# Actors Who Looked "Old" for a LOOOONG Time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 27, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069 "2020-01-27T18:44:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/81 "2020-01-30T03:01:44Z")
> [@GESancMan](#): > > Rudd is 50 now. Affleck is 47. > [@Lamoral](#): > > And Tom Cruise’s career peak was a really long time ago. Yes, clearly I should have researched that post a little better. Here’s how I should have phrased it: “For many in the current generation of superhero/action stars, they don’t seem really credible in the costumes until they start to close in on 50. I’d give some examples, but honestly, isn’t that beneath us at this point?” Yeah, that’s what I meant to write… ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/82 "2020-01-30T03:06:56Z")
It kind of freaks me out to see Lee Marvin (_The Wild One_) and Peter Graves (_Stalag 17_) as anything but 50-ish old coots, but clearly that was not always the case for them. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/83 "2020-01-30T07:41:50Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Yes, clearly I should have researched that post a little better. Here’s how I should have phrased it: > > “For many in the current generation of superhero/action stars, they don’t seem really credible in the costumes until they start to close in on 50. I’d give some examples, but honestly, isn’t that beneath us at this point?” Yeah, that’s what I meant to write… Well, more like 30s and early 40s, really, not close to fifty. But I think I get your point anyway - they’re not young men in their physical peak, which for most men would be in their twenties, they’re starting to approach middle age, and for some reason that makes them more credible. Even Matt Damon was 32 when he starred in the first Bourne movie. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/84 "2020-01-30T20:05:23Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Peter Boyle. The hair loss always made him look older. He was 41 in \* Taxi Driver\* Bald, sure. [Over 41-looking](https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBD_enCA835CA835&biw=882&bih=712&tbm=isch&sxsrf=ACYBGNTN4MzlnMhc0ig-DfjN38jMS7PUAw%3A1580413691173&sa=1&ei=-zIzXsCdCrL09APJi7ewCg&q=peter+boyle+in+taxi+driver&oq=boyle+in+taxi+driver&gs_l=img.1.0.0i5i30.712561.712760..715230...0.0..0.67.324.5......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......35i39j0i7i30j0i7i5i30.K8QokvWgZu0) - nah. Nebbish John Fielder. Only 35 in _Raisin in the Sun_ and already looking much older. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/85 "2020-01-31T00:15:06Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Christopher Lloyd has always looked kind of old. He was born in 1938, which means that when he did “Back to the Future,” he would have been roughly the same age as George and Lorraine in the movie (assuming they were about 17 in 1955). Yet, even in the 1955 scenes he’s supposed to be an old dude, or at least middle-aged. Christopher Lloyd would have been 47 in 1985, yes, but Doc Brown would have been in his 70s by then. All the characters who appeared in both 1955 and 1985 – George, Lorraine, Strickland, Doc, and Biff – were played by actors appropriate for their 1955 ages and then aged up (well except maybe James Tolkan as Strickland) for their 1985 scenes. In the sequel, one of the first things 77-year-old Doc does is strip off his aging mask (which Doc had used to hide his de-aging treatments from Marty) so that Lloyd could play him without makeup. Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/86 "2020-01-31T16:54:51Z")
I thought for a long time that William Hartnell, the first Doctor Who, was within a loud shout of 70 when he took the role in 1963. Nope. Only 55. He passed away in 1975 at the age of 67. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/87 "2020-01-31T16:57:24Z")
Margaret Hamilton? ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/88 "2020-01-31T20:12:06Z")
[quote=“needscoffee, post:35, topic:847069”] Irene Ryan looked old as the hills long before she became Granny in The Beverly Hillbillies starting at age 62. All I can say is she must have been one heavy smoker.[/QUOTE The first couple of seasons of The Beverly Hillbillies were brought to you by Winston cigarettes. The actors from the show made a number of ads in character for the brand. In the ones featuring Buddy Ebsen and Irene Ryan, they both puff but neither actually inhale, so I seriously doubt that either smoked IRL. Miss Jane and Aunt Pearl both take deep drags like real smokers. And they were. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/89 "2020-01-31T20:18:28Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Bald, sure. [Over 41-looking](https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBD_enCA835CA835&biw=882&bih=712&tbm=isch&sxsrf=ACYBGNTN4MzlnMhc0ig-DfjN38jMS7PUAw%3A1580413691173&sa=1&ei=-zIzXsCdCrL09APJi7ewCg&q=peter+boyle+in+taxi+driver&oq=boyle+in+taxi+driver&gs_l=img.1.0.0i5i30.712561.712760..715230...0.0..0.67.324.5......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......35i39j0i7i30j0i7i5i30.K8QokvWgZu0) - nah. > Nebbish John Fielder. Only 35 in _Raisin in the Sun_ and already looking much older. Great choice. I just re-watched a Twilight Zone episode from season 2 in which Fiedler appeared. He looked to be late-fortyish to mid-fiftyish. He was actually 36, give or take a few months. That’s about how he looked whenever I saw him, and he seems to have appeared on every show in the 60s and 70s at least once. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/90 "2020-01-31T20:20:52Z")
I’d add Burt Mustin to the mix; however, he was in his 70s when he started appearing in tv shows. Like Charles Lane, he always looked old because he always was old. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/91 "2020-01-31T20:52:41Z")
> [@TimfromNapa](#): > > Miss Jane and Aunt Pearl both take deep drags like real smokers. And they were. IIRC, Bea Benaderet died of lung cancer before _ **Petticoat Junction** _ finished its run. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/92 "2020-02-01T21:42:56Z")
> [@TimfromNapa](#): > > I’d add Burt Mustin to the mix; however, he was in his 70s when he started appearing in tv shows. Like Charles Lane, he always looked old because he always was old. You don’t have to add him – he’s the first one mentioned in the OP, and part of the reason for the thread’s existence. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/93 "2020-02-02T01:32:42Z")
Mary Wickes–she was 50-ish as Miss Cathcart, which is the earliest thing I remember her from. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/94 "2020-02-02T02:25:32Z")
Humphrey Bogart was 43 when he made _Casablanca_, and looked much older than Rick Blaine’s 38 years. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/95 "2020-02-02T05:05:37Z")
George Burns…well he really was old for a long time! But I sense that his part in the “Sunshine Boys” in 1975 was intended to be a last hurrah. It turned out to start about 15 more years of roles for him. His character in “The Sunshine Boys” was named ‘Al Lewis’ - another long-time “old man” - he was Grandpa Munster in the 1960s and played old men for another 40 years. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/96 "2020-02-02T05:50:07Z")
John Mahoney started acting on stage in his late 30s, and made his film debut around age 40. He came to widespread attention with _Moonstruck_, when he was 47. So he played a middle-aged to oldish guy for about 30 years. (I started acting in late 2018. I turn 47 this year. I think this is my year!) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/97 "2020-02-02T08:12:09Z")
Both Irene Ryan and Keenan Wynn played opposite Kirk Douglas in _ **My Dear Secretary** _ (1949). Neither of the two looked particularly young then. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/98 "2020-02-03T00:15:25Z")
Ed Lauter, as the badass-but-ultimately-ok prison guard in _The Longest Yard_, was 36. [Close, but still slightly on the old side, I spose.](https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBD_enCA835CA835&biw=1536&bih=722&tbm=isch&sxsrf=ACYBGNTSBPE3nLM5_L-KNa3uLWf_plv0xw%3A1580688403631&sa=1&ei=E2Q3XsKNJo_I-gSGhaHoCA&q=ed+lauter+in+longest+yard&oq=ed+lauter+in+longest+yard&gs_l=img.3..35i39.13888.16416..16705...0.0..0.67.984.17......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i24.rcUDVhwXk0Q&ved=0ahUKEwiC47GWi7TnAhUPpJ4KHYZCCI0Q4dUDCAc&uact=5) ---
**Author:** ![Bayarea4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Bayarea4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayarea4)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/99 "2020-02-03T09:51:03Z")
Lewis Stone, who was best known as Judge Hardy, Mickey Rooney’s dad in all those Andy Hardy movies. Stone went prematurely gray (some reports say by the age of 20) and played older men for most of his career. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069/100 "2020-02-03T16:44:52Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Margaret Hamilton? Good choice. It’s hard to believe that Hamilton was only 36 when she played Ms. Gulch and The Wicked Witch of the West in _The Wizard of Oz_ (over three years younger than Gale Sondegard, who was going to play her as a “glamorous” witch until the Powers That Be decided they needed an “ugly” witch. Hamilton probably would’ve been insulted, but, as she said, she needed the work). That role sort of colored her career. She played the Witch on stage and in TV appearances long after the movie, but it hovered around her earlier roles too, as when she played a Mountain Witching Woman in Abbott and Costello’s _Comin’ 'Round the Mountain_ in 1951. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-looked-old-for-a-loooong-time/847069.md?page=6)