# Largest age difference between actor's actual age and age of the character? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2008, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741 "2008-08-20T23:39:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/1 "2008-08-20T23:39:07Z")
For the sake of this thread, I’d like to exclude movies/TV in which the same actor was playing him/herself in flashback/flashforward. Rather, that the character’s age was much younger/older than the actor playing it but you were expected to believe it. For example: In **The Birdcage** , Calista Flockhart was playing a 17 year old, when at the time she was 32. Or in the original **Manchurian Candidate** , where Angela Landsbury was playing Laurence Harvey’s mother, when in fact she was only three years older than Harvey. So, she was playing a woman old enough to have a 33 year old son at the age of 36. I know I’m forgetting some rather obvious ones with a larger age gap than my examples, so I put it to the Dopers. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/2 "2008-08-20T23:50:03Z")
Not largER, but Meredith Monroe played 16 year old Andie McPhee on Dawson’s Creek starting when she was 29. And Gabrielle Carteris was also 29 when she played Andrea (who’s supposed to be fifteen or sixteen) on Beverly Hills 90210. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/3 "2008-08-20T23:54:36Z")
There are cases (in fantasy & sci fi) where characters are hundreds or thousands of years old, so that trivially the actors are a lot younger than their character, so I suspect you might want limit to realistic movies/programs. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/4 "2008-08-20T23:56:59Z")
Estelle Getty was 62 when she started playing the role of Sophia on The Golden Girls. Sophia was 80 when the series began. (18 year difference) Shirley Henderson was 39 for HP:Goblet of Fire portraying Moaning Myrtle, who would have been no older then 17. (somewhere between 22 and 26 year difference) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/5 "2008-08-21T00:03:01Z")
George Burns was only 81 when he played God, who is anywhere from 6,000 to 10 billion to infinity years old. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/6 "2008-08-21T00:03:44Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] There are cases (in fantasy & sci fi) where characters are hundreds or thousands of years old, so that trivially the actors are a lot younger than their character, so I suspect you might want limit to realistic movies/programs. [/QUOTE] Or at least discard immortal/undead/divine/robotic characters. (But if they’re not discarded, then 10 year old Jodell Ferland playing Satan in the first episode of The Collector would be hard to beat.) ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/7 "2008-08-21T00:05:14Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] George Burns was only 81 when he played God, who is anywhere from 6,000 to 10 billion to infinity years old. [/QUOTE] Alanis Morrisette was only 24 when she played God, so she beats Burns by a couple decades on that note. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/8 "2008-08-21T00:07:09Z")
[QUOTE=Tengu] Alanis Morrisette was only 24 when she played God, so she beats Burns by a couple decades on that note. [/QUOTE] Well, not if God is infinitely old. Infinity minus any non-infinite number is still infinity, so they’re tied. (I prefer Alanis, though.) ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/9 "2008-08-21T00:14:27Z")
Stockard Channing playing 17-year-old Rizzo in _Grease_ when she was 33. (That’s almost a 50% age difference.) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/10 "2008-08-21T00:17:40Z")
How old was Mrs. Robinson supposed to be? Late 40s? Early 50s? Anne Bancroft was 36 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/11 "2008-08-21T00:19:39Z")
Dustin Hoffman was 33 when he played the 121-year old narrator of _Little Big Man_. That’s an 88 year difference. Sorry, missed that first condition in the OP. Feel free to ignore… ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/12 "2008-08-21T00:21:10Z")
Although I love the movie, I think that 41-year-old Laurence Olivier was a bit long in the tooth for the 1948 film version of _Hamlet_. Although Hamlet’s age is not given, he’s supposed to be a university student. Eileen Herlie, who played Gertrude, was, in real life, 13 years younger than Olivier. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/13 "2008-08-21T00:25:50Z")
Isabel Sanford was twenty years older than Sherman Hemsley, so assuming that most married couples are expected to be around the same age (there are indications in the show that George was slightly older than Weezie), she was around twenty years older than the character she played on _The Jeffersons_. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2008, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/14 "2008-08-21T00:26:02Z")
Jessie Royce Landis played Cary Grant’s mother in **North By Northwest** despite only being seven years older than Grant. Grant at the time was 54, though he was playing the part younger – though never mentioned, I would doubt he was supposed to be much over 40. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/15 "2008-08-21T00:29:01Z")
[QUOTE=Earl Snake-Hips Tucker] How old was Mrs. Robinson supposed to be? Late 40s? Early 50s? Anne Bancroft was 36 at the time. [/QUOTE] And Dustin Hoffman was only 6 years younger than she. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/16 "2008-08-21T00:31:12Z")
41 year old Cicely Tyson played a centennarian in _The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman_. That may not count under the no-flashbook rule, but she spent a considerable amount of time as her old-age character. Hal Holbrook first did his one-man show _Mark Twain Tonight!_ when Holbrook was 29. Twain’s age isn’t precisely noted in the show, but Twain died at age 76 and Holbrook’s makeup was obviously modeled on photos of Twain in his later years. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/17 "2008-08-21T00:54:33Z")
Sigh. OK, I’m obviously talking about actors playing characters whose age they’re supposed to be expected to represent in normal reality, not John DeLancie playing 200 billion year old Q, or David Tennant playing a 900 year old, or the baby from Ten Commandments playing Jesus, or Al Pacino as the Devil, or anything else along those lines. And to clarify the flashback/flashforward rule mentioned in the OP, yes that includes wearing obvious makeup to appear older. If a young actor played someone older, they had to look like they normally did, and vice-versa, with minimal effort to wardrobe / hairstyling. I’m not even looking for the most convincing portrayal, just the biggest difference. I imagine some terrible 50’s B-movie with middle aged men posing as teenagers would be the winner. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/18 "2008-08-21T00:57:33Z")
[Lionel Jeffries](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420383/) as Grandpa Potts played the father of [Dick Van Dyke’s](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001813/) character Caractacus Potts in [Chitty Chitty Bang Bang](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062803/) despite Jeffries being six months \*\*younger \*\*than Van Dyke. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/19 "2008-08-21T01:06:15Z")
[QUOTE=freckafree] And Dustin Hoffman was only 6 years younger than she. [/QUOTE] And the leg in the movie poster belonged to Linda Gray. However, Linda Gray was nowhere near as smoking hot as Anne Bancroft. Jane Seymour has to figure in here somewhere. And probably a special category award to Dick Clark. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/20 "2008-08-21T01:10:02Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] And the leg in the movie poster belonged to Linda Gray. However, Linda Gray was nowhere near as smoking hot as Anne Bancroft. Jane Seymour has to figure in here somewhere. And probably a special category award to Dick Clark. [/QUOTE] No fair! Dick’s a member of the Howard families. (The stroke a few years back was faked on direct orders from W. W. Smith.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741.md?page=2)