90 is the New 40: Kim Novak and Nonagenarian Legends Proving Age is Just a Number

Kim Novak was back in the spotlight this week with her appearance at the Venice Film Festival.

And she isn’t the only nonagenarian still enjoying their years in showbiz, with a slew of icons celebrating their tenth decade.

Some of the most legendary names in Hollywood including Sophia Loren and Judi Dench have reached their milestone 90th year, and beyond.

Whilst conservationists Jane Goodall and David Attenborough are still travelling the world to spread their message and knowledge.

Now Daily Mail takes a look at the golden era celebrities who are still giving their younger counterparts a run for their money. 

Kim Novak, 92 

Kim Novak looked unrecognisable as she collected the Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement this week after releasing a documentary about her poverty-stricken upbringing.

The Vertigo actress, 92, was there to accept a lifetime achievement award, but it was her age-defying appearance that had a lot of fans talking.

Kim, who has admitted to doing cosmetic work in the past, looked much younger than her 92 years.

Her skin was taught and smooth, and her cheeks were plump and youthful. 

She looked every inch the glamorous movie star in a slinky black dress with a silk shawl wrapped around her shoulders to cover her decolletage.

Kim’s appearance famously caused a stir back in 2014 when she attended the Oscars with a noticeably puffier face, which drew widespread criticism from viewers.

Even Donald Trump weighed in on her look, tweeting at the time, ‘Kim should sue her plastic surgeon!’

Addressing the backlash in an open letter on Facebook, Novak wrote, ‘After my appearance on the Oscars this year, I read all the jabs. I know what Donald Trump and others said, and I’m not going to deny that I had fat injections in my face.’

She continued, ‘They seemed far less invasive than a facelift. It was done in 2012 for the TCM interview special. In my opinion, a person has a right to look as good as they can, and I feel better when I look better.’

Dame Judi is celebrating more than 60 years in showbiz after making her debut professional stage performance in 1957 and starring in her first movie in 1964’s  The Third Secret.

An Oscar, 11 BAFTAs and seven Laurence Olivier Awards later and the beloved actress is still working with her next project reported to be her own TV show where she enjoys drinks with longtime pal Kenneth Branagh.

She once quipped: ‘A paramedic once said to me, “Do we have a carer? What’s our name?” and I said, “I’ve just done eight weeks at the Garrick Theatre!”‘ 

In recent years Dame Judi has spoken openly about her deteriorating eyesight due to macular degeneration.

But the star has admitted she prefers to ignore age-related ailments, instead tricking herself into thinking she’s younger.

‘We’ve got to keep going and not think of age too much. You have to think you are about 56,’ she once declared.  ‘Also I don’t make a point of keeping fit. I am very bad at that.’

Sophia Loren, 90

Italian sex-symbol Sophia doesn’t have plans to retire anytime soon.

The 90-year-old veteran film star still loves working on-screen and despite her age, she doesn’t have any intention of walking away from the movie industry.

As one of the last surviving major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema, she told told Deadline last year: ‘I don’t want to think about legacy. I want to think about my next movie.’

‘I’ll think of legacy once I retire and I hope never to retire.’ 

The star is also still confident in her looks., declaring whilst in her eighties: ‘I look very well. I look fantastic. I’m laughing, but everybody says so. Everybody says so!’

As well as taking on the odd acting role, with her most recent being the 2020 Netflix film The Life Ahead, directed by her son Edoardo, Sophia also keeps busy with her burgeoning restaurant empire Bari, which opened its latest spot in Hong Kong last year.

Willie Nelson, 92

Despite battling a number of health woes over the years – including emphysema, pneumonia and COVID-19 – Willie is looking stronger than ever. 

The American icon continues to tour the country with his band Family and still puts on quite the show when he takes to the stage.

While he now seems in good health, he confessed that the thought of dying does still cross his mind, yet it doesn’t concern him. 

He shared last year: ‘I’m 91 plus, so, you know, I’m not worried about it. I don’t feel bad. I don’t hurt anywhere. I don’t have any reason to worry about dying. 

Willie added he takes ‘pretty good care of myself’, noting: ‘And I feel like I’m in pretty good shape physically. 

‘Mentally? That’s another story!’ 

Joan Collins, 92

Born in 1933, British acting legend Dame Joan has been in the spotlight since childhood – she starred in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House aged just nine before emerging again in the early fifties, getting her big break playing a troubled teen in the 1952 film I Believe in You.

In 2023 to mark her tenth decade, Joan told Saga Magazine: ‘I think what is important is not age, but how you look, feel and behave.’ 

Dame Joan has often said that she stays away from junk food and credits her youthful appearance to a balanced diet – but without denying herself life’s pleasures, including a glass of fizz or pudding if she wants it.

Speaking previously to the Daily Mail, she once said: ‘The quality of what you eat is as important as the quality of the products you use’.

Another of her secrets is working out with a physiotherapist for half an hour every day, as well as swimming regularly. 

As for surgery Dame Joan has always held a firm stance on tweakments, writing in The Telegraph: ‘A lot of people think I’ve had a ton of work done. To set the record straight: I have not.’

‘I haven’t had Botox, I haven’t had any tweakments, I haven’t had fat injections, and honestly, when I look at the women who have – certainly a lot of women in their 40s – it appalls me.’

Feeling and looking good has meant Joan has no plans to retire, most recently starring in the 2025 mystery film A Murder Between Friends in which she played a legendary TV detective. 

Coming up is The Bitter End in which Joan is sharing the screen with Isabella Rossellini to tell the chilling true story of the last days of the Duchess of Windsor.

Mary Berry, 90

Great British Bake Off icon Dame Mary is planning a new BBC project to celebrate her milestone 90th. 

She is set to return to screens this autumn with a special series in celebration of her life, including all her favourite recipes. 

Whilst she is returning to the telly, the baking legend’s recent birthday celebrations were also far from low key, as she spilled to Vogue: ‘There will be cake, and champagne. I’m all for parties.’

The chef also admitted she is no fan of gyms and instead takes after her mother, who preferred walking for exercise, quipping: ‘She didn’t go to gyms and I couldn’t agree with her more.’

Mary previously suffered a health scare when she was picking sweet peas in her garden in August 2021 and tripped.

She had to wait three and a half hours for an ambulance to arrive and had surgery for a broken hip at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.

The TV star said the following year: ‘My GP told me, ”You’ve two options. You could sit in a chair and do no exercise and quite probably be dead in four years, or you can set to, walk (uphill too!) and do everything you can, and it’ll take 18 months for a full recovery”.

‘And gosh, she was right. I’ve exercised and had lots of physio and it’s not quite normal yet, but it will be.’

William Shatner, 94 

Star Trek legend William made history in 2021 when he became the oldest person to travel to space at the age of 90. 

In the years that have followed he has continued to enjoy a fast paced lifestyle, appearing on shows such as The Masked Singer as The UnXplained. 

William revealed last year that his secret to staying young was to ‘stay engaged in life, to stay curious.’

He explained: ‘Your life’s energy, the soul energy of your body is a product of health. If you’re sick, you can’t be energetic. You’re dying. So my luck has been, I’ve been healthy all my life,’ he said.

The Golden Globe winner also credited his wife Elizabeth Shatner, 66, with keeping him young.

They were married from 2001 to 2020, and then reconciled with each other in 2023.

 It’s been six decades since her breakout role as Anita in West Side Story. 

Yet Rita has shown no signs of slowing down of late, continuing to land a number of high profile roles – most recently in 2023’s Fast X and Family Switch. 

The Oscar-winning actress is still gracing red carpets and posing for glamorous shoots as a nonagenarian and in 2017 she credited her Puerto Rican heritage with her youthful visage. 

‘I was born in Puerto Rico,’ she told People. ‘I used to sit in the sun until I looked like a piece of bacon. It’s a wonder now that I don’t look like an old wallet. I’m a very fortunate person.’ 

On her beauty secrets, she continued: ‘People don’t like to hear what I have to say, [but] it’s bare minimum. I don’t do anything except keep my skin clean [with Cetaphil skin cleanser] and moisturized [with Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Moisturizer SPF 30] and they want to smack me. 

‘They say ‘It’s not fair!’ I really sympathize with them, but I don’t have any problems with my skin.’

Jane Goodall, 91

Having dedicated her life to the study of chimpanzees, Jane is used to living a life of simple means. 

Yet she has proved that the secret to good health and vitality is not one that has to come from a life of luxury. 

Jane credits her diet with her youthful energy, previously saying: ‘I’m vegan and I’m fit as a fiddle. A plant-based diet is really, really important and, luckily, more and more people are becoming vegetarian or even vegan.’

She added that she manages to stay fit by constantly keeping busy, explaining: ‘I just get through each day as best I can. I don’t have time to meditate.

‘I do what I have to do, catch up with emails, videos, do zoom, do interviews and meet people and give talks, lectures. And that’s my life. The other thing is I don’t think about my health, I just be.’

David Attenborough, 99 

He may be just shy of his milestone 100th birthday, yet David is still hard at work and shows no sign of slowing down soon. 

The British living legend continues to voice nature documentaries and has travelled the world examining the animals he studies. 

While he has battled health woes in the past – in 2013, he had a pacemaker fitted, and in 2015, he underwent knee replacement surgery – he has remained largely in good health. 

He remains optimistic about the future too and in 2017, Sir David told The Sun: ‘I see no reason whatsoever why I can’t live past 100.’

As he ages, he has adjusted his food intake, shifting to more of a  plant-based diet for his health. 

He explained in 2020: ‘I have certainly changed my diet. Not in a great sort of dramatic way. But I don’t think I’ve eaten red meat for months. 

‘I do eat cheese, I have to say, and I eat fish. But by and large I’ve become much more vegetarian over the past few years than I thought I would ever be.’