RIP 2011

[Alex]

Yep, if every actor ever to win were still alive these would be the 25 oldest (with birth date):


Marie Dressler - 11/9/1868
George Arliss - 4/10/1868
Charles Coburn - 6/19/1877
Edmund Gwenn - 9/26/1877
Lionel Barrymore - 4/28/1878
Jane Darwell - 10/15/1879
Ethel Barrymore - 8/15/1879
Donald Crisp - 7/27/1882
Walter Huston - 4/6/1884
Emil Jannings - 7/23/1884
Wallace Beery - 4/1/1885
Josephine Hull - 1/3/1886
Victor McLaglen - 12/10/1886
Barry Fitzgerald - 3/10/1888
Warner Baxter - 3/29/1889
Ronald Colman - 2/9/1891
Alice Brady - 11/2/1892
Mary Pickford - 4/8/1892
Margaret Rutherford - 5/11/1892
Hattie McDaniel - 6/10/1892
Thomas Mitchell - 7/11/1892
Fay Bainter - 12/7/1893
Walter Brennan - 7/25/1894
Paul Muni - 9/22/1895
George Burns - 1/20/1896

So Marie Dressler was the first person on the planet born who went on to win an acting Academy Award. The first to go to even be nominated was May Robson, born 4/19/1858.

The first human being to go on to win any main show Academy Award (whose birthdate information is easily available) is George Bernard Shaw, born on 7/26/1856 and who eventually won for his part in Pygmalion. He is also the first to even get a nomination in any category.

Though again, that is based on readily available birthdates. Of the approximately 5,878 people who have been nominated I don't have that information for about 1200 of them.