The Oscars 2012: Is The Academy Ageist?
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From Gwenyth Paltrow to Marion Cotillard to Natalie Portman, recent conventional wisdom might lead you to believe that the predominantly old, white and male Academy Awards voters favor pretty young actresses.
Conversely, it goes to reason that Academy voters would also prefer seasoned actors like greybeards Gary Oldman and Jeff Bridges over upstarts like Michael Fassbender. But! Is that the case?
To answer this question, your dutiful Moviefone editors went back over all 84 years of Oscar history to figure out the average ages of every Best Actor and Best Actress nominee. The results may or may not surprise you, depending on how little you think of the AMPAS voting block.
Below is a nifty compilation of all the May-December (and everyone in between) Best Actor/Actress nominees.
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First Posted: 02/21/2012 12:41 pm Updated: 02/21/2012 1:15 pm