Spencer Tracy always looked like an old fuddy duddy. I can’t see the appeal there, even when he was young.
Same with Humphrey Bogart.
Surely Liam Neeson would win this tangent? He was 56 when he did the *first *Taken movie. His “special skills” probably don’t include being able to quickly stand up from squatting.
You do realise he was wearing makeup and a wig, right?
Here’s what he really looked like.
He looks pretty friggin old in those shots. It wasn’t the makeup and wig.
If you allow a little sidetrack from the musical world: Johnny Cash already looked like a weathered 45 years old when he started his recording career at Sun Studios as a twenty-something and kept on looking older than his real age until his death.
Here he is at age 36 in From Here to Eternity. Stocky but fit and pretty much looking his age, IMHO.
I disagree. I remember seeing that movie again a few years ago and thinking, “How young he looks!” Of course, his character is supposed to be war weary and look older than his years.
It was made in 1957.
ETA: Margaret Hamilton was the one I was going to mention, but a couple of people have beaten me to it.
Johnny Cash was an actor at times, mostly in TV movies, but he had some decent parts. One was as the good guy in “Murder in Coweta County” - with Andy Griffith cast as the villain.
But yes, when we was 70 he looked 90.
Not as extreme, but I remember seeing the Stones in 1989, and everyone in that line seemed to say “well…this is the last chance” - not just on account of their age, but it was rumored Mick and Keith would break up at any time.
B.B. King was another person who spent 20-30 years on tours that everyone figured would be the last chance.
I just saw the 1951 version of Show Boat last night, with a 51 year old Agnes Moorehead as Parthenia “Parthy” Hawks. She doesn’t look too bad or too old. She doesn’t look great, though, because she’s surrounded by flamboyant characters dressed in outrageously vibrant Technicolor clothes, and she’s dressed in brown. Plus, she plays a real “downer” of a character. I think that’s part of the reason she’s perceived as prematurely old – her notable roles are dressed down and are pretty negative. Parthy Hawks, Mary Kane (in Citizen Kane, when she was only 41), whacko romance-spoiling Aunt Fanny Minifer in The Magnificent Ambersons, Jane Eyre’s mean Aunt who throws her out, The Woman in “The Invaders” on The Twilight Zone. If she’d had upbeat roles and dressed more flashily I don’t think she’d be perceived as Prematurely Old.
You left out “businesswoman” Bertha Parchman in ***The Revolt of Mamie Stover ***(1956)—opposite Jane Russell. :o
Coincidentally, I got an online ad today offering me tickets to their upcoming local concert.
I saw Judd Hirsch recently in Uncut Gems and thought of this thread. He’s finally looking old old, but I swear he looked to be 60 for about 30 years.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. I thought the joke was that when he took the aging mask, he looked identical to how he looked before.
We laughed in the theater in 1989 thinking that was the joke and I have always thought that was the joke.
He…did look the same after he took off the “peel”, didn’t he? I thought Marty was being nice when he paused and said, “Yeah, ya’ look great, Doc” or something like that.
I was surprised Ian McDiarmid was only 36 in Empire Strikes Back. They used makeup and other stuff to make him look much older. He’s 75 now.
Anne Bancroft was only six years older than Dustin Hoffman. She had no problem playing the older woman in The Graduate.
Anne always looked middle aged to me, no matter which movie.
Doc’s aging makeup was subtle, yes. But it’s there.
Powers &8^]
Considering that he’s 85, that sounds like the opposite of looking prematurely old.
I never thought of her as looking prematurely old- just her age. And FWIW, she was quite good looking in her youth as well.
There are two sentences in my post.
I think she was prematurely gray as well. It really makes a huge difference. My mother didn’t go gray until her late 60s, and then, it was just a few strands. She died at 77, and didn’t have any serious gray until her hair grew back after chemo. That was the first time she ever looked old-- she’d also lost a lot of weight, which made her skin hang. But in her early 60s, when she had naturally ungray hair, she easily could have passed for 10 years younger. In fact, if she’d told you she was 48, you probably would have thought she didn’t look great for her age, but you would have believed her.
I’m pretty sure she wore age make-up, and she definitely wore a wig in The Beverly Hillbillies. The “old voice” was an affect, too. A younger actress was actually cast on purpose, partly because they didn’t know how long the series would run, but also partly because if she could move like someone much younger (and she really could move for 62), it was funny. I read that somewhere-- it was a book on TV effects, not a book on The Beverly Hillbillies.