TORONTO -- When Hilary Swank won the best actress Oscar for Million Dollar Baby in February, she might have also added two years to her life. That's on top of the four years she probably gained for winning her first Oscar in 2000 for Boys Don't Cry. An ongoing study by a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto has found that winning a golden statuette adds years to an actor's life.

Donald Redelmeier was watching the Oscar telecast several years ago and was struck by how fabulous the winners looked. "It wasn't just the plastic surgery and the makeup and the wardrobes" he told The Canadian Press. "It was the way they walked and gestured and talked. They just seemed so much more vivacious than the patients I see in the hospital."

With the help of medical student Sheldon Singh, Redelmeier compared the longevity of more than 750 Hollywood actors and actresses. The award winners lived to be 79.7; the non-winners lived to be 75.8. In other words, winning an Oscar increases life expectancy by almost four years. Winning more than one, said Redelmeier, tacks on another two years. No surprise, then, that four-time best actress winner Katharine Hepburn lived to be 96. Two-time winners Olivia de Havilland and Luise Rainer are 88 and 95, respectively.

What accounts for the "Oscar effect"? One theory, says Redelmeier, is that winning improves self-esteem. Oscar winners may feel more resilient--better able to tolerate the bumps and glitches of everyday life. High self-esteem may also reinforce the endocrine (hormone) and immune systems, protecting the body against the routine assaults of infections and aging.

Another possibility, says Redelmeier, is that winning enhances an actor's reputation. In order to maintain that reputation, the actor invests more heavily in good health habits--eating well, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep.

Not all Oscar winners are known for their wholesome lifestyles, of course. Three-time recipient Jack Nicholson, 68, is a notorious party animal. "I'm amazed that he's lasted as long as he has" said Redelmeier. "You could always claim that he might have been worse had he not been given [the Oscars]"

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