1. John Paul Stevens, 88
Associate Supreme Court justice since 1975. Justice Stevens is currently the court's oldest and longest-serving member and wrote the most-cited opinion in American law, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Acted as chief justice in September 2005 prior to the swearing-in of John Roberts.
• Authored the majority opinions on Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Rasul v. Bush, McConnell v. FEC, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, Apprendi v. New Jersey, and Massachusetts v. EPA.
• Wrote dissenting opinions in Bush v. Gore and Van Orden v. Perry.

2. Kirk Kerkorian, 91
President and CEO of investment company Tracinda Corp.; majority owner of Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage. As of March, the Armenian-American Kerkorian was the 41st-richest person in the world.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Bought Steve Wynn's Mirage Resorts for $6.4 billion in 2000 and Mandalay Bay Resorts for $7.9 billion in 2004.
• Pledged $200 million to the people of Armenia in 1998 through his Lincy Foundation; pledged another $60 million to the Armenian government in 2006.
• Became implicated in the Anthony Pellicano scandal when he hired the P.I. to investigate his now-ex-wife.

3. T. Boone Pickens, 80
Chairman and founder of the hedge fund BP Capital Management. Pickens' fortune stands at $4 billion and growing. A famous Texan wildcatter, Pickens is now turning his attention to alternative energy.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Announced the Pickens Plan in July 2008. The proposal seeks to reduce American dependence on foreign oil by investing $1 trillion in wind turbines; Pickens himself plans to spend $58 million on promoting the plan.
• Donated $100 million to Oklahoma State University and $25 million to the University of Calgary.

4. Si Newhouse, Jr., 80
Chairman and CEO of his family's privately held Advance Publications, which owns Condé Nast—home of fancy titles like The New Yorker and Vogue. According to a recent New York Times profile, micromanager Newhouse personally hand-counts ad pages in both his magazines and in their competitors.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Has no plans to retire but has installed family members in key positions in Condé Nast's upper echelon, suggesting that he may be succeeded by a team of people.

5. Sumner Redstone, 85
Chairman and CEO of National Amusements Inc., which has controlling interests in Viacom, the CBS Corp., MTV, and Paramount. Redstone's net worth is currently estimated at $6.8 billion.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Bought DreamWorks for $1.5 billion in 2006; bought out his son's Viacom stake for $240 billion last year.
• Ended Paramount's contract with Tom Cruise, citing the actor's "unacceptable behavior."
• Pledged $105 million to three medical institutions to further cancer and burn victim research.

6. Robert Byrd, 90
Senior senator from West Virginia and a vociferous critic of President Bush and the Iraq war. As president pro tempore of the Senate, Byrd, a Democrat, is third in the line of presidential succession.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Currently the longest-serving senator in U.S. history (he'll have been in office for 50 years next January) as well as the oldest member of the Senate.
• Published four books, including a scathing attack on the Bush administration and, most recently, Letter to a New President: Commonsense Lessons for Our Next Leader.
• Was named PETA's 2007 Person of the Year for speaking out on the Senate floor against dog fighting.

7. Henry Kissinger, 85
Secretary of state under President Nixon; guardian of realpolitik theory, practitioner of détente. Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his role in arranging a cease-fire between the United States and North Vietnam.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Served as chancellor of the College of William and Mary from 2001-05.
• Runs Kissinger Associates, the international consulting firm he founded in 1982.
• Continues to be politically active; last year, lobbied India's Bharatiya Janata Party to support the India-U.S. nuclear agreement.
• Regularly writes and speaks on foreign-policy issues.

8. David Rockefeller Sr., 93
Grandson of John D. Rockefeller; patriarch of the famous clan since 2004. In his own right, he is the former chairman, president, and CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank. Rockefeller's lifetime charitable donations are approaching $1 billion.

What have you done for me post-80?

• In 2008, gave $100 million to Harvard University.
• In 2005, pledged a $100 million living endowment to Rockefeller University and another $100 million to the Museum of Modern Art.
• Continues to maintain one of the largest beetle collections in the world.

9. Edward Albee, 80
Hailed as America's greatest living playwright. Albee's most famous plays include Zoo Story, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Seascape, and Three Tall Women. When asked how it felt to have won three Pulitzers, the famously cantankerous Albee replied, "Hmmph! It's not very many."

What have you done for me post-80?

• Premiered a new play, Me, Myself & I.
• Directed two of his plays at the Cherry Lane Theatre as part of a season of Albee productions across the New York area.
• Had March 12, 2008, named "Edward Albee Day" by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

10. Liz Smith, 85
New York gossip columnist, at various publications, for 32 years. Her 2000 memoir, Natural Blonde, was a best-seller.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Co-founded www.wowowow.com, a Web site for older women, with friends including Lesley Stahl, Peggy Noonan, Whoopi Goldberg, Candice Bergen, and Lily Tomlin.
• Continues to write her column for the New York Post three times a week.
• Has her work lovingly tracked by Gawker, who called her one of the Post's "twin pillars of biddy gossip" (the other being the slightly younger Cindy Adams).

11. Studs Terkel, 96
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and broadcaster best known for his series of oral histories, including Hard Times, Working, and The Good War.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Published the oral histories Will the Circle Be Unbroken?, Hope Dies Last, and And They All Sang.
• Published a memoir, Touch and Go, which was chosen as a best book of 2007 by the Chicago Tribune, Publishers Weekly, and Playboy.
• Hosted his hourlong Chicago radio show, The Studs Terkel Program, every weekday for 45 years, until he was 85.

12. David Murdock, 85
Owner, chairman, and CEO of Dole Food Co. and the real-estate firm Castle & Cooke Inc. Murdock is a vegetarian and longtime fitness and nutrition nut.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Plans to develop a $750 million wind farm on the Hawaiian island of Lana'i, of which Murdock owns 98 percent.
• Founding a 350-acre biotech research campus in North Carolina; will invest $100 million to start a venture capital fund for companies based on the campus.

13. Helen Gurley Brown, 86
Former secretary who worked her way up to become the iconic editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan; her semi-autobiographical book Sex and the Single Girl is often credited with being part of both the feminist and sexual revolutions.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Remains the editor of all 58 of Cosmopolitan's international editions; sources inside the Hearst building say she still puts in long hours at the office every day.

14. Peter G. Peterson, 82
Founder and senior chairman of the private-equity firm the Blackstone Group, through which he manages $90 billion across various operations. Peterson served as the U.S. secretary of commerce for a year in the '70s and as chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations for 12 years, until 2007.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Founded the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which focuses on issues including the U.S. budget deficit, Medicare and Social Security reform, and energy consumption.
• Plans to donate most of the $1 billion he made when Blackstone went public last year.

15. Hugh Hefner, 82
Iconic founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy, the grandfather of men's magazines. Hefner grew Playboy Enterprises internationally to include Playboy clubs, resorts, hotels, and casinos.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Remains editor-in-chief and chief creative officer of Playboy.
• Regularly appears on The Girls Next Door, an E! reality show he helped create about his three live-in Playboy Bunny girlfriends.

16. Phyllis Schlafly, 84
Conservative political activist; founded the Eagle Forum, a conservative interest group, in 1972. After her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment in 1974, activist Florynce Kennedy said, "I don't see why some people don't hit Phyllis Schlafly in the mouth."

What have you done for me post-80?

• Continues to serve as president of the Eagle Forum.
• Published The Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges and How To Stop It in 2004 and continues to write a weekly column syndicated to more than 100 newspapers.
• Contributed writings to the 2004 Republican National Convention platform.

17. Joe Paterno, 81
Penn State head football coach for a record-breaking 43 years. As of publication, is tied for the most wins in Division I history, with more bowl-game wins and more undefeated seasons than any other college coach.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Led the Penn State Nittany Lions to an Alamo Bowl win in 2007; is coaching the team again in 2008.

18. I.M. Pei, 91
Pritzker Prize-winning architect; doyen of Modernism. The Chinese-born Pei, who became an American citizen in 1954, designed the glass pyramids in front of the Louvre, the iconic Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, and New York City's Javits Center.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Designed several new projects, including museums in Luxembourg, Berlin, Suzhou, and Qatar.
• Maintains an office in the firm he founded, Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, though he retired in 1990.

19. Jimmy Carter, 83
39th president of the United States; was responsible for creating the Departments of Energy and Education, reducing foreign oil imports, and negotiating peace between Israel and Egypt in 1979. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work resolving international conflicts.

What have you done for me post-80?

• In 2007, Carter joined Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, to announce his participation in a humanitarian group called the Elders.
• Brokered an agreement between Ecuador and Columbia over the restoration of diplomatic relations.
• Published five books since turning 80, one of which won a Grammy award in the spoken-word audiobook category.

20. Daniel Inouye, 84
Senior senator from Hawaii; Democrat. Inouye has served in that role for 45 years and is currently the Senate's third-most-senior member. He has been a member of Congress ever since Hawaii became a state.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Chairs the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Subcommittee on Defense Appropriations.
• Won re-election for an eighth term in the Senate with a landslide 76 percent of the vote.

21. Elaine Stritch, 82
Star of stage and screen. Stritch is revered among musical theater fans for originating the role of Joanne in Stephen Sondheim's Company.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Won an Emmy award at 81 for playing Alec Baldwin's mother on 30 Rock.
• Continues to perform her Tony award-winning solo show, Elaine Stritch at Liberty.

22. Barron Hilton, 80
Heir to and former chairman of the Hilton Hotels empire; grandfather of Nicky and Paris. Hilton sold the family company, which includes 3,700 hotels, to fellow list member Peter G. Peterson's Blackstone Group in 2007, for $26 billion.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Donated $1.2 billion from the sale of Hilton Hotels to the Hilton Foundation, which he chairs, and has committed to bequeathing 97 percent of his fortune when he dies.

23. Irving Penn, 91
Fashion photographer. Penn brought a new, postwar simplicity to his subjects, photographing them in stark, austere surroundings. As well as capturing people, Penn made a series of still lifes, famously saying, "Photographing a cake can be art."

What have you done for me post-80?

• Published A Notebook at Random, a new collection of sketches and photographs, in 2004.
• Continues to produce original photographs. His most recent exhibition, "Irving Penn: Vessels," was shown in New York in early 2008.

24. John Kluge, 93
Television mogul who made a fortune buying and selling broadcast companies. Kluge, currently ranked as the 87th-richest person in the world, is chairman and president of the holding company Metromedia, which invests in electricity, energy, and restaurants.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Endowed the Kluge Prize, a $1 million annual prize, comparable to the Nobel, which recognizes lifetime achievement in the humanities and social sciences.
• Bequeathed $400 million to Columbia in one of the largest donations ever to an American university.

25. John Dingell, 82
U.S. representative from Michigan; Democrat. Dingell is the longest currently serving member of the House, having first assumed office in 1955. He's a leading congressional advocate for social welfare and a national health insurance system.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Chairs the energy and commerce committee.
• Sponsored a bill calling for new drug-safety regulations; co-sponsored a gun-control bill that would make the National Instant Criminal Background Check System more robust.
• Announced his plans to run for a 28th term in November 2008. If still serving in February 2009, Dingell will set a new record for longest House tenure.

26. Stan Lee, 85
Legendary comic-book writer and editor. Lee, the former chairman and president of Marvel Comics, co-created a slew of iconic characters that have since been turned into blockbuster film franchises, including Spider-Man, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and The Hulk.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Published Excelsior!: The Amazing Life of Stan Lee.
• Formed POW (Purveyors of Wonder)!Entertainment, a media company that produces television series, animated films, and mobile-phone programming.
• Created a new line of superhero comics for Richard Branson's Virgin Comics.

27. S. Truett Cathy, 87
Founder of the Chik-fil-A fast food chain. Truett has taught Sunday school for nearly 50 years and enforces a strict no-business-on-Sunday rule throughout the Chik-fil-A franchise. A car fanatic, he owns three firetrucks, a racecar from Days of Thunder, and the Batmobile from Batman Returns.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Continues to run Chik-fil-A, which did nearly $2.7 billion in sales in 2007.
• Wrote or co-wrote four books.
• Oversees the WinShape Foundation, which "shapes winners" by supporting college scholarships, leadership programs, foster care homes, overseas missionary work, and "marriage-enrichment retreats."

28. Mary Higgins Clark, 80
Suspense and mystery writer whose books have sold more than 80 million copies in the United States. Each of her 24 published novels has reached the best-seller list; she's also the No. 1 best-selling fiction author in France.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Published best-seller Where Are You Now? in 2008.
• Currently writing a new book scheduled for November release.

29. Merce Cunningham, 89
Modern dancer and choreographer. Like his life partner, musician John Cage (who passed away in 1992), Cunningham is known for his use of chance operations in his work. No longer able to dance, he uses special computer software to choreograph his pieces.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Choreographed major new works including Interscape, with music by Cage and design by fellow list member Robert Rauschenberg.
• At 81, appeared in his first acting role in a stage adaptation of Cage's radio play An Alphabet.
• Published Other Animals, a book of original artwork, at 83.

30. John Warner, 81
Senior senator from Virginia; Republican. A moderate, he has served in the Senate since 1979 and is not seeking re-election this year. Warner is both a former secretary of the Navy and a former husband to Elizabeth Taylor.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Chaired the Committee on Armed Services from 2003 to 2007 (after having previously chaired the committee twice).
• Co-sponsored, with Joe Lieberman, a controversial global-warming bill that would enforce a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse-gas emissions; it died in the Senate this past June.

31. John Sperling, 87
Former history professor who became a billionaire by founding the for-profit University of Phoenix. As of 2004, Sperling—a staunch supporter of legalizing medical marijuana—planned to bequeath his entire fortune to endow a program that would research life-extension technology.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Currently serves as acting executive chairman of the Apollo Group, the nation's largest private university system.
• Published two books.

32. Tony Bennett, 82
Silky-voiced crooner. Bennett's career began in the 1950s, but since the mid-1990s, his swinging renditions of American popular standards have enjoyed a newfound popularity.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Won two Grammy awards for his album Duets: An American Classic, released to coincide with his 80th birthday.
• Starred in an NBC concert special—directed by Oscar winner Rob Marshall and written by Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright—that won seven Emmy awards.
• Guest-starred on American Idol and Saturday Night Live.

33. Alan Greenspan, 82
Economist with a record-length tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Greenspan was a close associate of Ayn Rand, who nicknamed him "the undertaker."

What have you done for me post-80?

• Served as Fed chairman until just before he turned 80.
• Heads the advising and consulting company Greenspan Associates LLC.
• Published his memoir The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World and continues to write and speak about economic issues.

34. Edgar Wayburn, 101
Dedicated environmentalist; former five-term president of the Sierra Club. Wayburn's work helped establish the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (the largest urban park in the United States) and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom; President Clinton claimed that Wayburn had "saved more of our wilderness than any person alive."
• Published his memoir, Your Land and Mine: Evolution of a Conservationist.
• Headed the Sierra Club's Alaska Task Force, which sought to stem logging and oil drilling in the Alaskan wilderness.

35. Paul Newman, 83
Actor, entrepreneur, race-car driver, and philanthropist. Academy Award-winning Newman has become almost as well-known for his Newman's Own-brand salad dressing as for his portrayals of Butch Cassidy and Cool Hand Luke. To date, charity profits from Newman's Own are more than $220 million.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Provided the voice of Doc Hudson in the animated Pixar movie Cars in 2006.
• Donated $10 million to Kenyon College for a scholarship fund in 2007.

36. Leonore Annenberg, 90
Major philanthropist in arts and education. Annenberg is the widow of publishing magnate Walter Annenberg; she inherited half of his estate upon his death in 2002. She is currently president and chairperson of the Annenberg Foundation, through which she makes her sizable donations.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Donated $30 million to the Eisenhower Medical Center in California.
• Donated $65 million to music programs in the Philadelphia area.
• Pledged $250 million to build an education center on the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

37. Charles Dolan, 81
Founder and chairman of Cablevision; founder of HBO.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Saw shares in Cablevision rise 32 percent in 2008.
• Is one of many high-profile Hillary Clinton supporters who have defected to the McCain campaign.

38. Ralph Hall, 85
United States representative from Texas. Hall is the oldest member of the House.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Serves as ranking minority member of the Committee on Science and Technology.
• Traveled to Iraq in 2007 to visit service members from Texas.
• At 80, switched party allegiance from Democratic to Republican, citing concerns with criticism of George Bush and difficulty getting funding for his district.

39. Joe Jamail, 82
Attorney and billionaire. Known in legal circles as "the King of Torts," Jamail is one of the wealthiest lawyers in America, having secured more than 200 verdicts and nearly $13 billion in client settlements over the course of his career.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Gave $15 million to the University of Texas in 2008.
• Continues to practice law, most recently in a wrongful death lawsuit in Galveston, Texas, last month.

40. Oliver Smithies, 83
Nobel Prize-winning geneticist. Smithies has been breaking new grounds in molecular biology since the mid-'50s when he invented a gel that facilitated the separation of proteins, revolutionizing the field of genetics.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Co-won the Nobel Prize in physiology for discoveries in the field of genetics in 2007 at the age of 82.
• Continues his research as excellence professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he's currently researching hypertension and hemoglobinopathies.

41. Frank Lautenberg, 84
Senior senator from New Jersey; Democrat. Lautenberg, who served in the Senate from 1982 to 2001, came out of retirement to run again in 2003. A former commissioner of the New York/New Jersey Port Authority, he is a major supporter of public-transportation issues.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Chairs the Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality.
• Chairs the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security.
• Currently running for re-election.

42. Mike Wallace, 90
Award-winning journalist; lead correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes for 37 years. In the course of his career, Wallace has sat down with some of the world's most prominent newsmakers. In the 1999 film The Insider, Wallace was played by "79er to Watch" list member Christopher Plummer.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Was a full-time correspondent for 60 Minutes until he was 87, though he still contributes occasional pieces to the program.
• Received a 2006 Emmy for his interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• Broke the story about Jose Canseco's steroid use.
• Published Between You and Me with Gary Paul Gates.

43. Carl Lindner Jr., 89
Principal owner, with his family, of the insurance and investment company American Financial Group, a member of the Fortune 500. Lindner formerly ran Chiquita Brands, the Cincinnati Reds, and the United Dairy Farmers chain of stores.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Has been a top supporter of Republican candidates; in July, hosted an event than raised about $2 million for John McCain.
• From 2000 to 2004, donated $2.6 million—more than any other American—to federal candidates, parties, and political action committees.
• Was CEO of Chiquita when the company began funneling nearly $1.7 million to a Colombian terrorist group.

44. Ralph Regula, 83
U.S. representative from the 16th District of Ohio; Republican. His key issues include education, health, and alternative energy. The second-longest serving Republican in the House, Regula, a moderate, does not intend to seek re-election to a 19th term.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Chaired the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education from 2002 to 2006; is currently the subcommittee's ranking minority member.
• Serves as ranking minority member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

45. Mel Brooks, 82
Writer, director, producer, and comedy legend. Brooks is one of the few entertainers to have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards. His notable films include Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and The Producers, which he turned into a smash-hit Broadway musical in 2001.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Co-wrote the book, music, and lyrics for The New Mel Brooks Musical: Young Frankenstein, which opened on Broadway in 2007 and is still running, despite mixed reviews.

46. Maya Angelou, 80
Beloved poet and civil rights activist. Angelou is the author of a six-book series of memoirs, including the freshman English staple I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings—one of 2007's 10 most-challenged books in American schools and libraries.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Continues to lecture often; commands a speaking fee of approximately $43,000 per engagement.
• Hosts a weekly show on XM Radio's Oprah & Friends.

47. Bruton O. Smith, 80
Powerful NASCAR track owner. Smith is the head of Speedway Motorsports as well as the head of Sonic Automotive Inc., which he founded in 1994. His net worth is estimated at $1.4 billion as of 2007.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2007.
• Remains active at the helm of both his companies.

48. Horton Foote, 92
Oscar, Pulitzer, and Emmy-award-winning writer. He wrote the screenplays for To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Mercies, The Trip to Bountiful, and 1992's Of Mice and Men.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Currently has a script in production, Durham Grill, scheduled for a 2009 release.
• Wrote the acclaimed teleplays Lily Dale, Old Man, and Alone.
• Premiered new plays including The Last of the Thorntons and The Carpetbagger's Children.
• Nominated for a Tony award at 82 for The Young Man From Atlanta.

49. Robert Earl Holding, 81
Owner of Sinclair Oil, the 38th-largest private company in America, since 1976. Holding also owns a number of hotels and two ski resorts, including Sun Valley in Idaho. As of 2007, Holding was the 80th-richest person in America.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Continues to serve as president and CEO of Sinclair Oil, following a severe stroke in 2006.

50. Hal Holbrook, 83
Stage and screen actor well-known for his portrayals of Mark Twain. Besides being married to Dixie Carter, Holbrook is perhaps the only member of the list to have a species of toad named after him.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Nominated for a 2007 best supporting actor Oscar for his role in Into the Wild, making him the oldest-ever nominee in that category.

51. Hal Prince, 80
Theatrical director and producer; winner of more Tony awards than anyone else in history. Prince was responsible for such landmark musicals as West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Sweeney Todd, and Phantom of the Opera. Prince is back to work after suffering a stroke just before his 80th birthday.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Currently preparing to direct his 61st Broadway show, Paradise Found, the story of a 19th-century Persian shah's infatuation with an Austrian countess.

52. Alfred E. Mann, 83
Billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist. Mann started his first aerospace company, Spectrolab, in 1956. In 1972, he turned his attention to innovative biomedical developments, producing pacemakers, insulin pumps, and neuroprosthetics.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Gave a $100 million endowment to Purdue University, the largest in the school's history, in 2007.
• Remains active as CEO of the Mannkind Corp., a biopharmaceutical company, and chairman of the Alfred Mann Foundation.

53. Jacques Barzun, 100
French-American scholar and historian; author of more than 40 books whose topics range from science to culture to education. He taught at Columbia University for almost 50 years, retiring in 1975 to become literary adviser to Charles Scribner's Sons, where he worked until 1993.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Began work on his magnum opus, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, at the age of 84.
• Has published nine books since turning 80, the most recent when he was 97 years old.

54. Robert Morgenthau, 89
Manhattan's District Attorney; believed to be the inspiration for the character of D.A. Adam Schiff on Law & Order. Morgenthau, former boss to Eliot Spitzer, has been D.A. since 1975, in which capacity he has prosecuted a number of high-profile white-collar cases.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Successfully prosecuted Dennis Kozlowski, former head of Tyco, in one of the most notorious corporate scandals of recent memory.
• Has been elected twice since turning 80, and plans to run for re-election in 2009.

55. John McLaughlin, 81
A former Jesuit priest, Nixon speechwriter, and magazine writer who has hosted the political television roundtable The McLaughlin Group since 1982.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Continues to host The McLaughlin Group as well as John McLaughlin's One on One.
• In 2008, stirred up controversy when he called Barack Obama an "Oreo"

56. Roscoe Bartlett, 82
United States representative from Maryland; Republican. Bartlett is an advocate for reducing dependency on fossil fuels and the only pro-life member of the Maryland delegation.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Serves as a member of three House committees: science, small businesses, and armed services.
• Voted against the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which suspends habeas corpus and allows "enemy combatants" to be detained without trial—one of only seven House Republicans to do so.

57. Harry Pregerson, 84
Judge on the United States Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit. Pregerson, a World War II veteran, has been a judge since 1967. Often criticized by conservative commentators for being too liberal, Pregerson was part of a three-judge panel that ordered the postponement of 2003 California recall.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Authored the panel majority decision in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the largest civil rights class-action suit in U.S. history.

58. William Davidson, 84
Chairman of auto parts manufacturer Guardian Industries Corp., the 50th-largest private company in the United States; Davidson has been the principal owner of the NBA's Detroit Pistons for 34 years; he also owns the WNBA's Detroit Shock and used to own the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Became the first owner in sports history to win championships in three different professional leagues.
• Donated $75 million to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.

59. Louis Auchincloss, 90
"Last of the gentleman novelists," according to New York magazine. A product of the tony Groton School and Yale University, Auchinchloss has chronicled the powerful and privileged in more than 60 works of fiction and nonfiction.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Published four novels and five short-story collections.
• Received the National Medal of Arts in 2005.

60. John Reed, 93
Chairman and CEO of Mestek Inc., a Massachusetts-based industrial manufacturing company.

What have you done for me post-80?

• At 89, was the oldest CEO on the New York Stock Exchange when Mestek went private in 2005.

61. Ted Stevens, 84
Senior U.S. senator from Alaska; Republican; has served since 1968. Stevens is a former House majority leader and was president pro tempore of the Senate from 2003 to 2007.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Chaired the appropriations committee from 1997 to 2005 and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation from 2005 to 2007.
• Became a YouTube sensation after asserting that the Internet is "a series of tubes."
• In 2008, was indicted by a federal grand jury on seven criminal charges for failing to disclose valuable gifts and services from an oil corporation, VECO

62. Pinetop Perkins, 95
One the last original Delta blues musicians. Perkins played piano with the Muddy Waters band in the 1970s. A longtime sideman, Perkins released his first solo album in 1988, at 72.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Won a 2007 Grammy for Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen, a recording of a 2004 concert in which he was the second-youngest participant.
• Released more than a dozen albums, including this summer's Pinetop Perkins and Friends.
• Continues to perform.

63. Albert Ueltschi, 90
Aviation pioneer; founder of FlightSafety International, a pilot training company. A die-hard airplane fanatic since childhood, Ueltschi set up a hamburger stand in his teens to pay for flying lessons. Ueltschi sold FlightSafety to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 1996.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Stepped down as President of FlightSafety in 2003 but remains chairman and drives himself to work every day.
• Chairs Orbis International, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing blindness worldwide, using a refurbished DC-10 as a "flying eye hospital."
• Profiled in The Warren Buffett CEO: Secrets of the Berkshire Hathaway Managers.

64. Cloris Leachman, 82
Oscar and Emmy award-winning comedian; most famous for her role as Phyllis on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Fellow list member Mel Brooks thought she was too old to reprise her role in the Broadway version of Young Frankenstein; Leachman responded by challenging Brooks to a boxing match.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Currently competing on the seventh season of Dancing With the Stars.Co-starring in the update of The Women, which opens this week; has three films in production. Gained Internet fame after her raunchy appearance at the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget.

65. Daniel Akaka, 84
Junior senator from Hawaii; Democrat. Akaka served for 13 years in the House of Representatives before becoming a senator in 1990.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Sponsoring a bill currently before the Senate that would give native Hawaiians federally recognized sovereignty, similar to that afforded Native Americans and indigenous Alaskans.
• Chairs the Committee on Veteran Affairs.

66. James Lipton, 81
Executive producer, writer, and host of the interview show Inside the Actors Studio. The show began as a class Lipton arranged for the Actors Studio Drama School, which he founded in 1994. Appears as himself in a Geico commercial.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Still hosts Inside the Actors Studio, now in its 14th year. Published a memoir, Inside Inside.

67. Cynthia Ozick, 80
Acclaimed novelist and critic whose work often revolves around Jewish-American themes. Her latest novel, Heir to the Glimmering World, was a New York Times best-seller, and in 2005 she was a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Won the $20,000 PEN/Nabokov award.
• Published a set of novellas, Dictation: A Quartet.

68. Bob Barker, 85
TV presenter and game-show host; winner of 19 Emmy awards. Playing himself, Barker famously beat up Adam Sandler in the 1996 film Happy Gilmore.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Hosted The Price Is Right every weekday until he retired at 83.
• Set a record for longest run of daily television appearances (50 years, including his first show, Truth or Consequences).

69. Bob Dole, 85
Former Senate majority leader; ran unsuccessfully for vice president in 1976 and president in 1996. Dole is known in popular culture for his Viagra endorsement, Pepsi commercials, and tendency to refer to himself in the third person.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Serves as special counsel for law firm of Alston & Bird.
• Co-chair of the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors.
• Published World War II memoir One Soldier's Story in 2005.
• On 80th birthday, dedicated the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas

70. Billy Graham, 89
Evangelical Southern Baptist preacher who's been a spiritual adviser to many recent U.S. presidents. Author of 25 books, Graham has radio and television shows as well as a weekly column. Graham is regularly listed by Gallup as one of the "Ten Most Admired Men in the World."

What have you done for me post-80?

• Serves as a close adviser to George W. Bush, who called him the "nation's pastor."
• Remains influential in politics; had a high-profile meeting with John McCain in 2008.
• Received the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award in 2000.

71. Helen Thomas, 88
Groundbreaking female journalist who served as United Press International's chief White House correspondent for more than 25 years. Thomas has covered U.S. presidents since John F. Kennedy and has recently been an unabashed critic of President George W. Bush.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Continues to cover the White House for Hearst Newspapers as a national affairs correspondent; has been out ill since May but remains on contract.
• In 2006 released Watchdogs of Democracy; co-authored a children's book in 2008.

72. George H.W. Bush, 84
41st president of the United States; father of the current president.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Created the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with former President Bill Clinton; has raised more than $130 million from nearly 60,000 contributors.

73. Carl Reiner, 86
Actor, writer, and director. In a career spanning more than 60 years, Reiner's credits include creator and writer of The Dick Van Dyke Show, director of Oh God!, and author of nine books. He has been married to Estelle Lebost (nine years his senior) for 65 years.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Played Saul Bloom in the blockbuster films Ocean's Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen (released in 2001, 2004, and 2007, respectively).
• Published My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir, in 2003.

74. W.S. Merwin, 80
Pulitzer and Tanning prize-winning poet deeply influenced by mythology, Buddhism, and the natural world. In the past five years, Merwin has published six books of poetry, prose, and translation, including a collection of poems, Migration, that won the 2005 National Book Award.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Published a new collection of poems, The Shadow of Sirius.

75. Daniel Berrigan, 87
Radical Christian activist, poet; served three years for being part of a group of priests who burned draft files during the Vietnam War. In the 1980s, Berrigan made an appearance on the FBI's Most-Wanted List for illegally trespassing on a missile facility and damaging two nuclear warheads.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Served as the dissenter poet in residence at Fordham University.
• Published a number of books, most recently The Kings and Their Gods: The Pathology of Power.
• Continues his activist work; he supports both LGBT rights and pro-life interests.

76. Andrew Wyeth, 91
American realist sometimes called "the Painter of the People." Wyeth's subdued, realist paintings hang in almost every major American museum. In 1988, Wyatt was the recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal.

What have you done for me post-80?

Gave his first and only televised interview to The Today Show in 2006.

• Continues to paint.
• Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic was published in 2005 and features some of his more recent work.

77. Alfred Taubman, 84
Shopping-mall magnate; founder of real-estate developer Taubman Centers Inc. At age 78, the former chairman of the Sotheby's auction house spent nine months in federal prison on price-fixing charges.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Published his best-selling memoir Threshold Resistance: The Extraordinary Career of a Luxury Retailing Pioneer, which dealt largely with the Sotheby's scandal; plans to donate his share of the royalties to charity.
• Gave $5 million to his alma mater, University of Michigan, to fund research on Lou Gehrig's disease and deafness; also gave $22 million to endow a medical research institute.
• Gave $3 million to Wayne State University Law School.

78. Stanley Kauffman, 92
Legendary film critic. Kauffman spent the 1930s as an actor and stage manager, also writing a number of plays and novels. In 1958 he turned his hand to criticism, writing most notably for the New Republic and the New York Times.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Remains a film critic at the New Republic.
• Taught occasional seminars at New York's Hunter College, N.Y., well into his 80s.

79. John Bennett Fenn, 91
Nobel Prize-winning chemist. In 1987, Fenn reached the mandatory retirement age at Yale, where he was teaching at the time, but campaigned for the right to stay on and continue his research. His discoveries led directly to the development of life-saving AIDS medications in the mid-1990s.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2002 at the age of 85.
• Continues to work as a research professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

80. Daniel Schorr, 92
Three-time Emmy-winning broadcast journalist and foreign reporter. A member of Edward Murrow's famed CBS News team, Schorr was the network's chief Watergate correspondent. He helped create CNN in the late 1970s.

What have you done for me post-80?

• Currently a senior news analyst for NPR, filing several pieces a week.
• Published a memoir, Staying Tuned: A Life in Journalism.

79ers to watch

Noam Chomsky
Former MIT professor credited as the father of modern linguistics. In the past several decades, Chomsky has become better known as a prolific left-wing dissident and critic of U.S. foreign policy.

What have you done for me lately?

Voted the world's leading living public intellectual by Prospect magazine in 2005.Continues to regularly publish political op-eds, many of which were collected in the 2007 book Interventions.Published a slew of books, including Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, which became a best-seller in in 2006 after Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez held up a copy during a speech in the United Nations.

Chomsky will be 80 on Dec. 7, 2008.

Gordon Moore
Co-founder of computing giant Intel. Forty years ago, he coined the highly influential Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors on a chip will double about every two years.

What have you done for me lately?

With his wife, runs the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, one of 20 wealthiest charitable foundations in the world.In 2001, made a $600 million gift to Caltech (the largest ever to an institution of higher learning).In 2007, gave $200 million to Caltech and the University of California for construction of the world's largest telescope.

Moore will be 80 on Jan. 2, 2009.

Christopher Plummer
Leonine actor best known for his role as Capt. Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. The two-time Tony winner (and seven-time nominee) was a member of Laurence Olivier's troupe at the British National Theatre and of John Hall's at the Royal Shakespeare Co.

What have you done for me lately?

Getting raves as Julius Caesar in Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.Garnered two Tony nominations, for his roles as King Lear and as Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind.Has five films in production, including the Oscar bait The Last Station, in which he stars as Leo Tolstoy opposite Helen Mirren.Appeared in 13 films, including Syriana, Inside Man, and the surprise blockbuster National Treasure.

Plummer will be 80 on Dec. 13, 2009.

Barbara Walters
Journalist and media personality. Walters, a master interviewer, co-hosted 20/20 for 25 years and, in the 1970s, was the first female co-anchor of a network evening-news show.

What have you done for me lately?

Executive produces and continues to co-host The View, which she co-created in 1997.Hosts The Barbara Walters Special series, including her famous annual Oscar shows.Published a best-selling memoir, Audition.Made Forbes' list of 100 Most Powerful Women in the World and wowOwow's list of Legendarily Leggy Women Over 40.Walters will be 80 on Sept. 25, 2009.

Elie Wiesel
Romanian-born writer best known for his semi-autobiographical novel Night, based on his childhood experiences in Holocaust concentration camps. Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 and continues to be an active supporter of human rights causes.

What have you done for me lately?

Led an international commission on behalf of the Romanian government; researched World War II atrocities committed by the Romanian regime.Published a novel, The Time of the Uprooted, and a book of religious commentary, Wise Men and Their Tales.Traveled to Auschwitz with Oprah Winfrey after she selected Night for her book club.

Wiesel will be 80 on Sept. 30, 2008.

Just missed

William F. Buckley Jr.
Conservative public intellectual who founded National Review in 1955 and hosted the television show Firing Line for more than 30 years. The prolific, erudite Buckley wrote more than 50 books, both fiction and nonfiction. He died at his desk.

What have you done for me post-80?

Wrote books on Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, as well as a novel, The Rake.Published an anthology of his popular "Notes & Asides" column, culled from 40 years of National Review.Continued to write his twice-weekly syndicated column, "On the Right."

Buckley died at age 82 on Feb. 27, 2008, after suffering from diabetes and emphysema.

Norman Mailer
Pugilistic writer equally famous for his brawls and for his books. His best-known works include The Naked and the Dead, The Executioner's Song, and Armies of the Night.

What have you done for me post-80?

Published a novel, The Castle in the Forest, and was working on a sequel at the time of his death. Published On God, a series of dialogues with his literary executor, in which he describes his personal vision of the nature of God.

Mailer died at age 84 on Nov. 10, 2007, of acute renal failure.

Robert Rauschenberg
One of the foremost American artists of the 20th century who worked across media and disciplines; best known for his assemblages of found material, called "combines." Rauschenberg was commonly affiliated with artist Jasper Johns, musician John Cage, and fellow list member Merce Cunningham.

What have you done for me post-80?

Had major shows at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Continued to work, with the help of assistants, following a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.

Rauschenberg died at age 82 on May 12, 2008, of heart failure.

J.R. "Jack" Simplot
Founder of Simplot, an agricultural supplier famous for developing the frozen french fry; was known variously as the "Potato King" or "Mr. Spud." Simplot also invested heavily in computer chip producer Micron Technologies.

What have you done for me post-80?

Served as chairman of Simplot until he was 85.Was the oldest person on the 2007 Forbes list of America's richest billionaires.

Simplot died at age 99 on May 25, 2008, apparently of natural causes.

Jack Weil
Founder and CEO of Rockmount Ranch Wear, whose slim-fitting shirts were featured in Brokeback Mountain; likely the first commercial producer of the bolo tie. In his obituary, the New York Times called him "the king of cowboy couture."

What have you done for me post-80?

Was believed to be the nation's oldest working CEO and served in that role until his death.

Weil died at age 107 on Aug. 13, 2008, presumably of natural causes.