Hal Holbroom, nearly 83, and Saoirse Ronan, 13, vie for Academy Awards

Hal Holbrook will turn 83 in two weeks. He is the oldest actor ever to be nominated for an Academy Award, passing Ralph Richardson, who was also 82 when nominated for supporting actor for “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” in 1984. (Years reflect the date of the film’s release.)

George Burns is the only other octogenarian man to be recognized. He was nominated and won supporting actor honors for “The Sunshine Boys” in 1975. He was 80 years and 69 days.

As for the ladies, Jessica Tandy was also 80 when she won best actress for “Driving Miss Daisy,” released in 1989. “Titanic’s” Gloria Stuart was 87 when nominated for supporting actress in 1997.

Ruby Dee, nominated in the supporting category this year for “American Gangster,” is 83, about four months older than Holbrook.

Saoirse Ronan, meanwhile, is all of 13, making her the seventh-youngest woman to be nominated for supporting actress.

The youngest to win? Tatum O’Neal was 10 when she won for “Paper Moon” in 1973. Anna Paquin (”The Piano”) was 11 when she won in 1993. Patty Duke was 16 when she won supporting honors for “The Miracle Worker” in 1962.

No male under the age of 20 has won an acting Oscar. Timothy Hutton is the youngest winner, being 20 when he won supporting actor for “Ordinary People” in 1980.

Adrien Brody, then 29, became the youngest man to take home the best actor Oscar when he won five years ago for “The Pianist.”

Marlee Matlin is the youngest best actress winner. She was 21 when she won for “Children of a Lesser God” in 1986.

Academy Award-winning actress and “Dancing With the Stars” sensation Marlee Matlin is working on a memoir, scheduled to come out in 2009 and tentatively titled “I’ll Scream Later.”

“As a young girl, I imagined myself as Marcia Brady who just happened to be deaf, skating down the street saying hi to everyone I knew,” Matlin, an Oscar winner in 1987 for “Children of a Lesser God,” said in a statement issued Tuesday by Simon Spotlight Entertainment, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

“But today, as a mom of four, I’m no longer Marcia. I’ve morphed into Alice, the Maid. Goodbye, Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.”

According to Simon Spotlight, the 42-year-old Matlin will confide about her “unresolved issues and battles with addiction and abuse, many of which she kept hidden from the public and her family.” She also will “delve into her loves and life in Hollywood,” including such television shows as “Picket Fences,” “The Practice” and “The West Wing.”

Her previous books include a novel, “Deaf Child Crossing,” and the young people’s stories “Leading Ladies” and “Nobody’s Perfect.”