Actors Playing Parts For Which They Were Too Old

[Jah Womble]

Stockard Channing was 34 when she played the part of teenage Rizzo in Grease.

As I suggested upthread, the vast majority of the 'kids' at Rydell High looked far too old, including Travolta. (ONJ was pretty much the only one who could carry it off - and she was approaching thirty herself.)

[Tony C]

Yes, Michael Tucci was certainly a surprising casting choice for a sixteen year old...

[Erskine Bridges]

I went through a period of watching all Ray Milland’s films and really liked him but I always thought he was totally wrong for a professional tennis player in Dial M for Murder. He was 47 and looked much older.

[elguapo4]

IMDB review has him as a former tennis player. It's been so long since I've seen that film that I can't remember.

[Tony C]

I went through a period of watching all Ray Milland’s films and really liked him but I always thought he was totally wrong for a professional tennis player in Dial M for Murder. He was 47 and looked much older.

Having said that I recently saw footage of Stan Smith's 1972 Wimbledon win and he looked like a man in his mid fifties.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Almost inevitably, any actor playing the same character in a prequel that they played in the original drama. I have in mind the lead actors in the superb Better Call Saul, most obviously Bob Odenkirk. Fortunately the quality of just about every aspect of the series, from the scriptwriting through the acting to the cinematography and music etc. is so brilliant that you willingly suspend disbelief and overlook the fact that an actor in his late 50s* is playing a character who logically ought to be no older than, say, early 40s.

* age of Odenkirk in S5 of BCS = 57 (born October 1962)

Edit: mind you, he's a more suitable age relative to the actor playing his elder brother - Michael McKean was born in October 1947, so is 15 years older than Odenkirk in real life. Their ages are never stated, so maybe they are "supposed" to be something like 50 and 65 respectively. In which case Jimmy is, what, 10 years older than Kimberley - surely that character isn't supposed to be older than 40?

[fatbear]

Wilfred Brambell was only 13 years older than Harry H Corbett in Steptoe and Son

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Sorry to lower the tone, but copying the structure of fatbear's post, James Eckhouse was only 14 and a half years older than Jason Priestley in Beverly Hills 90210

[jwdd27]

Gary Oldman lived up to his name when playing Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy - he was only 27/28 when it was shot, but his rather lived in features struggled to portray a convincing Sid, who was 21 at his death, and always looked a bit younger. Chloe Webb is Oldman's age and so had a similar problem portraying 20 year old Nancy.

[elguapo4]

On the actor playing younger in the sequel. Orlando Bloom was looking a bit leathery playing the eternally youthful Legolas in The Hobbit.

[Jah Womble]

Gary Oldman lived up to his name when playing Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy - he was only 27/28 when it was shot, but his rather lived in features struggled to portray a convincing Sid, who was 21 at his death, and always looked a bit younger. Chloe Webb is Oldman's age and so had a similar problem portraying 20 year old Nancy.

I appreciate that a lot of people seem to like it, but that really was a Godawful film.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

OK, I think I may have a record for verfiable character-actor age discrepancy: in the 2015 film of Bill Bryson's autobiographical hiking travelogue A Walk in the Woods, Bryson, who was 44 years old at the time of the events portrayed, was played by a 78 year old Robert Redford. I guess that, as producer of the film, he had a say in whether or not he was too old for the part. [Edit: to be fair, I haven't seen the film, and I dare say they weren't claiming to be true to actual events or that the character BB as opposed to the real life individual was 44 years old. But, you know, 78 is a good age for a gruelling 2,500 mile expedition up and down remote forested mountains by a novice.]

[ale]

Harrison Ford playing oh, pretty much any incarnation of Indiana Jones since Raiders.

He was only 12 years younger than Sean Connery when playing his son wasnt he?

[ale]

As I suggested upthread, the vast majority of the 'kids' at Rydell High looked far too old, including Travolta. (ONJ was pretty much the only one who could carry it off - and she was approaching thirty herself.)

Travolta was 22 in Carrie. Have no recall of his age being an issue other than assumption he was no longer at high school & the older boyfriend of Chris Hargensen who was in high school. Though like Grease most of the high school kids had long since passed prom nights-Cissy Spacek was 26 as was Nancy Allen while William Katt (Tommy) was 25. Amy Irving (Sue) was a relatively young 22.

[MsD]

I hate Sid and Nancy, it got so much wrong. Oldman was good at playing someone or other, but it wasn’t Sid.

[JayGeeKay]

In love actually Keira Knightley was only 4 years older than Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Liam Neeson's kid)

[Cal Alamein]

Jon Heder was 26/27 playing Napoleon Dynamite and his buddy Pedro, played by Efren Ramirez, was 30/31. The film is still SWEET!

[jwdd27]

Joe Pesci in Goodfellas - no doubt Scorsese used artistic licence to get Pesci in a lead role, but the real Tommy (Thomas DeSimone) was 7 years younger than Henry, rather than being his senior. He was only 28 when he was (almost certainly) killed. Pesci was in his mid 40s when they made the film.

[elguapo4]

On D- Day Lt. Colonel Benjamin Vandevoort was a 27 year old fitness fanatic. He was disgusted to be played in The Longest Day by overweight 54 year old John Wayne.

[Hot Pepsi]

OK, I think I may have a record for verfiable character-actor age discrepancy: in the 2015 film of Bill Bryson's autobiographical hiking travelogue A Walk in the Woods, Bryson, who was 44 years old at the time of the events portrayed, was played by a 78 year old Robert Redford. I guess that, as producer of the film, he had a say in whether or not he was too old for the part. [Edit: to be fair, I haven't seen the film, and I dare say they weren't claiming to be true to actual events or that the character BB as opposed to the real life individual was 44 years old. But, you know, 78 is a good age for a gruelling 2,500 mile expedition up and down remote forested mountains by a novice.]

In The Natural Robert Redford was about 47. He plays his 17-year-old self in a few scenes. They didn’t have CGI so they used soft focus. In most of the film, he’s supposed to be in his early 30s. Wilford Brimley, who plays Pop, looks about 70 in the film, but was only about 50, just slightly older than Redford.

[Jah Womble]

I hate Sid and Nancy, it got so much wrong.

Embarrassingly so. Even in those pre-internet days, all details would’ve been eminently researchable.

[jwdd27]

Embarrassingly so. Even in those pre-internet days, all details would’ve been eminently researchable.

Especially as it was made in 1986 about events in 1978, so there would have been a few people about who could remember a few details from 8 years ago.

[Hot Pepsi]

I’ve never actually seen that film.

[3 Colours Red]

Matt Damon (43) as Scott Thorson (18) in Beyond The Candelabra. No soft focus, no de-aging CGI, no prosthetics - nothing.

[KGR]

Watched The Breakfast Club with teenage daughters this weekend. Apart from the fact it has clearly dated (and was pretty naff), having 25-year-old Judd Nelson play Bender was ludicrous.