Gloria Stuart, Oscar nominee at 87, dead at 100

Gloria Stuart, who became the oldest person nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Titanic, the record-breaking box-office hit, has died. She was 100.

She died Sunday at her home in West Los Angeles, California, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing her family. She was diagnosed with lung cancer five years ago, the newspaper said.

Stuart was 87 when Titanic, director James Cameron’s epic fictional account of passengers aboard the doomed luxury liner, opened in December 1997. The movie followed Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) as they met, fell in love, navigated the Titanic's strict class divisions and then tried to survive after the ship struck an iceberg.

Stuart narrates the movie as 101-year-old Rose, who joins treasure hunters searching the Titanic's wreckage for a legendary diamond necklace. Toward the film's end, she reveals the necklace she has secretly possessed since the night the ship sank, and drops it into the ocean.

The movie earned $1.8 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of all time. Stuart earned one of the movie’s 14 Academy Award nominations, for best supporting actress. It won 11 Oscars, including one for best picture.

"All these years -- I've been waiting for this a long, long time," she said after learning of her nomination in February 1998.

She lost the Oscar to Kim Basinger, but the two shared the Screen Actors Guild award for supporting actress.

Stuart's first marriage, to her college sweetheart, sculptor Gordon Newell, ended in divorce after four years.

She was married to scriptwriter Arthur Sheekman from 1934 until his death in 1978. Their daughter, Sylvia Thompson, a cookbook author, helped write her mother's autobiography.

At 72, Stuart began another long relationship, with printer Ward Ritchie, who died in 1996.