Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com Entertainment Weekly EW.com Entertainment Weekly
  • TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • TV Recaps
    • Fall TV
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Mystery
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music
    • Music Reviews
  • Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Awards
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Order Past Issues this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com Entertainment Weekly EW.com Entertainment Weekly
  • Explore

    Explore

    • Here are all 70 puppies competing in Puppy Bowl XVII

      Read More Next
    • The best books to keep you warm this January

      Read More Next
    • The Masked Dancer revealed: Every unmasked celebrity on season 1

      Read More Next
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • TV Recaps
    • Fall TV
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Mystery
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Awards

    Awards

    See All Awards
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Order Past Issues this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home Chevron Right
  2. TV Chevron Right
  3. Badass grandmas in TV and movies

Badass grandmas in TV and movies

By EW Staff
November 23, 2020 at 12:31 PM EST
Skip gallery slides
Save FB Tweet

1 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Credit: Alfeo Dixon/Lionsgate; Netflix; Helen Sloan/HBO

Forget the stereotype of an apron-clad grandma baking cookies and playing Bingo — today's grandmas are looking for a little more excitement! And on TV and in movies, they're virtually unstoppable. Whether inventing the perfect sex toy for seniors like Grace and Frankie or poisoning an enemy like Lady Olenna did in Game of Thrones, there's no telling what your favorite onscreen family matriarch is capable of. Keep clicking to see more badass grandmas in pop culture.

1 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Laurie Strode (Halloween 2018)

Credit: Ryan Green/Universal Pictures

Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is not your average granny. It may have been 40 years since she survived the murderous clutches of Michael Myers on Halloween, but one thing hasn’t changed over the years: She’s still a fighter. And in Halloween (2018), when the infamous serial killer escapes the mental institution where he’s being held and comes for her, she’s ready for him. As Laurie, Curtis gets to sink her teeth into a fierce character who gets to take some very cathartic stabs at Myers (pun intended) and the film’s denouement calls on all three generations of Strode women to band together to end Myers’ tyranny. And if there’s one thing better than a badass woman, it’s three badass women, all working together. —Lauren Huff

2 of 12

3 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Madea Simmons

Credit: Lionsgate

Tyler Perry’s signature creation Mabel ā€œMadeaā€ Simmons is perhaps the definitive ā€œbadass grandma.ā€ From her screen debut in Diary of a Mad Black Woman to her (presumably) final farewell in 2019’s A Madea Family Funeral, Madea continuously dispensed life lessons along with her own personal brand of (often violent) justice. Perry created the character as ā€œa cross between my mother and my aunt and watching Eddie Murphy doĀ The Klumps,ā€ explaining, ā€œ[My mother] would beat the hell out of you but make sure the ambulance got there in time to make sure they could set your arm back.ā€

3 of 12

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Lady Olenna Tyrell (Game of Thrones)

Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO

Game of Thrones’ Tyrell matriarch (played by the late Diana Rigg) never sat on the Iron Throne, but she had her own crown: Queen of Shade. The ā€œtart-tonguedā€ Lady Olenna dished out quips the way GoT dished out death; only she could get away with calling Cersei Lannister ā€œthe famous tart.ā€ But her most memorably badass moment came just before her death, when she looked Jaime Lannister straight in the eye and told him she killed his son Joffrey.

4 of 12

Advertisement

5 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Dowager Countess (Downton Abbey)

Credit: Nick Briggs/PBS

Of course, if anyone could match Lady Olenna in the snark department, it would be Maggie Smith’s witty Dowager Countess Violet Crawley on Downton Abbey. The Countess’ zingers were a constant highlight of the British drama (ā€œI’ll take that as a compliment.ā€ ā€œI must’ve said it wrong.ā€), and she could still offer a bit of actual wisdom every now and again, always delivered in her typical stiff-upper-lip fashion.

5 of 12

6 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Grace Hanson and Frankie Bergstein (Grace and Frankie)

Credit: Ali Goldstein/Netflix

The hit Netflix comedy Grace and Frankie features not one but two badass grandmas played by screen legends Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. It follows the titular ladies, who are unlikely friends brought together by the revelation that their husbands are leaving them because they have fallen in love with each other. Forced to live together in their gorgeous beach house, the duo hilariously navigate their new lives, new friendships, and new love interests, firmly reminding us that age is just a number and life is what you make of it.Ā 

6 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Grandma Annie (The Proposal)

Credit: Everett Collection

You didn’t need another reason to love Betty White, but we’ll give you one anyway. As the mischievous grandma or ā€œGammyā€ Annie, the actress was a scene stealer in 2009's The ProposalĀ starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Annie isn’t your typical grandma — unless your grandma also takes you to see male strippers or fakes heart attacks as a strategy to squash family beef. And while this scene might not fly today, we have to thank White for giving us this hilarious moment featuring Bullock’s rendition of Lil Jon’s ā€œGet Low.ā€

7 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Sophia Petrillo (The Golden Girls)

If we’re spotlighting Betty White, we also have to give a shout-out to her former castmate Estelle Getty as Sophia, Dorothy’s (Bea Arthur) snarky mother and arguably the funniest of The Golden Girls. Well into her 80s, Sophia is still as sharp as a tack. Her deadpan one-liners are so savage, they make you ask, ā€œDid this tiny old woman really just say that?ā€ — before promptly writing them down so you can use them on your nemeses. Sophia has so many classic quotes, but we’re particularly fond of ā€œYour heart’s in the right place, but I don’t know where the hell your brain isā€ and ā€œJealousy is a very ugly thing, Dorothy! And so are you, in anything backless.ā€ Zing!

8 of 12

Advertisement

9 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Mary Luckett (Cocoon)

Credit: Everett Collection

Thanks to her exposure to the mysterious alien life force of the Antareans, Mary Luckett (Maureen Stapleton) is a retirement home resident who has youthful energy in spades, can climb trees at will, and has no fear of aliens. And when she and her husband, Ben (Wilford Brimley), are confronted with the choice to go with the aliens to Antarea, where they will and no longer age and live forever, she takes control of her own destiny fearlessly, like the badass grandma that she is. —LH

9 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

10 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Lydia Alvarez (One Day at a Time)

Credit: Netflix

There’s so much to love about Lydia on One Day at a Time — she’s hilarious, tough (she literally turned down death in season 2), and she’s played by the incomparable Rita Moreno. But what we love about her the most, and what makes her an absolute badass, is her refusal to change her boisterous self for anyone, while also being one of the most loyal, open-minded matriarchs on television. When her granddaughter Elena (Isabella Gomez) came out to Lydia, the devout Catholic overcame her homophobia in 30 seconds flat with impressive Bible logic (ā€œAm I going to go against the Pope and God? Who the hell do I think I am?ā€). If only we could all be as much fun as the salsa-dancing, rum-swigging Lydia when we grow up.

10 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

11 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Aurora Greenway (Terms of Endearment)

Credit: Everett Collection

It takes a badass mom to be a badass grandma, as the eccentric Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) demonstrates in Terms of Endearment. The film follows Aurora’s tumultuous relationship with her daughter Emma (Debra Winger) over a 30-year period. Though Aurora often drives her daughter crazy with her overbearing personality and judgmental ways, it’s clear Aurora loves her daughter more than anything in the world and always has her back. Whether she’s warning Emma against marrying loser Flap (Jeff Daniels) or staying by her side as she battles terminal cancer — screaming at the nurses toĀ  ā€œgive my daughter the [pain] shot!ā€ — Aurora is a strong-willed woman who always stays true to who she is… even when she finally gives into a romance with her cocky next-door neighbor Garrett (Jack Nicholson). In the ultimate act of selflessness, Aurora agrees to raise her three grandchildren after Emma dies. Now that’s badass. So was MacLaine's performance, which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1984.

11 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement

12 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Mamaw (Hillbilly Elegy)

Credit: Lacey Terrell/NETFLIX

In the film adaptation of J.D. Vance’s best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, Glenn Close expertly portrays a real-life badass grandma — Mamaw — who steps in to take care of her two grandchildren when her drug-addicted daughter Bev (Amy Adams) can no longer properly do so. Mamaw’s version of grandmotherly love is more the tough kind than hugs and baked goods, but her love for her family is fierce. She’ll give you the shirt off her back or the food off her plate, but cross her or anyone in her family, and she’ll come after you faster than you can say ā€œyeehaw!ā€

12 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By EW Staff

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 12
2 of 12 Laurie Strode (Halloween 2018)
3 of 12 Madea Simmons
4 of 12 Lady Olenna Tyrell (Game of Thrones)
5 of 12 Dowager Countess (Downton Abbey)
6 of 12 Grace Hanson and Frankie Bergstein (Grace and Frankie)
7 of 12 Grandma Annie (The Proposal)
8 of 12 Sophia Petrillo (The Golden Girls)
9 of 12 Mary Luckett (Cocoon)
10 of 12 Lydia Alvarez (One Day at a Time)
11 of 12 Aurora Greenway (Terms of Endearment)
12 of 12 Mamaw (Hillbilly Elegy)

Share options

Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message
EW.com Entertainment Weekly

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
  • Sitemap

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Food & Wine this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en EspaƱol this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
  • Travel & Leisure this link opens in a new tab
© Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://ew.com

View image

Badass grandmas in TV and movies
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.