oh no!
… Glenn died?
You realize it when you’re watching episodes of Gilligan’s Island and start thinking more about Lovey and a little less about Ginger.
I NEVER thought about Ginger (or Lovey).
It was ALWAYS Mary Ann!
Great point there @simster.
A few days ago I made this post in another thread. The embedded link in my post points to a Gilligan’s island outtake on YouTube. The preview still shows the Howells sitting at a table; that image is all that matters for this thread:
When I hunted up the vid the first thing that struck me (and struck hard) was how young both Howells looked. Significantly younger than I remember them being when I was a kid. The show was only filmed for 2-1/2 years, so the actor’s ages and appearances won’t have changed much between episode 1 and episode last.
IOW, they looked like that pretty much every episode. Who knew!!???/???1!!
Natalie Schafer was 13 years older (born 1900) than Jim Backus btw.
Mrs Howell always seemed more stately and richer somehow than Mr. Maybe he was 2nd generation money and she was fifth gen or something.
And yeah, she did seem older than he. Back in that less sensitive era she might’ve been described as “well-preserved”.
I guessed Glenn Miller!
I don’t know about others, but while my body might be a better match for Lovey, my mind is still in Mary Ann territory. Ginger in a pinch.
That dichotomy (trichotomy?) describes an awful lot of male humanity. Me most certainly included. (Where’s the lusty leer smily when I need it?)
Consider that the characters (not the actresses) in the Golden Girls were supposed to be 53-55 at the start of the series, the same ages of the characters in the Sex and the City revival And Just Like That… Our impression of age has changed considerably over the years.
I can take comfort in the fact that Aaron Rodgers is older than me, and he plays in the NFL. That comfort may not last much longer, though. LOL
Really? My impression of the Golden Girls was 65+.
Nope, they started the show in their mid-50s and aged to early 60s by the end. Except for Dorothy’s mother Sophia who was 79 at the start of the show.
Now the actresses playing the characters were not the same ages so that might be where the impression of age came from.
At the start of the series:
- Rue McClanahan: 51 vs Blanche Devereaux: 53
- Bea Arthur: 63 vs Dorothy Zbornak: 53
- Betty White: 63 vs Rose Nylan: 55
I did not follow that show but glancing at your cited ages …
A well-preserved carefully made-up 60-something actress can readily play an ordinary 50-something of the same “something”-ness. i.e. 63 playing 53.
That gets a lot harder a decade later when she’s 73 trying to look 63. Aging is not linear even a little bit. Hiding that second 10 years is a LOT harder. Even for a pro.
Yet Still Even Another Reminder for Me: last May, I was watching the U.S. Military Academy graduation, and saw almost 1000 new Army officers being sworn in - few, if any, of whom were even alive when the 9/11 attack happened.
On the Dragnet radio show¹ Joe Friday’s mother sounds like she’s about eighty-five, and it’s disconcerting to imagine a woman who sounds old enough to be a great-grandmother in many families having a son who’s supposed to be thirty-ish.
In fact, Peggy Webber who played Mrs. Friday was several years younger than Jack Webb who played the son.
- Way before my time, but I’ve listened to it in podcast and internet streaming formats.
That’s just sick 
I didn’t read the whole thread, but I didn’t want to start a new thread just to post this.
I’m walking at the local mall today because it’s too hot to walk outside, even at 7:00 in the morning. I’m sitting here with my Starbucks, and a boy and girl, probably a couple, sit down across from me. The girl is the spitting image of a young Cher. Dark, straight hair parted in the middle, huge, beautifully made up eyes with false lashes, quite full lips with a pale rose lipstick. Even the expression on her face could be Cher.
With the license granted to old ladies I go over to her and say, “Has anyone ever told you that you look like Cher?” She had no idea who I was talking about. Nor did her boyfriend. So I told him to look it up on his phone (had to spell the name for him). And there it was-- the resemblance was striking.
I don’t think either of them saw it. Or they hated the idea that she could look like somebody who is now an old person.
Here comes my rant: when I was a teenager, like these two, I would have recognized a picture of Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow (The It Girl,) certainly Fred Astaire, Merle Oberon, The Marx Brothers (and name all four of them), and any number of entertainment celebrities from the 20s 30s 40 and 50s.
I will mercifully end the rant right here, although I could go on and on…
Eh, in your era there were 150 old celebrities and 30 current ones. Total.
In those young folks’ era it’s 15,000 old celebrities and 3,000 current ones.
Yeah, I know.