CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A study says Academy Award-winning actors, actresses and directors live longer than those who go home without the Oscar statuettes.
Oscar-winning actors and actresses live an average four years longer than also-rans, while directors honored by the film industry plan on living four-and-a-half years longer than other nominees, the study in the March issue of the Harvard Health Letter indicates.
The statistics are part of a study of the connections between social status, health and longevity, conducted by Dr. Donald Redelmeier of Toronto's Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre.
Redelmeier says Oscar winners get more work, are better appreciated and better paid.
The pattern does not hold true, however, for screenwriters. Redelmeier says Oscar-winning screenwriters died 3.6 years earlier on average than nominees -- probably because they do not get celebrity status with their statuettes.
