Another thing about celebrities is that some of them, especially those who haven’t aged well, have really abused their bodies. Drug and alcohol abuse will take its toll after a while. So will lots of time spent in the sun or tanning bed, or gaining and losing significant amounts of weight for one or two roles. To be fair, lots of them take pretty good care of themselves, but some don’t.
IMHO, the thing with Reynolds is that he was already in his forties as the roguish smirker of SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT and CANNONBALL RUN and STROKER ACE and CITY HEAT. Heck, even in his fifties he looked like this. And then – watch out.
It’s amazing, watching the Up documentaries which check in on a group of British people every seven years, how sudden the transformation from 41 to 49 was. They were all going on normally and then, pow! (Feel a little weird about marrying a man who will be 41 by the wedding, thinking about it. 
)
When he made City Heat with Clint Eastwood, he was injured in a bar fight scene in a way that wrecked his health and career. He was hit over the head with what was supposed to be a breakaway chair, and spent the next several years in the hospital enduring quacks who, for instance, removed all his teeth to see if that would dim the pain (it didn’t). That would prematurely age the best of us.
Enough from the scolds! For those of us who have always been butt-ugly there’s a wicked pleasure in seeing these ‘beautiful people’ turn into hideous gargoyles and wizened old hags. Welcome to my world, gramps!
On with the show!
Yes, but which one looks best now?
Yep, “41-49” sure bitch-slapped *me *around, too.
I think we’ve had enough back and forth on the morality of poking fun at the aging of celebrities (or scolding people who’ve done the same). Let’s stick with the original thread topic.
Next time, save it for the Pit.
Are you sure about that?
Mine may be a weird example, but this has always made me wonder.
Mary Tyler Moore - I’m not referring to how she looks today, but rather in the 1970s. I used to watch Nick at Nite as a kid and enjoyed the Dick Van Dyke show in the early 90s. I thought Mary Tyler Moore was incredibly cute in that show (and I’m a hetero woman), so I was shocked to come across a photo of her, taken around the end of the Mary Tyler Moore (1977). She appeared to have aged a lot during that time. (I had not yet seen the show.)
Photo from the Dick Van Dyke Show
Photo from the first season of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. I still think she looks good here - just Laura Petrie with longer hair.
But after the second season, something changed. I know her hair was different, but her face seemed to look really different too. In fact, here is that exact photo that surprised me so much, taken from a TV Guide story on her last episode. I almost didn’t recognize her when I saw it. She was only about 40 there, but to me she looks older.
I dunno, maybe it’s just normal aging, and it just looks worse for her because she was so cute when she was younger.
To LaurenIpsum:
Mary Tyler Moore is an insulin-dependent Diabetic, and has has many issues with Diabetes over the years. It’s my understanding she is almost blind now, due to Diabetic complications.
She also had one child, a son, who took his own life in 1980.
She is a recovering alcoholic.
Those factors could have made a huge contribution in her looks.
~VOW
Reynolds went through a considerable period of time where mysterious stuff was going on with his health. First, IIRC, he blamed a mandible problem, then hypoglycymia, then breakaway chairs and stunt work. Things got so bad that for a while it rumored that he had contracted AIDS. And then mixed in with that was the obvious work he had done to tighten up his face. It was at the end of all that when he changed from the masculine hunk he was before to the relatively frail-looking guy he’s been since. (I’m sure he could still kick most of our butts, but you know what I mean…:p)
Picking my jaw up from the floor from the Elizabeth Hurley photos. She was very average looking into her late 20s and then, BAM - hubba hubba.
Yeah. I can see the surgery, but it’s GREAT surgery. She jumped from a 7 to a 10 as she got older. Who does that (especially women)?
I find Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise to be the opposites of this thread. They’ve hardly aged at all over 20 years. Just incredible. A photo of Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis shows how well-preserved he is.
Another Top Gun alum has put on the pounds
Val Kilmer then and Now
Eh, comparing a professional headshot to a live picture where she’s obviously straining to belt something out is kind of unfair. She’s aged, but not as badly as that last photo makes it appear.
She really had let herself go pretty badly (cite), but she seems to be trying to get back into some kind of shape as she’s been coming back into the public eye more recently.
In addition, she has acknowledged that she had a long-ago face lift which drastically changed her appearance. Not necessarily for the worse, just different.
Sounds similar to the wicked pleasure for those of us who have always been fat seeing acquaintances from High School who made weight jokes then now wearing the same size as you, but unlike you there’s no way in hell they could wear the same size they wore then.
Man, those tats don’t help.
[URL=“http://www.aaanything.net/wp-content/gallery/celebrities-looking-fine/val_kilmer_remember_when_i_was_batman.jpg”]Hey, guys…](Picture of Val Kilmer)
She was 25 to 30 filming Dick Van Dyke. She was 40 when that TVGuide picture was taken. She looks about 40 to me.
Not seeing it.