Glenn Close's Unexpected Win Proves You're Never Too Old to Do What You Love

At 71 years old, already two-time Globe winner Glenn Close won yet another award at the 76th Golden Globes. She took home the award for Best Actress, beating out crowd-favorite Lady Gaga and proving that age is just a number.

After her colleague Gary Oldman awarded her the trophy, The Wife actress had the Golden Globes audience in tears — and those of us watching on television from around the country.  She gave an emotional acceptance speech after squeezing Gaga's hands with teary eyes, thanking the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and explaining that she felt "honored" to be "category sisters" with talented women like Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy and Rosamund Pike.

"We have gotten to know each other a little bit so far, and I can't wait to spend more time with you," she said. "I'm so — everything that you did this year, or what you are here for — we all should be up here together, that's all I can say. Oh, my god, I just don't believe it."

In 2008, Close won Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series for the drama, Damages. And in 2005, she won the Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television award for The Lion in Winter. She's also been nominated for countless other Golden Globes, and she has won other Emmy Awards, Tony Awards, People's Choice Awards, Satellite Awards and more over the course of her storied career.

In her speech, she explained how proud she is to have fulfilled her dreams and have had such a "wonderful life."

"I'm thinking of my mom, who really sublimated herself to my father her whole life, and in her 80s she said to me, 'I feel I haven't accomplished anything,' and it was so not right," she said. "I feel what I've learned from this whole experience is that women, we're nurturers and that's what's expected of us. We have our children and husbands if we're lucky enough... but we have to find personal fulfillment. We have to follow our dreams we have to say, 'I can do that,' and 'I should be allowed to do that.' So, when I was little, I felt like Muhammad Ali who was destined to be a boxer; I felt destined to be an actress. I saw the early Disney films [with] Hayley Mills, and I said, 'I could do that!' and here I am today."

Close has been a working actress for 45 years. And, in an industry that's traditionally ageist, she's still proving that women of all ages can achieve their dreams.