# Oldest actor to play a teenager? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 23, 2001, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944 "2001-04-23T01:44:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/21 "2001-04-23T11:24:42Z")
I still get a chuckle every time I remember that Peter Pan, who’s supposed to be what? 9, is played by a woman who’s usually well past 20. Let’s see Sandy Duncan was born 1946. The 34 year old revived the role of the prepubescent lad in 1979 or 80. Presumably she played it for a few years at least. Although I guess nitpickers could say that although Peter Pan wsa physically 9 or so he was temporally much older since he did not grow older. (side note, I’m a nitpicker myself, out out damn nit!) As per Arken’s complaint. Does 26 count as a kid? Anyway Doris Day, born April 3, 1924. I believe the teenager she played in **On Moonlight Bay** in 1951 was 15. There was a sequel a two years later that I’ve never heard of before. Don’t know is the character was still a teenager then. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/22 "2001-04-23T11:29:56Z")
In the **Railway Children** , Jenny Agutter played an eight year old, despite being 21. That has to count for something 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/23 "2001-04-23T12:13:27Z")
Robert Redford and Glenn Close playing themselves in a flashback scene in “The Natural” (1984). He was 47, she was 37, and the fog filters were set at maximum power. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/24 "2001-04-23T12:49:02Z")
I gotcha all beat—Sarah Bernhardt was still playing Joan of Arc when she was well into her sixties. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/25 "2001-04-23T13:31:00Z")
Jamie Farr was 38 when he played Klinger in M_A_S_H_; his character was supposed to be a draftee, so probably 18-19. Farr had actually served in Korea at age 18, 20 years earlier. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/26 "2001-04-23T13:33:38Z")
Vivian Leigh playing 16-year-old Scarlett O’Hara. She was 27 or so at the time (IIRC). Might be a nitpick: > [@](#): > > Sam Stone said: > Matthew Broderick was 24…he also played a high school student two years later in ‘Project X’. Wasn’t he in the Air Force in “Project X” ? Not a high schooler. I thought he was playing pretty close to his true age in that one. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/27 "2001-04-23T14:58:29Z")
Ralph Macchio (sp?) played a high-school junior when he was in his late 20s for the movie “The Karate Kid.” He continued to play that role for the next two movies. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/28 "2001-04-23T16:12:20Z")
What about those 30ish people playing teenagers on Saved By da Bell? Those kids are old! ---
**Author:** ![Arken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Arken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arken)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/29 "2001-04-23T16:18:47Z")
AFAIK, the kids on Saved By the Bell really were kids. This is especially obvious if you see early episodes when they are supposed to be high school freshmen. (I can’t believe I am admitting to watching that show) ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/30 "2001-04-23T18:01:52Z")
For some reason I feel compelled to correct a common misconception about Beverly Hills, 90210. Although the characters were teenagers when the show began (mostly played by people in their early 20’s), they aged as it progressed. All of them graduated first from high school, and then from college. When Gabrielle Carteris left the show at age 34, she was playing a medical student, not a teenager. I’ve seen this “thirty-year-old teenagers” stuff about 90210 before. While a few of the actors were in their thirties by the time the show ended, none of them were still playing teenagers. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/31 "2001-04-23T22:17:02Z")
Charisma Carpenter was 27 years old when playing Cordelia Chase in the 1st season of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_. Her character was in the 3rd-last year of high school at that time, presumably 16 years old. By the time her character stopped being a teenager (in season 1 of _Angel_), the actress was 30. ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/32 "2001-04-23T22:37:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by brother rat \* > I still get a chuckle every time I remember that Peter Pan, who’s supposed to be what? 9, is played by a woman who’s usually well past 20. Heh - that’s just what I was thinking! Mary Martin was 47 when she played Peter in 1960. Did anyone catch the recent production of _South Pacific_ with a 52-year-old Glenn Close playing a 20-something Nellie Forbush? It wasn’t too bad, but they did use an _awful_ lot of soft focus. ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2001, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944/33 "2001-04-23T22:37:42Z")
In _Slaughter High_, Caroline Munro played a high school student at 36. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-actor-to-play-a-teenager/62944.md?page=1)