81 Years Old Females

With several prestigious honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, under her belt, Diana Ross is one of the most popular and influential singers of all time. In 1976, Billboard named her the Female Entertainer of the Century. She has influenced popular artists like Madonna, Beyoncé, and Michael Jackson.

Joni Mitchell is one of the most popular Canadian singer-songwriters. Widely regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, her songs reflect her feelings about joy, romance, disillusionment, and confusion. Apart from being a musician, Joni is also a visual artist who designs most of her album covers. In fact, she calls herself a painter derailed by circumstance.  

Stockard Channing is an American actress best known for playing Abbey Bartlet on the political drama TV series The West Wing. Over the years, Channing has been contributing to the success of many TV series as an actress, for which she has received 13 Primetime Emmy Award nominations. A seven-time Tony Award nominee, Channing is also an important stage actress.

Activist, philosopher, academic and author, Angela Davis is a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS). She has worked in the areas of feminism, class, race and the US prison system. She has also received criticism for supporting the erstwhile Soviet Union and has been accused of supporting political violence.

Michelle Phillips is an American singer-songwriter, actress, and former model. She is credited with co-founding the folk rock vocal group The Mamas & the Papas and is the last surviving original member of the group. After the disbandment of the group, Phillips went on to establish herself as an actress, playing lead roles in TV films like The California Kid.

French actress Catherine Deneuve is considered one of the greatest European actresses. Beginning her career at the age of 12, she gained international prominence with her role in the movie The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. She is a 14-time César Award nominee and the recipient of a David di Donatello award. She is multilingual and speaks fluent French, Italian, and English.

Shelley Fabares is an American actress best known for playing Christine Armstrong in the popular television series, Coach, for which she received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Also known for her skills as a singer, Fabares recorded Lee Pockriss' and Lyn Duddy's song, Johnny Angel, in 1961, helping it reach the top position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Jane Hawking is an English teacher and author. She is best known as the ex-wife of popular physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking. She was married to Hawking for 30 years, during which she doubled up as his caretaker. Jane Hawking took good care of Stephen Hawking despite struggling from depression, for which she is much-respected in the scientific community.

Veteran actress, Lin Shaye, has been active in the entertainment industry since the early 1970s. She developed a love for acting as a young child and studied acting at the University of Michigan. Beginning her career with small roles in plays, she eventually branched out into films as well. She is considered a formidable character actress.  

Often described by tabloids as the "thinking man’s sex symbol," Valerie Perrine won a BAFTA for her role of Honey Bruce in Lenny. Fans also loved her as Eve Teschmacher in the Superman franchise. Famous for her voluptuous figure, Perrine had started her career as a Vegas show girl.

Canadian retired actress Joanna Shimkus is best known for her role in the film  The Lost Man, in which she starred opposite her future husband, Sidney Poitier. She made her movie debut in the mid-1960s and was active in the film industry for around a decade before she got married and retired to raise her children.

German-Brazilian Silvia Renate Sommerlath is a trained interpreter and has also served the Argentine consulate in Munich. She met Swedish crown prince Carl Gustaf while serving as a hostess at the 1972 Olympic Games and later got married to him and became Queen Silvia of Sweden.

A seasoned lawyer and a Harvard and Trinity College alumna, politician Mary Robinson has also taught law at Trinity. The Labour Party member later rose to be Ireland’s first female president. She was also a founding member of the global group of peacekeepers and leaders The Elders.

Swedish-American actor Gunilla Hutton is best known for the series Petticoat Junction and Hee Haw. She was also in the news for her long-term extramarital relationship with singer Nat King Cole, which ended after Cole was diagnosed with cancer, but not before Hutton called up his wife to confront her.

Finland’s 11th president, Tarja Halonen was also the first Finnish female politician to hold the post. Initially a lawyer at the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions, she stepped into politics as the parliamentary secretary of Finnish prime minister Kalevi Sorsa. She has also been Finland’s minister of justice and foreign affairs.

German designer Jil Sander had been a fashion editor for Petra before she launched her own boutique. She is known for her signature minimalist aesthetic and her association with Prada, which had acquired 75% shares of her company. She later collaborated with Fast Retailing to design for Uniqlo.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland. As a postgraduate student, she discovered the first radio pulsars. She graduated from the University of Glasgow and pursued an academic career. In 2018, she received the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her discovery of radio pulsars. She donated the three million dollars she received as prize money.  

Sonal Mansingh is an Indian classical dancer best known for her skills as an Odissi and Bharatanatyam dancer. Over the years, Mansingh has been honored with several prestigious awards like Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship. In 2003, she became only the second woman after Balasaraswati to be honored with India’s second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan.