# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/41 "2008-08-21T08:22:11Z")
[QUOTE=zagloba] Ali McGraw was 45 when she played Natalie Jastrow in “The Winds of War.” Natalie was in her early 20s [/QUOTE] In the sequel miniseries, _War and Remembrance_, Robert Mitchum was 70 and overweight while playing Pug Henry, a trim 50-ish naval officer, and 84 year old John Gielgud and 53 year old Topol played first cousins who knew each other in childhood. (In the book Aaron Jastrow was about 65 and his cousin about 5-10 years younger, so it was Gielgud who was the wrong age, though he was brilliant in a very physically demanding part for an old man.) In the godawful movie _Elizabeth_, Sir Richard Attenborough played Sir William Cecil; Attenborough was 75 and Cecil was about 35 when the movie began. While I never saw the sequel, 37 year old Cate Blanchett reprised the role even though the movie took place at the time of the Spanish Armada when Elizabeth was 55 (and a survivor of smallpox and a woman of the 16th century, which would tack on a good ten years probably to her appearance). ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/42 "2008-08-21T13:07:50Z")
Jessie Royce Landis, who played Cary Grant’s mother in North By Northwest, was only 7 years older than he was. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/43 "2008-08-21T13:15:33Z")
> [@](#): > > Jessie Royce Landis, who played Cary Grant’s mother in North By Northwest, was only 7 years older than he was. Lionel Jeffries played Dick Van Dyke’s father in **Chitty Chitty Bang Bang** even though Dick Van Dyke was seven months _older_ than Jeffries [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062803/trivia](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062803/trivia) ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/44 "2008-08-21T13:23:46Z")
In the 1936 version of Romeo and Juliet, 34-year old Norma Shearer played the not-quite-14-year old Juliet, and 43-year old Leslie Howard played Romeo. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/45 "2008-08-21T13:24:14Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] More often, I’ve read commentators suggest that Hamlet’s age just isn’t consistent. You’re correct that he’s 30 after he returns, but he seems younger than that earlier. The ‘perpetual grad student’ angle always worked for me, but that may not be what was intended. [/QUOTE] True, Shakespeare didn’t seem to care that much about this stuff (witness Lady Capulet, who apparently ages several decades between Act I and Act V!), although he does seem to have taken some pains to establish Hamlet’s age in this particular scene. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/46 "2008-08-21T13:30:04Z")
I realize that this comes close to the OP’s ban on “Flashback/flashforward” appearances, but I saw **Richard Harris** onstage in a revival of **Camelot** circa 1983. At the beginning of the play he portrays himself as a 17 year old or so. At the time, Harris would’ve been about 53. I had a seat up front – he looked a LOT older\*. Harris had played Arthur in the 1967 screen version, when he was only 37, and in that movie, with the re-arranging of the plot, it _was_ a flashback. \*I’ll be 53 in a few months. I don’t think I look anywhere near that shop-worn. But i haven’t kept up with my boozing as well. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/47 "2008-08-21T13:39:02Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] I read an interesting [essay](http://www.princehamlet.com/chapter_1.html) last week that talked about how the gravedigger’s line was changed between early versions - initially the line indicated that the _gravedigger_ was 30, and it had been something like 12 years since Yorick died, not 23. [/QUOTE] Wow. I’m sold, and that changes lots of things about the play. I wonder if I’ll ever get to see the play performed with a roughly age-appropriate Hamlet. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/48 "2008-08-21T13:40:33Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] (Meryl Streep), Christine Baranski and Julie Walters, all of them 60 or close to, play women in their late 30s in MAMMA MIA. (Streep’s character has a 20 year old daughter born when she was about 18 or 19.) [/QUOTE] Well, yeah, but in that same story, Pierce Brosnan (who, like the other two “boys”, is waaaay past the 40-45 of their characters) is supposed to have gotten married and had sons who are out of college already… after 20yo Sophia was born. That whole movie goes down the drain if you try to think about it with more brains that those contained in a large tub of popcorn with extra salt and butter. (I enjoyed Mamma Mia, but that’s cos I know where my brain’s “big red button” is) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/49 "2008-08-21T13:51:49Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] 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.) [/QUOTE] That was Not Supposed to Be Revealed! A few centuries working for The Glaroon may improve your memory… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/50 "2008-08-21T13:57:14Z")
Robbin Williams in **Jack** played a 5th grader (11y.o.?) when he was 45 in real life. ~34 years difference. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/51 "2008-08-21T14:00:04Z")
A famous example is Orson Welles, who was 26, played Charles Foster Kane at various points of his life, including when he was in his seventies. ---
**Author:** ![dasgupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@dasgupta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasgupta)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/52 "2008-08-21T14:33:17Z")
Similarly, in A Beautiful Mind, Russell Crowe (age 37 at the time of release) portrayed John Nash in college at age 20 up to John Nash receiving the Nobel Prize at age 66. So, from -17 to +29. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/53 "2008-08-21T14:48:01Z")
Well, if you want to play that game, look at Dustin Hoffman, in **Little Big Man** – he played Jack Crab from a pre-teen to a circa 100 year old guy when he was 33. That’s circa -20 to +67 or so. But I don’t really think that’s what the OP was really after. I think they were looking for the biggest spread in age between the actor’s real age and the part he was nominally playing. Kinda like the 58 year old Roger Moore playing James Bond (who realy ought to be about 35 or so) in **A View to a Kill** ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/54 "2008-08-21T14:57:09Z")
In Memoirs of an Invisible Man, 49 year old Chevy Chase was playing a 25 year old. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/55 "2008-08-21T15:06:57Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] Robbin Williams in **Jack** played a 5th grader (11y.o.?) when he was 45 in real life. ~34 years difference. [/QUOTE] I don’t think the OP is looking for characters with a fast-aging disease. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/56 "2008-08-21T16:32:53Z")
On _Mork and Mindy_, 57 year old Jonathan Winters played Mork and Mindy’s infant son Mearth. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/57 "2008-08-21T17:05:26Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] A famous example is Orson Welles, who was 26, played Charles Foster Kane at various points of his life, including when he was in his seventies. [/QUOTE] That’s what I came in here to say. And he was actually only 24 during pre-production and 25 when he directed and starred in it. A lot of people remember [these](http://images.forbes.com/images/2002/09/13/kane.jpg) [images](http://www.errolmorris.com/images/general/projects_citizencane.jpg) of Kane and forget that Welles actually looked like [this](http://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/468px-orson-welles-1937.jpg) at the time. Just one more great thing about that movie . . . I don’t think the makeup has been matched since, in 67 years. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/58 "2008-08-21T17:17:19Z")
Lily Tomlin started portraying five year old [Edith Ann](http://firsttube.com/uploads/lily.jpg) in her early 30s. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/59 "2008-08-21T18:49:39Z")
In “The Mummy,” Boris Karloff played Imhotep, who would have been about 4600 years old. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741/60 "2008-08-21T19:46:45Z")
The characters in _Iceman, Encino Man_, and _Unfrozen Cavemen Lawyer_ are all about 30,000 years old. Okay, I’ll shut up now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-age-difference-between-actors-actual-age-and-age-of-the-character/460741.md?page=4)