To tell the truth, Ebsen looked pretty shopworn playing George Russell in the Walt Disney Davy Crockett TV-movies in 1954-5. He was born in 1908.
George Arliss
He began his film career at the age of 53, which probably added to the impression he always looked old. He also played a lot of old men. He pretty much always played himself, but as he had effective creative control over many of his films, he was able to ensure he had a virtual monopoly on the good lines. A great, now-largely forgotten talent - at his best in the sound version of The Green Goddess (1929) - he was the first Brit to win the Best Actor Oscar.
William Hickey always looked like he had one foot in the grave; he was just 58 when he appeared as the elderly Mafia don in Prizzi’s Honor, maybe his best-known role: https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/f3480b38-b9ec-4af4-a959-c48d9e740352/d54vo15-ebc3ff28-e9c4-4a95-8c9b-258a74a9dab4.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTpmaWxlLmRvd25sb2FkIl0sIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiIvZi9mMzQ4MGIzOC1iOWVjLTRhZjQtYTk1OS1jNDhkOWU3NDAzNTIvZDU0dm8xNS1lYmMzZmYyOC1lOWM0LTRhOTUtOGM5Yi0yNThhNzRhOWRhYjQuanBnIn1dXX0.WTOnMWJNFFzSv37BcUdwCexgcmB8fQaPj4DHIkPbQQk
He’s very clean.
Liam Dunn was only 57 in “Young Frankenstein” and “Blazing Saddles”, but he looked to be in his 70’s at least; he was only 59 when he died.
I recall first seeing Hickey as the interviewer at the beginning and end of Little Big Man. He had brown hair and, aside from his weird voice, didn’t seem particularly old. But he sure looked a lot older in everything else I saw him in
Really? I’m really amazed.
He also played Judge Maxwell in What’s up, Doc?, where he also looked old (and took an array of pills)
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.
Which was apparently a nudge-wink reference to one of his well-known TV characters who was “a dirty old man.” Well known to Brits, anway.
Hank Worden and maybe its just because of the time I spend around the Seneca but a shout-out to Chief John Big Tree as well. He had that aged Native American look nailed down early and kept it going for ages.
On the other side of the coin, a fair number of superhero actors–Robert Downey, Jr., Paul Rudd, Samuel Jackson, Ben Affleck, Hugh Jackman, and let’s throw in Daniel Craig and Tom Cruise–hit their career peaks after the age of 50. It makes me think of the old actor in Baron Munchhausen who laments that he’s “too old to play Hamlet and too young to play Lear.”
I think you’re mis-remembering. Here’s a photo of him from Pete and Gladys, when he was 45, no grey at all. When Dragnet started in 1967 he was just going grey around the edges, not white. And he was 52 at the time. I think the reason people don’t realize how much he changed over the years was a) they kept seeing him all the time on TV in various other shows when he wasn’t starring in one of his own, and b) he didn’t get fat or have other big changes, just the gradual normal aging of an actor who didn’t try to stop time.
Rudd is 50 now. Affleck is 47.
And Tom Cruise’s career peak was a really long time ago.
Ah, I’d forgotten he was in that. Thanks.
And Craig is 51 now and started being Bond when he was 38.
Hugh Jackman is also 51 and was only 31 when he first appeared as Wolverine.
Even Robert Downey Jr is only 54, so was 42 when he started being Ironman.
Plus Samuel L Jackson is in superhero movies, but doesn’t play a superhero. He has looked more or less the same age since Jurassic Park though.
Character actor Fred Clark, chewng his cigar indignantly, looked exactly the same for his 20-year career. He died at 54, but never looked that young.
I was just thinking about this guy the other day and wondering if I’m older now than he was in AHDN. Um, no question about it and then some. :o
But I’m very clean.
Agnes “Endora” Moorehead always looked old to me. Born in 1900, her first movie was apparently Citizen Kane in 1941. She was in her mid-60s when ***Bewitched ***got under way.
William Frawley, who was likely best known as Fred Mertz in the “Lucy” series. He was in a ton of movies, starting in 1916, that included ‘Miracle on 34th Street’. He was also apparently an asshole to work with.