooler than Pam Grier was in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown.  Sure, the iconic Grier of the blacksploitation classics Coffy and Foxy Brown managed to be both kick ass and sexy – but there was something even more captivating about Grier at 48, playing Jackie, a smart-cookie airline stewardess caught up with some bad characters.  Tarantino knew it too, every moment that Grier is on screen in that film is electric, and there was something wonderful in watching Max Cherry (another 70s movie vet, Robert Forrester) be completely lost in her charms.  Grier was most recently seen amongst the hotties of The L Word…but I also loved her as the don’t-mess-with-me mom in Mars Attacks.

10) Joni Mitchell

Here is a woman just as powerful and creative today as she was during her earliest “Ladies of the Canyon” days.  Mitchell made it through the 60s, a decade that was kinder to female groupies instead of female musicians (read Michael Walker’s Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Legendary Neighborhood for more details).  She is one of the few female musician’s whose Wikipedia page does *NOT* go into any details about her boyfriends, marriages, etc. for truly her body of work usurps such tabloid details.  She has made the artwork for her albums, and in recent years has preferred the paintbrush to her guitar.  Her songs have been covered by, seriously, nearly everybody, from Judy Collins to Mandy Moore, from Prince to A Perfect Circle.  And hell, she’s been sampled by Kanye West and Janet Jackson!  When I begin the sentence, “When I grow old, I want to be like – ” the end of it always is “Joni Mitchell.”

I think I could go on even longer. So many other women totally qualify for this list – these were just my favorites. But here a few other rather obvious nominees: Meryl Streep, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Exene Cervenka, Sally Field, Kim Cattrall, Angela Bassett, Susan Sarandon, Ruby Dee, Ellen Barkin, Jennifer Saunders, hell – Madonna even qualifies nowadays.  Wow, that just made me feel old.  Time to reread this blog post, I guess!

Finish this sentence for us in the comments, Twirl-ers: “When I grow old, I want to be like:”