# Biggest age difference between an actor and the character that they portray **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2021, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399 "2021-03-22T04:46:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2021, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/61 "2021-03-29T12:02:27Z")
I remember, by the way, that when Harrison reprised his role in the 1980s, the tricky part was finding an actress who could plausibly play Higgins’ mother. Fortunately Cathleen Nesbitt was still alive (she had played his mother the first time, too). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2021, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/62 "2021-04-07T22:25:17Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I don’t think they’re fooling anyone. I kept waiting for the big reveal that he’s really a middle-age woman. I mean, that could be humorous. But… are they really playing it straight, assuming no one will notice gender or age clues (like her neck)? Just watched the first episode. It is completely believable and completely hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2021, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/63 "2021-04-08T06:13:48Z")
Fred Astaire was 54, Nanette Fabray was 33, Jack Buchanan was 62, … when they played babies in the “Triplets” number in The Band Wagon. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2021, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/64 "2021-04-08T11:06:43Z")
any movie version of Romeo and Juliet, until DeCaprio ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2021, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/65 "2021-04-08T13:52:01Z")
[Ian McKellen is going to play Hamle](https://www.playbill.com/article/ian-mckellen-to-star-in-hamlet-at-the-theatre-royal-windsor#:~:text=Ian%20McKellen%20will%20star%20in,most%20live%20theatre%20last%20year.)t in an upcoming “age blind” production in London. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2021, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/66 "2021-04-08T14:45:31Z")
Lionel Jeffries played the father of Dick Van Dyke’s character in _Chitty Chitty Bang Bang_, despite being about six months _younger_ than Van Dyke. Jeffries was 42 at the time, playing a character primarily identified as “Grandpa.” Jeffries was prematurely bald, so he often played characters much older than he actually was. He also played King Pellinore, supposed to be bumbling old man, in _Camelot_, at the age of 41. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/67 "2021-04-08T14:51:54Z")
Andy Clyde went the opposite way: he started playing old men in his twenties and slowly started using less makeup as he aged. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2021, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/68 "2021-04-08T15:10:28Z")
Victor Buono played “King Tut” on Batman in 1966 - a character who was an esteemed professor who thought he was a reincarnated pharaoh. Buono was 28, a decade younger than Adam West - but the character certainly seemed to be in his 50s. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2021, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/69 "2021-04-08T15:12:06Z")
In _March of the Wooden Soldiers_ the bad guy Barnaby does not state his age but he looks and acts quite old. Henry Brandon (Henry Kleinbach as he was billed in that movie) was 22 when it was filmed. That was the age difference that shocked me the most when I found out. The one that always comes to my mind isn’t as big a difference as some mentioned but I feel it’s one of the biggest miscasts in Hollywood history. John Wayne was 55 when he was in _The Longest Day_ played LTC Benjamin Vandervoort. Vandervoort was 27 on D-Day. Not only did Wayne look much too old for the part, it dismisses the remarkable fact that Vandervoort was only 27 when he led a battalion behind enemy lines. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/70 "2021-04-08T16:03:19Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > The one that always comes to my mind isn’t as big a difference as some mentioned but I feel it’s one of the biggest miscasts in Hollywood history. John Wayne was 55 when he was in _The Longest Day_ played LTC Benjamin Vandervoort. Vandervoort was 27 on D-Day. Not only did Wayne look much too old for the part, it dismisses the remarkable fact that Vandervoort was only 27 when he led a battalion behind enemy lines. I didn’t know that it was even possible to be an LTC at 27. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2021, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/71 "2021-04-08T17:29:35Z")
It’s certainly not possible now and it was rare then but it was possible in WWII. He was commissioned in 1938 as a lieutenant so as a regular army officer when the war started he had an advantage when it came to promotions. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2021, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/72 "2021-04-08T19:32:27Z")
Jessie Landis played Cary Grant’s mother in North by Northwest despite being only 8 year older than him. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2021, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/73 "2021-04-08T22:23:25Z")
Natalie Schafer was born in Nov, 1900. She played Mrs Howell 1964-67. I read Natalie was secretive about her age and her costars didn’t know. IIRC The character’s age wasn’t revealed. I thought of the Howells as being middle aged, maybe 50? Jim Backus was born Feb, 1913. He was 51 when Gilligan’s Island began. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/74 "2021-04-09T00:58:42Z")
> [@fedman1](#): > > any movie version of Romeo and Juliet, until DeCaprio Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 version starred Leonard Whiting, who was 17, and Olivia Hussey, who was 15. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/75 "2021-04-09T02:59:17Z")
Wendy O. Williams was around 37 when she played Charlie in Reform School Girls, presumably a minor. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399/76 "2021-04-11T06:20:06Z")
There were only 12 years between Sean Connery and Harrison Ford in _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-age-difference-between-an-actor-and-the-character-that-they-portray/938399.md?page=3)