The responses to my inquiry about sexy but not beautiful women have prompted me to pose anot her question. Some actresses retain their beauty for their entire career. Two names that come quickly to mind are Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn who were as attractive at 60 as they were at 20. On the other hand, some beauties lose their attrractiveness very quickly, the result of age, weight gain, alcohol, hard work, etc. There is no need to embarrass them by giving their names. However there a few actresses who actually get better looking as they get older. I say “better looking” rather than more attractive because I want to emphasize their physical attributes and not any attraction that comes from a look of maturity, etc. The best example I can think of, since my wife is not an actress, is Suzanne Pleshett who gets better looking with every passing year. Can anyone suggest any other actresses who seemed to get better looking as they got older?
Terry Moore appeared in Playboy back in the late 1980s. She’d been the lead (after the gorilla) in Mighty Joe Young back in 1949. She still looked great. Better, possibly. I just watched the DVD , which has a very recent interview with her, and she still looks pretty good, although her official birthday is 1929, making her about 75.
I thought Ann Margaret looked good in Grumpy Old Men. Barbara Eden looked good when last I saw her. Mitzi Gaynor appeared on Carson’s Tonight show long after her supposed prime, still dancin’ and looking great.
Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews don’t look their age.
On the other hand, I first saw Simone Signoret in Madame Rosa http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076348/
. Then I saw pictures of the younger her, who was a knockout. She aged very badly.
I saw Ann Margaret in Grumpy Old Men and dayum if she didn’t look hot.
Are you talking natural aged beauty, or surgically enhanced beauty? I’m sure some of these older actresses were modified, but Joan Rivers is just train-wreck frightening.
Great minds think alike, Cal!
How’s Joan Collins looking these days, speaking of Playboy spreads?
She’s not nearly as old as some, but I think Fran Drescher is drop-dead sexy, and she hasn’t aged a day. She was in Saturday Night Fever in the late '70s, This Is Spinal Tap in the mid-'80s, The Nanny in the '90s, and that horrible new sitcom most recently, and she only gets hotter and hotter – she has to be well into her 40s by now, if not even older.
Two women that come to mind for me are Raquel Welch and Cher. Okay, Cher HAS had a little help from her doctor friends, but I wonder how many Hollywood women haven’t had a little help in that way.
I think Ellen Burstyn is prettier now than when she was young. I never found her pretty but then in Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood I thought she was really pretty. Maybe she got her face fixed up and it turned out better that way but I’m not sure. Her teeth looked really natural. They didn’t look perfect, but it’s nice to know they don’t go in a jar after work. It made me think maybe it is just how she turned out. She always seemed harsh looking to me when she was younger and now she is more delicate and pretty. Maybe it is just that she’s a good actress and can act pretty when needed.
I remember thinking as a kid, watching Dinah Shore’s talk show (1974-1980), that she looked REALLY good for a 60-something woman.
Diane Lane was the first to come to mind.
So far as I know, she’s all natural. Getting a “little help” automatically removes them from contention as even remotely attractive in my mind.
I think that surgically enhanced is fine, as long as it’s done appropriately. At least Joan Rivers mocks herself.
I think Catherine Deneuve is even more stunning today.
VCNJ~
There are lot sof actresses who have gotten better looking as they have gotten older - Michelle Pfieffer is the standout example for me, but I think Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, Susan Sarandon, Merryl Streep and particularly Helen Hunt are all women who’ve gotten very much more attractive with age
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Heather Locklear looks amazing. I saw her on a commercial yesterday and was thinking about how she never looks her age. Most Hollywood actresses don’t even come close to holding it together the way Heather has.
Susan Sarandon.
The last time I remember being struck by the attractiveness and sexiness of what might be called an “older woman”, it was by Helen Mirren in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.
Diane Lane looks terrific but the fact that she is forty doesn’t mean she has outrun age. I predict she will age gracefully but she isn’t there yet. For our purposes we need to look at women in their late fifties at the youngest. Heaterh Locklear looks terrific and I bet she’ll age gracefully too but she ain’t ready for little old lady land. Catherine Deneuve looks good but she isn’t even yet sixty. Shirley Jones, Oh yeah.
Nah, the OP just asked for examples of actresses that got better looking as they got older, not for actresses that are good looking older women.
I think Diane Keaton is more attractive now than she was in The Godfather thirty years ago.
I’ll back up Julie Andrews. I was just semi-forced to watch ‘Princess Diaries’ (in a hotel with my little girl) and I was riveted whenever she was on screen. I actually remember thinking to myself ‘Man, any film just automatically becomes better when Julie Andrews is in it.’
Ok, her daughter is alright too, but the Bus Wife has given me a free pass for the day when Blythe Danner knocks on the door to whisk me away.
When a young Linda Evans played in the Big Valley, she was… meh. But an older, “Dynasty” Linda was mesmerizing eye candy.