What happened to English?

I’m probably the last living person who doesn’t split infinitives, so I know I’m fussy.  Nevertheless, this kind of bad grammar from a paper that thinks it’s the gold standard irks me:

Ms. Taylor won her second Academy Award for her performance in the film adaptation of the Edward Albee play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” in which she portrayed a character 20 years older than her.

That is some seriously ugly, ungrammatical writing.  When I got to the last word in the sentence, I wanted to ask “Older than her what?  Her mother?  Her antique collection?  Her car?”