# Characters that Don't Age (and how they explain it, if at all) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [October 30, 2023, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299 "2023-10-30T12:36:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/81 "2023-10-31T17:53:37Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > _Beethoven_ has the opposite situation. The title St. Bernard grows from a puppy to a full-grown adult, which should take two to three years, yet none of the human characters are seen to age. This happened with the youngest Keaton child on _Family Ties_. Went from one year old to five over the summer so they skip the non-verbal baby years and catapult him into sitcom-cute kindergarten stories. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/82 "2023-10-31T18:02:01Z")
Maigret definitely ages, but, afaik, it is impossible to work out exactly how old he is without running into contradictions. It seems, and this may apply to other authors, that Simenon simply did not feel the need to work out an exact consistent chronology. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/83 "2023-10-31T19:53:59Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Charlie Brown debuted in 1950 as a preschooler (not quite 5 years old). > > By the time _Peanuts_ finished its run in 2000, he had grown to around 8 years old. It only took him 50 years. None of the characters in _ **Peanuts** _ aged at all from 1963 onward. Sally was stuck in kindergarden, and Linus never got past the second grade. Their appearances were more or less established by 1960, but they evolved slowly to become rounder in the intervening three years. Snoopy and Sally changed the most in that time. Sally was born in 1959. She went from newborn to preschooler to kindergardener. Snoopy had thought balloons by 1959 but didn’t start walking on two legs until the '60s. He had also become rounder by 1963. When the strip began in 1950, Linus and Schroeder were both toddlers, but they had grown considerably by 1959. By then, they could be taken as peers of Charlie Brown and Lucy. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/84 "2023-10-31T20:03:21Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > A massively underseen movie called The Kid Detective was terrific thinking about what happens to kid detectives that grow up. That sounds interesting, thanks. There’s a series of cartoon shorts, Dicktown, with a similar premise also from 2020. It’s on Hulu and very funny. > **[Dicktown (TV series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicktown_(TV_series))** > > Dicktown is an American adult animated sitcom created and written by John Hodgman and David Rees for FXX. Hodgman and Rees also star, and serve as executive producers alongside Matt Thompson. The show's concept has been described as a mix of "a little Encyclopedia Brown, a little Scooby-Doo, and a lot of heart." > The first season premiered on July 9, 2020, as a weekly segment on the third season of Cake. The second season began airing as a standalone series on March 3, 2022. > The series is set in... ---
**Author:** ![epbrown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@epbrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/85 "2023-10-31T22:43:24Z")
If I recall, time doesn’t pass in the Jeeves and Wooster stories - they’re all set when Bertie is young and single and likes to mingle. (I never thought Jeeves would cock-block him forever.) Louis Wu has the long-stated goal of living to see everything; he doesn’t age and is already hundreds of years old when we meet him in 2650. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/86 "2023-10-31T23:02:54Z")
Gibbs in NCIS The actor obviously aged, but the character was always fit and a bad ass Marine. None of the NCIS characters acknowledged age. Gibbs finally retired but it wasn’t because of old age. He finally found peace in his soul and moved to Alaska. He’d lost interest in chasing criminals. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2023, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/87 "2023-10-31T23:29:28Z")
As far as NCIS goes, Gibbs had nothing on Ducky Mallard. David McCallum was seventy years old when the series started. I doubt he was expecting to spend the next twenty years in the role. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/88 "2023-10-31T23:54:09Z")
On the other hand, Tommy and Tuppence are the rare example of Agatha Christie detectives who do age in real time. In their first novel, _The Secret Adversary_, published in 1922, they are a young couple falling in love as they solve crime. They get engaged at the end of the book. In their final novel, _Postern of Fate_, published in 1973, they are retired grandparents in their 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/89 "2023-11-01T00:03:47Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > None of the characters in _ **Peanuts** _ aged at all from 1963 onward. Rerun did. He was born during the run of the strip in 1972 and subsequently aged, though he’d always be depicted as younger than the others in the cast, say, something around five, whereas the others remained unchanged. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/90 "2023-11-01T00:07:03Z")
I remember him as always riding on the back of his mother’s bike. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/91 "2023-11-01T08:28:24Z")
Yes, for a while that was his signature setting. Later on, Schulz used him in a more varied manner. There’s also, for instance, a recurring joke in which the other characters (mostly Charlie Brown) won’t let him play baseball with them because he’s too young. (And of course, even his name is a joke alluding to his role as a younger version of Linus - shortly after Rerun’s birth, Lucy complains that it’s just a re-run of what she went through with Linus as a little brother.) ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/92 "2023-11-01T09:10:52Z")
Resident Evil might be the only still ongoing video game series with characters that age in real time. The hero of the first game Chris Redfield was a 25 year old cop in Resident Evil 1 in 1998. His last appearance was in Resident Evil 8 in 2021 and he’s now 48 years ago and musing retirement from the mercenary company he’s formed. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/93 "2023-11-01T18:35:31Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > How old were Bruce and Dick Grayson when the latter was Robin and does that match up with Nightwing’s current age? Well, the comic book cover said something like “Introducing Robin, the Boy Wonder, the Star of 1940!”… ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/94 "2023-11-03T20:03:17Z")
I was going to mention Hercule Poirot, whose first published mystery takes place in the summer of 1918 and was at least sixty then, so by Curtain (1976) he’d be the oldest man in the world. From Jonathan Kellerman’s novels, there are Alex Delaware, his GF Robin and friend Milo. Delaware was born in 1950 or '51, and the first novel was set in 1985. By now, he’d really be getting on, but Kellerman never mentions any of the main characters aging. (The first few books give the precise year they take place, but sometime in the mid-nineties they stop that, referring to events as “twenty years ago” or whatever.) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/95 "2023-11-03T20:21:17Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > I was going to mention Hercule Poirot, whose first published mystery takes place in the summer of 1918 and was at least sixty then, so by Curtain (1976) he’d be the oldest man in the world. I almost did as well, but I think there may have been some retconning to his birth-year to fix this. He wasn’t 125 or so at death. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2023, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299/96 "2023-11-04T18:03:33Z")
Reading Phantom comics as a kid, it was a central plot theme that the Phantom would die eventually, and his son would take up the job, the system spanning centuries. So, the Phantom is one of the few comics which actually had a robust explanation for the apparent non-aging. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/characters-that-dont-age-and-how-they-explain-it-if-at-all/992299.md?page=4)