# Weirdest Age Discrepancy Between Characters and the Actors Who Play Them **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 4, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920 "2010-04-04T17:11:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/1 "2010-04-04T17:11:31Z")
Example: On “M_A_S\*H”: Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III is an experienced doctor; Cpl. Radar O’Reilly is a teenaged (or every early 20’s) geeky company clerk. In real life, David Ogden Stiers and Gary Burghoff are only 7 months apart in age. Your turn. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/2 "2010-04-04T17:29:52Z")
Shannon Doherty’s Brenda Walsh and Gabrielle Carteris’s Andrea Zuckerman were both high school juniors on “Beverly Hills, 90210.” But Doherty was 19, not too far away from high school junior-dom, and Carteris was 29. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/3 "2010-04-04T17:57:14Z")
In **City of Ember** Harry Treadaway (aged 24) was playing Doon Harrow (aged _12_). :eek: His costar, Saoirse Ronan, was only 14 and also playing a 12 yr old. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/4 "2010-04-04T18:13:19Z")
[Shirley Henderson](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0376602/) was in her 40s when she played school-age ghost “Moaning Myrtle” in 2 of the Harry Potter movies. And got to leer at Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), born 24 years later than her, in the bath pool in the process. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/5 "2010-04-04T18:18:37Z")
Well know – Jesse Royce Landis played Cary Grant’s mother in **North by Northwest** despite being only seven years older than he was. I think there was a case where Agnes Moorhead played the mother of an actress who was younger than she was. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/6 "2010-04-04T18:24:57Z")
Roger Moore is almost three years older than Sean Connery, but you wouldn’t know it by comparing the way Sean looked in “Diamonds Are Forever” and Roger’s youthful appearance in “Live and Let Die”. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/7 "2010-04-04T18:28:00Z")
In [The Manchurian Candidate (1962)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056218/trivia) > [@](#): > > Angela Lansbury was thirty-six at the time of filming, only three years older than Laurence Harvey, who played her son. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/8 "2010-04-04T18:32:54Z")
Frodo Bagginsis supposed to be 50. FIFTY. the day he sets out on his adventure in **The Lord Of the Rings**. Strangely, they chose to use Elija Wood, who looked even younger than all of the 18 years he was when filming began. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/9 "2010-04-04T18:46:31Z")
Anne Bancroft was only 6 years older than Dustin Hoffman. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/10 "2010-04-04T18:50:43Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > In real life, David Ogden Stiers and Gary Burghoff are only 7 months apart in age… I never would have guessed this… ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/11 "2010-04-04T18:52:02Z")
The actresses who played Weezie on The Jeffersons and Florida on Good Times were about 18 years older than the actors who played their husbands. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/12 "2010-04-04T20:15:34Z")
Ann-Margret played the mother, Mrs. Walker, in the 1975 film version of _Tommy_. She was 34 at the time. In the later part of the movie, her adult son is played by Roger Daltrey, who was 31. This is far from the weirdest thing in the movie, though. In fairness, _Tommy_ covers a pretty large period of time from before Tommy’s birth to his early adulthood, so if the same actress is going to play the mother the whole time then her age is going to be “off” for part of the story. A new film version of _Tommy_ would probably cast someone in their early to mid 20s in the title role, but Daltrey was the person best qualified to sing the part and in 1975 wasn’t _that_ much past the ideal age for the role. But between his being a bit too old and Ann-Margret being a bit too young, there’s only a three year age gap between “mother” and “son”. Even a 10 year difference would have seemed more natural onscreen. In _The Graduate_ Anne Bancroft (then 36) wasn’t that much younger than her character. Mrs. Robinson became pregnant with Elaine while in college and at the time of the movie Elaine is herself in college, so Mrs. Robinson can’t be older than about 43 and could plausibly be only 39 or 40. Dustin Hoffman, however, was already 30 and thus a good eight years older than his character. Katharine Ross was 27, so at least five years older than her character and only nine years younger than her “mother”. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/13 "2010-04-04T20:33:27Z")
Katharine Hepburn in \*Little Women. \*Early in her career she tended to look older than her real age. In this film she looks like a woman in her 30s . . . yet she’s still calling her mother “mommy.” ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/14 "2010-04-04T20:50:51Z")
> [@Bootis](#): > > Frodo Bagginsis supposed to be 50. FIFTY. the day he sets out on his adventure in **The Lord Of the Rings**. Strangely, they chose to use Elija Wood, who looked even younger than all of the 18 years he was when filming began. Well, if we’re going to go after supernatural or mythical creatures, this thread is going to be pretty long. Aragorn was supposed to be 87 and was played by 40 something Viggo Mortinsen, and of course Hugo Weaving was a little younger then the 6000 year old Elrond. And on the other side, Gandalf the White was arguably only a couple weeks old in Twin Towers, but was played by 60 something Ian McKellan. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/15 "2010-04-04T20:56:21Z")
Not as weird as the others, but perhaps still noteworthy: Ten years separate Sally Field (b. 1946) who played the mother of Forrest Gump; from Tom Hanks (b. 1956) who played the character. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/16 "2010-04-04T20:59:46Z")
Since I watched one of my all-time favorite movies last night, _The Ten Commandments_, I’ll add that Charlton Heston (Moses) and Ann Baxter (Nefretiri) were the same age. Nina Foch, who played Bithia (the one who rescues Moses from the bull rushes) was a year younger than Heston and Baxter. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/17 "2010-04-04T21:02:49Z")
I mentioned this in a recent thread on _Barney Miller_, but Abe Vigoda was 53 when he was playing Fish, the “old man” of the precinct. In reality, Jack Soo was three years older than Vigoda. Another unlikely parent/child casting was from the recent series _Kath & Kim_. Molly Shannon, 44, played the mother of Selma Blair, 36. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/18 "2010-04-04T21:05:11Z")
I don’t know what roles but Lillian Gish used to say when she started in movies, Lionel Barrymore first played her grandfather. Later he played her father and then husband. If he had lived longer, he probably would have played her son. > **[Quotes - The Official Licensing Website of Lillian Gish](http://lilliangish.com/about/quotes/)** > > Welcome to the Quotes page of the official Lillian Gish website. Learn more about Lillian Gish and contact us today for licensing opportunities. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/19 "2010-04-04T21:07:37Z")
Olivia Newton-John was about 30 when she played a high school student in “Grease” ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920/20 "2010-04-04T21:50:07Z")
The movie version of _Bye Bye Birdie_ in which (from IMdB): “Despite portraying the mother of Dick Van Dyke’s character in the film, Maureen Stapleton is just six months older than Van Dyke.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-age-discrepancy-between-characters-and-the-actors-who-play-them/534920.md?page=2)