People way older/younger than you thought they were

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Have you ever (and at some point, you must have) found yourself on Wikipedia or reading the news and find out someone is much older (or younger) than you thought they were? This seems to be a slightly more-rare offshoot of the old “I thought he was dead” routine when someone you long ago thought kicked the bucket makes the news. So who have you thought was a hell of a lot wrinklier or much more chipper than they turned out to be?

I run into this a lot with race car drivers, which is the only sport/thing on TV I really follow, but my own best example would be Mike Myers, of early-mid 1990s Austin Powers/Wayne’s World fame. My family were big into both of those movie franchises growing up, and therefore I’d always assumed him to be much older than he actually is. Gun to my head I would’ve guessed 57 or 58, but as it turns out he’s not even 50 yet.

Got any stories of your own? I’m thinking more about people famous enough to at least have a Wikipedia page, but if you have an excellent story about someone you know personally, don’t be shy.

2

i was surprised to learn that not only is Angelina Jolie younger than Brad Pitt, she’s 12 years younger.

3

I was surprised to hear that Barbara Walters is 83. I thought she was only 82.

4

Kurt Loder, the MTV News guy, is 68. He was 49 when Kurt Cobain died. Loder is 5 years older than my dad!

5

Al Sharpton is 58. I thought he was much older, I would have guessed in his early 70s.

I know he has lost weight recently, but I think part of my issue is that when he was heavier, it made him look older.

6

Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gormet, was 65 when he died. I thought he was that age 20 years earlier.

Character actor William Hickey was 69 when he died. I thought he was in his 70s 20 years earlier.

If this pic is still out there, this chap, my uncle is 49 years old in this pic.

Chubby Chaney from “Our Gang” was 14 when he started. His parents passed him of as three years younger.
Kendall McComas, who had a brief stint as “Breezy” in “Our Gang” was 15. He was supposed to have been 11, maybe.

Both of them were short their entire lives.

7

Isn’t Abe Vigoda the poster boy for this phenomenon? I remember watching Barney Miller as a kid and thinking he had to be in his late sixties. A check of his headshot on Wikipedia from that time shows he wasn’t nearly wrinkled enough, but he sure does have an old man’s face even then. Now, of course, he doesn’t look a day past his cited age of 91.

8

Abe Vigoda was 50 when he acted in The Godfather, 53 during the first season of Barney Miller. I think most people would have pegged him as much older.

ETA: Curses, ninja’d

9

Victor Buono was just short of 44 when he died. He looked older than than when he was doing guest appearances in the mid 1960s.

10

chuck norris is in pretty good shape for a 72 year old. I knew he was 60+ but still, someone who hadnt followed his career might not think him over 55

11

Bettie Page’s photos look dated, but don’t really give many clues as to when they were taken.

It turns out that she was older than my mother, and only a year younger than my father.

12

Actually, just a couple days ago I was watching NCIS and I vaguely remembered hearing that Pauley Perrette is older than you’d think. An episode in 2009 said that her character(Abby) was in her late 20s. I would have guessed that she’s in her early to mid-30s. But she’s actually 43!

I also looked up Cote de Pablo (Ziva), and she’s only 33. I wouldn’t have guessed that she’s ten years younger than Pauley.

13

When I watched Mean Girls I thought Rachel McAdams was a teenager, around Lindsay Lohan’s age. Then I found out she was 11 years older than her character in the movie and close to 30 at the time. I was shocked.

14

Gosh, I would have pegged him as close to 70. However, I guess it depends as folk from years ago did dress differently - and age a lot more. However, you would have got me on that.

15

I thought Heather Graham was younger than she is. She played a young character in Boogie Nights and I assumed her real age was around the character’s. But she was actually 27 when she made that movie.

16

Yes, he is wearing what I would consider “old-people clothes”, which are simply the popular clothes of an earlier generation. But the cane and the way he is supporting himself… he looks frail, like my father did in his seventies. Did he suffer some great trauma or wasting disease? When was the picture taken?

17

Eric Millegan from Bones. I was surprised to learn that he was older than Emily Deschanel.

18

Taken in 1967. I know he took a variety of medications for “chronic ailments.” I never heard what those “ailments” were, but I think he was epileptic. What I do know is that he was constantly driving around stoned on some combination of his stash–and he had a number of crashes as the result. But people who knew him longer than I said that he always looked much older. ETA: He was a veteran, and the VA took GOOD care of his medical needs. Boy howdy!

19

Eddie McClintock of Warehouse 13 seems to be playing a character around 35 but is ten years older. He looks his real age in some shots but acts like a 20-something dork so often it’s almost painful.

Plus, if that’s not a hairpiece he needs to change set stylists.

20

I was surprised that William Hickey died and was 69 and that in his final film Mouse Hunt he was only 69 when I also thought, as did many that he was already that old in the Godfather. He always looked older. He did act while he had severe lung disease and stuff, however.It can age you, so can the nasty meds. Required to treat it.