History Main / CoolOldLady

** Any of the trainer classes depicted as old ladies are examples of this. Special mention goes to Agatha, who's a member of the Elite Four.

* Arnold's grandma in ''HeyArnold!''.

* ArethaFranklin. She ranked #1 on [[VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll]], sang for President Obama....and those are one of the many awesome things she did!
* [[FleetwoodMac Stevie Nicks]] too.

* Mother Teresa anyone?
** [[CompleteMonster No way]]

* The late Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, England's Queen Mother. Her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, is no slouch, either. She has a {{YouTube}} account, for crying out loud.

* BettyWhite. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbb2g0UH6Ho&feature=related Seriously.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGJEfD40r7Q She's]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p0nELT7EAo&feature=related really]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9H2NRAqXp4 oh]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO1xc3808aY so]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9Yg_A0oq0 damn]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRsqe_NSBoI freakin']] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n22hj18WNFY incredibly]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7LDuRye2bk hilarious!!!]]

* BettyWhite. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPfYjFXfySY Seriously.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u4fzHjklmU She's]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9bfpu9jWVY really]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9H2NRAqXp4 oh]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO1xc3808aY so]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9Yg_A0oq0 damn]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRsqe_NSBoI freakin']] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n22hj18WNFY incredibly]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7LDuRye2bk hilarious!!!]]

-->-- [[{{Hoodwinked}} Grandma]]

* Mama Jason from Janet Kagan's short story collection ''Mirabile''.

** Dame Judi Dench is a Cool Old Lady in ''every movie'' she graces (in [[RadicalTaoist this troper]]'s opinion). She's like a female cross between Ian [=McKellan=] and HughLaurie.
** Which marks you as a non-Brit... picturing Judi Dench acting like the various Georges from BlackAdder is pretty surreal.

* Meryl Streep
* Maggie Smith
* [[OneOfUs Dame Judi Dench]], people.
* Catherine Deneuve

* Dame Julie Andrews

* Paula Deen.

* I don't know how common it is, but I'd like to think that many people probably know someone like this. For This Troper it's my grandmother. People have told me she looks young enough to be my mother. She healthier than most of my family and a black belt in Aikido who throws around men several times her size. No wonder my friends throughout high school called her Kung-Fu Granny.

* The Jewish grandmother in ''[[JudyBlume Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret]]'' is a mild example, who gives Margaret presents, takes her places, pays for her summer camp, and only occasionally insists that's she's really Jewish. The Christian grandmother is a rather dowdy old woman, who visits only because she's taking a trip to New York anyway, and makes a point of wearing a huge cross and insisting that Margaret is Christian.

* EVA "Big Mama" of ''MetalGearSolid 4'': Even at age 78 she's stillrides her motorbike like hell and leads her own private army from the front. And she's the only known person who did [[MemeticSexGod Big Boss]].

* AngelaAnaconda's grandmother. She's so wild even Angela is unnverved by her...and it's implied that this is Angela's [[GenerationXerox future.]]

** Not to mention extremly nice in person. And super sassy. She honestly doesn't care what people think, but she seems quite humble too.

* Though she doesn't look it, Jadzia Dax in ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is the eighth incarnation of a 350 year old alien. She's a [[IKnowKungFu master of hand to hand combat]] and an [[AcePilot expert pilot]], drinks and parties hard, [[BarBrawl likes to brawl with Klingons]], [[DeadpanSnarker snarks]] and makes dirty jokes a lot. She once destroyed an entire bar, caused [[NoodleIncident a couple of diplomatic incidents]], and thinks that spending early mornings having broken bones fixed is a healthy sex life.

[[PrincessAndTheFrog http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/princessandthefrogodie.jpg]]

->''"What we have here, he told himself, is a Mk1 Feisty Old Lady: Turkey neck, embarrassing sense of humour, a gleeful pleasure in mild cruelty, direct ways of speaking that flirts with rudeness and, more importantly, also flirts with flirting. Likes to think she's no 'lady'. Game for anything that doesn't carry the risk of falling over and with a look in her eye that says 'I can do what I like, because I am old. And I have a soft spot for rascals.' Old ladies like that were hard to fool, but there was no need to."''
--->-- ''[[{{Discworld}} Making Money]]''

--->-- [[{{Hoodwinked}} Grandma]]

Much like the CoolOldGuy, the CoolOldLady is a character, much older than the main cast, but for whatever reason they become deeply attached to her. She can be a "hip" grandma that rollerblades, bungee jumps, can speak the teenage slang without it coming across as TotallyRadical, an ApronMatron who's gruff but caring, or a CloudCuckooLander who is a joy to have around. Or she could be a kindly old lady who obviously [[LadyOfAdventure led a very rich life]] (when she was younger, she bungee jumped, rode a motorcycle, knows the teenage slang of her era but doesn't dare try to incorporate it into her current speech) and regales the cast with saucy stories of her escapades. Having ''survived'' doing all that and ''lived'' to that age, you should NeverMessWithGranny.

If the grandma did all the cool stuff in the past, expect her to be low on the SortingAlgorithmOfMortality; on more dramatic shows, she will die by episode's/story arc's end. Often, she is helping all her new younger friends come to terms with ''their'' grief rather while being rather at peace with it herself because she "led a good life."

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* As currently pictured above, Mama Odie from PrincessAndTheFrog

** ''Remnant Population'' is just the story of one making [[spoiler:FirstContact]].

* Though she doesn't look it, Jadzia Dax in StarTrek DeepSpaceNine is the eigth incarnation of a 350 year old alien. She's a [[IKnowKungFu master of hand to hand combat]] and an [[AcePilot expert pilot]], drinks and parties hard, [[BarBrawl likes to brawl with Klingons]], [[DeadpanSnarker snarks]] and makes dirty jokes a lot. She once destroyed an entire bar, caused [[NoodleIncident a couple of diplomatic incidents]], and thinks that spending early mornings having broken bones fixed is a healthy sex life.

* Dolores Landingham of ''TheWestWing'' is a fine example. She routinely matches wits with the often extremely witty senior staff and is the only member of the cast never seen to be intimidated by working with the President.

* While a bit of a MagnificentBastard, Angela Petrelli of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' fame has a bit of this. Despite threats of violence, plans blowing up in her face, and other negatives, she very seldom loses her cool. [[spoiler: Having precognition for a power tends to do that]]

* On {{Food Network}}, Ina Garten could be considered one, although she isn't exactly "old," more like middle-aged. Paula Deen counts as a {{Cool Old Lady}} too.
* Debbie from [[QueerAsFolk Queer as Folk]]

* Kreia, from ''{{Knights of the Old Republic}} 2''. Though a bit more evil and bitter than most on this list.
** Ravel Puzzlewell from ''PlanescapeTorment'' is kind of like this too, although her [[spoiler: "other faces", especially Mebbeth is more straight example.]]
* In the videogame version of ''TheDarkness'', one of your main contacts is a your 'auntie', a dear old lady who became involved with the Mafia when she fell in love with a young 'Don'. Eventually, her resistance against the current Don, 'Uncle Paulie' becomes too obvious for him to ignore, and he sends a horde of gun-tooting {{Mooks}} after her. While you are expected to do most of the killing, she's no slouch either, juggling a ReallyBigGun with one hand while supporting herself on a cane with the other.
* ''ValkyriaChronicles'' has two. Eleanor Varrot the Militia captain that your squad reports to and Rosie who in her late twenties is significantly older than most of the militia members and is something of a rolemodel to the younger ones.

* Wynne, resident BadassGrandma of ''DragonAge'' is a kindly old woman who appoints herself TeamMom... and is one of the most powerful mages in the land, who survived a disastrous battle and demon onslaught ''before'' joining the party.
* From ''MassEffect'' 2: ''Matriarch'' Aethyta, the bartender on Ilium, who is about a millennium old, extremely [[DirtyOldWoman dirty]], and just full of interesting stories. Usually matriarchs serve as honored advisors back on the asari homeworld. Nobody listened to Aethyta's advice, (apparently they "laughed the blue off her ass,") so she left. It's too bad, because the advice (like designing their own mass relays) was ''remarkably'' good in hindsight.

See also MyGrandmaCanDoBetterThenYou: For when Grandma is not so cool, and this fact is used to insult someone else by implying they are even worse.

* Betty White. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPfYjFXfySY Seriously.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u4fzHjklmU She's]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9bfpu9jWVY really]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9H2NRAqXp4 oh]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO1xc3808aY so]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9Yg_A0oq0 damn]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRsqe_NSBoI freakin']] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n22hj18WNFY incredibly]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7LDuRye2bk hilarious!!!]]

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* Dame Judi Dench, people.

* Estelle Winslow from ''FamilyMatters''.