Better now, or then?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was watching TV last night and had the pleasure of catching two of my favorite ST:TNG episodes. Of course, they’re my favorites because they feature John deLancie. :smiley: Gods, that man is sexy.

So I started thinking… there are actors and actresses out there who at some point in their lives are considered attractive, but at others they’re not. I’m not talking necessarily about people who look really bad when they get old; rather, people who have definite turning points in their lives as far as attractiveness, or people who have to ‘grow into’ their faces. I know, I know. You need examples.

Sean Connery: so much better since he got older.

Donald Sutherland: total geek when he was younger. Now? With the hair, and the beard? Nummy. Unfortunately Keifer seems to have the opposite thing going for him.

One of my personal favs, Anthony Stewart Head, was pretty geeky as a young chap. Total hottie now. But poor brother Murray- opposite.

George Clooney- geek to hunk.

Ron Howard… cute, cute little boy. Not too shabby as an adult. Now? YIKES! Turn back the clock on him, please.

Mark Hamil… cute, cute, cute… AAAAAAAAAAAAA. 'Course, may have had something to do with the car accident.

Robert De Niro… cute to scary.

Harrison Ford… geek to hunk, but is starting to push the envelope a bit. He could fall over the edge into scary in the next few years.

So… who would you add to the list?

-BK

2

…boys only?

[uncomfortably aware that there seem to be no “you’re not getting older, you’re getting better” females on the list]
[that wasn’t intentional, was it?]

:smiley:

MacKenzie Phillips was a fairly cute teenager, then in her 20s she was really gawky, then by the time she hit her “Eleanor” period, she wasn’t bad looking.

I like Andie McDowell much better now than I did when she was “just another ingenue”.

Julia Roberts should probably quit any time now, while she’s still ahead. I see her going the Kate Hepburn “bony” route, but she doesn’t have the personality to carry it off, IMO.

Emma Thompson just gets better and better every time I see her. She’s kind of the “Sean Connery” of actresses.

3

No, not boys only… the list just happened to end up that way. I simply couldn’t think of any women that had such an obvious turnaround… most of the attractive older women were attractive younger women. Let’s face it… women carry off the lifelong good looking thing much better than men. :wink:

I have to agree with you on Emma… she is beautiful.

-BK

4

This’ll sound weird, but I watched the “E! True Hollywood Story” about “Welcome Back, Kotter” and it had interviews with Marcia Strassman (Julie Kotter). She looked a helluva lot better than she did in the 70’s. On the show she musta weighed about 12 pounds. Early Ally McBeal-ish.

5

Courtney Cox. She looked way better early on. Now she’s so thin that how good she looks depends on a given episode. She’s a bit…high manintenance looking now, y’know?

I never really liked Julia Roberts, but she looked better in the late eighties.

Personally I still think Kiefer looks good. :slight_smile:

All I can think of for now.

6

Hellen Mirren and Karen Allen began as babes, and have pretty much remained so.

7

I think Faye Dunaway and Lauren Hutton are both more attractive now than they were in their Hollywood-defined prime (early 30’s). Meg Ryan is also more attractive now than she was when she was younger. The laugh lines she has now make her much prettier than “cute,” and I find her cuteness just plain aggravating in her earlier movies.

Agreed on Harrison Ford being about to turn scary. He’s just not as hot as he once was. Also, I think Don Johnson has gone from sexy to frightening. The great patchwork of laugh lines that his face was during the Miami Vice years make him look like he had been cut up and has a jigsaw puzzle of scars on his face now. Lingering sex appeal, definitely, but SCARY.

Drew Barrymore was cuter as a little kid. :stuck_out_tongue:

8

My favorite picture of Audrey Hepburn is actually one taken in the late 80s/early 90s when she was doing her traveling as a rep for UNICEF. There’s a picture of her in Somalia, holding a child in her arms, with a sort of righteous, angry look on her face, her hair is pulled back, and I thought she looked lovely, like an angel. Which, to those people-she really was.