Stars who looked older than their age when they died

Lassie

Errol Flynn was about 50 but looked 65

Lucille Ball

Montgomery Clift was only 45 when he died in 1966, but in his last film, "The Defector" (1966), he had the weathered face of a broke down 60 year-old.

Bette Davis

Jackie Kennedy

Whitney Houston

Joan Fontaine died young, but you'd never guess it from the way she looked.

Natalie Wood looked older than 43. Closer to 50.

Lucy wanted to get a facelift, so she wouldn't look quite so ancient in her dotage, but Gary talked her out of it.

Abe Vigoda

JonBenet looked 30. That is why she did not win as many pagaents to my liking.

Basically any old hollywood star that smoked like a chimney looked old as shit.

Tyrone Power was only 44 when he died, but...

I hope you guys leave me out of any future threads along these lines!!

No one tops William Holden looking 92 at 62.

r14 you won't die Susan!

I love Ty Power, but he definitely didn't age very well.

Princess Diana. Maybe b/c I was still in HS she seemed older, but even now I would put her at very pretty early 40's. The constant colonics gave her that bloated/fupa look in the mid section and that horrible one piece bathing suit she wore before she passed seems like something a middle aged mom would wear. She was beautiful regardless.

David Janssen. I could not believe he was only 32 when "The Fugitive" premiered.

r18 True. She had a very frau look which made her seem older.

Marilyn Monroe looked older than 36, especially with her white hair and 60s style

what a stupid thing to say. The bleached hair was the style at the time, and guess what, it was the 60's! Thus the 60's style. You people are projecting todays standards of style and aging on people from the past and judging accordingly. Jackie Onassis also had a lot of emotional trauma in her life, smoked like a chimney, and was ravaged with cancer when the last photos of her were taken. Bette Davis was 81 and had had multiple strokes when she died, so yes, she looked fuckin old. ie, her age!

James Dean. 24 when he died, but he looked at least 34.

Not a bad 36, especially considering the turmoil in her life at the time.

This is slightly off-topic, but I came across this pic of Olympic legend Emil Zatopek today. In this pic he was...wait for it...29 (or possibly even 28)!!!

This is why I stay away from jogging - it makes you look like shit!

Both Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt looked older than their years when they died.

Kirk Douglas

People aged more naturally back in those days. I’d rather these stars of yesteryear than today’s celebrities whose bodies will rot away leaving their saline titties and lashings of Botox behind in the coffin for eternity

Clark Gable died at 59, looked 75. Gary Cooper died at 60, looked 80. Robert Taylor had not much to offer except his beauty, died at 57, looked much much older:

Marilyn was pure perfection at R23

"Older" by today's standards: Beatles manager Brian Epstein (32 when he died, but had been looking middle-aged for some time at that point).

Judy Garland was 47 when she died, but she looked more like 67 toward the end.

Is anybody surprised? They smoked like chimneys, popped pills like Tic-Tacs, ate shitty diets, and didn't exercise. Today's stars have access to the best trainers and nutritionists and plastic surgeons in the world. All things considered, they should look BETTER than many of them do.

And no one used sunscreen, either.

Amy Winehouse

Jeanne Calment looked close to 130!

R32, sometimes plastic surgery makes people look worse. Btw, they had plastic surgery back then, too

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

r21: Excellent reply. Not to put too fine a point on it, but her hair was not white. It was "platinum blonde," a shade quite popular in the '60s, and one that I, for one, would like to see return.

[R24], thanks for the laugh.

Brian Jones, founder of the 27 club.

Shit, R15, my Dad IS 92 and looks 20 years younger than William Holden!

I adore Holden, Flynn, Whitney, Clift, and others mentioned on this thread, but hard living kills. They say Black don't crack, but if you've ever seen an episode of A&E's The First 48, you'd know that isn't universally true.

Why? Again, hard living ages you. Then it kills.

By the late 1950's when Jimmy Stewart appeared in the movie Vertigo he was only 49 years old and he seemed so ELDERLY already.

[quote]People aged more naturally back in those days. I’d rather these stars of yesteryear than today’s celebrities whose bodies will rot away leaving their saline titties and lashings of Botox behind in the coffin for eternity

Not necessarily, R25. Last Friday night I came across the Pitt-Georgia Sugar Bowl/National Championship from New Years Day 1976. That 1975-1978 Pitt team was my JAM! But I hadn't seen the game since it aired live.

When I tell you those female cheerleaders, dancing girls, and fans looked OLD, astonishment doesn't even begin to express my open-mouthed state.

And it wasn't just the universally dingy teeth, it was the hairstyles, the clothing, and all-around TIRED look on those girls. Even the pretty ones. Like they'd just traveled to the Superdome after pulling a triple shift at the iron foundry or Waffle House.

Maybe it was the teeth, R42. Teeth can make a huge difference in looks. When I watch some of the extreme makeover shows, the people are in tears when they get their teeth fixed.

"And no one used sunscreen, either."

Because there was no such thing as sunscreen.

I never cared for Marilyn Monroe. I found her mannerisms obnoxious and repulsive but I don't think she looked older than her age when she died.

Philip Seymour Hoffman looked a hell of a lot older than 46 when he died. I guess that’s heroin for you though.

I second David Janssen. Hard to believe he wasn't even 50 when he died.

From the age of 30 moving forward, Patty Duke looked at least a decade older than her chronological age each decade until she died.

I agree, R48, but Patty was not in good health. The last years must have been excruciating judging by her looks.

Do many 36 year olds look like this?

Mental illness also takes a toll because it's co-morbid with addiction issues and lack of self-care. I watched the documentary about Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds not long ago, and though Carrie wasn't quite 60, she moved and sounded like a woman 25 years older. In fact, her mother, who was in her 80s and not in the best of health, still seemed healthier than Carrie.

R50, I think she looks good aside from the heavy makeup

With Marilyn, it was color movies that did her in. Black-and-white took like 15 years off her age.

The white-blonde hair and pale skin also make her look older. She doesn't look bad, but in black-and-white, you probably wouldn't notice.

Edith Piaf was 45 when this photo was taken, an age when most people are still in their prime. She looks like she's 65-75 years old, and ill.

IMO, the helmet-ish hairstyles and heavy eye makeup of that time (Marilyn Monroe, etc.) made women look older. Reminds me of the vintage Barbie dolls.

R55, Piaf was a drug addict. Nuff said.

R57 How truthful were actresses back then about their ages? Perhaps like the sweet miss Lesuer you could add 5-6 years to get to the real age.

Many mentioned here had serious substance abuse problems e.g. Garland and Cliff. MM also abused substance to the detriment of her looks, but much of her aged look is due to the style of her time which looks older- more artificial.

Karen Carpenter, who died at 32.

Roseanne.

Lindsay Lohan

Today's stars have aged more gracefully.

He needs a haircut but other than that I don't think Kurt looks bad.

It’s always amazed me how people age at different rates

This is David Heddison at age 82.

Are we no longer allowed to link to Wikipedia? I have tried six times to post a picture of David Hedison and it won’t work.

I bet we can link to stormfront though

They are really weird with the linking. You can't link to CNN, for some reason

R67 that’s because CNN isn’t conservative enough for Mediapolis

David Hedison at age 82

MM looked damn good at 36! Far better than some ladies today in their late 20's and already look as if they'd been ridden hard and put away wet.

Thing about MM and some other famous women then though they may have had some small work done, it wasn't like today. Now barely into their twenties actresses and others have so much shit done to their faces which comes back to haunt them as they age.

Test

Wikipedia worked for me, so maybe it's something about your device or browser.

Find often if using VPN many sites don't like it and linking back may not work.

R58

Plenty back in the day, and still do today.

Rebel Wilson tried, and got caught lying about her age.

Why do they do it?

Because Hollywood is all about often youth and illusions. If an actor is going for a role where character is "25", and they are 29, 30 or older (and truthful about it), they might not even get up to bat. Suits may not even look at CV or even call actor in to read or test This is often very bad for women who still have a shelf life in Hollywood.

Really, R65? You think David Hedison DIDN'T look about 82 in that photo? Hmmm.

Reminds me of a Joan Rivers routine from the late Nineties / early Aughts. Rivers recalled bumping into Goldie Hawn, mother of Kate Hudson, the latter of whom was born circa 1979.

During their chat, the used-to-look-youthful Hawn looked at Rivers and exclaimed, "Can you BELIEVE I'm the mother of an adult daughter?!"

And Rivers shrugged her shoulders and very matter-of-factly replied, "Yes. YES!"

[quote]that’s because CNN isn’t conservative enough for Mediapolis

The Guardian gets linked here all the time.

R63, I take it you're joking. Kurt looks fine, but Goldie's multiple nose jobs and facelifts are not graceful.

Even the men lie. I went to school with a fellow who has had some small success in Hollywood as an actor--and I mean small. You wouldn't have heard of him, though he pops up on TV shows from time to time. All the info on him online lists him as 6 years younger than his real age.

Bette Davis looked like she was 100 years old.

"Plenty back in the day, and still do today."

Only Z-listers lie about their age. Once you hit the B list it's harder to hide it. Ask Rebel Wilson.

r81 Mariah Carey's birth year is still disputed. It's either 1969 or 1970.

R26 I love that photo. Thank you. I think Marilyn had demons and sometimes they got the better of her. Her inability to sleep took a toll. But your photo is lovely.

Can we get Mariah's birth certificate? I'm a Mariah birther

Joan Crawford's birth year is unknown.

"Crawford's year of birth is uncertain, as various sources claim 1904,1905,1906, and 1908. Crawford herself widely claimed 1908 (the date on her tombstone). Crawford's daughter Christina states "1904" twice in the biography Mommie Dearest, published in 1978"

I believe the 1904 birthdate for Joan because she had quite a wild existence as a dancer in both Detroit and New York before finally making it to Hollywood on a 6-month MGM contract in January 1925. If we believed the 1908 birthdate, that would have made her not-quite-17 when she got off the train in Hollywood. Given that she also spent a semester in college and had an early New York marriage to a saxophonist (which she deleted from her resume ever after), there just isn't enough time with the 1908 birthdate. Even the 1906 birthdate would be pushing it.

I've been watching old movies and TV series because I'm on this nostalgic trip for the last few years and came across some Bonanza episodes with David Canary. He really aged very quickly after he left Bonanza in 1973. Ten years later he joined AMC with grey hair and looked 30 years older than his dashing Candy character he played on Bonanza. It seemed he also fixed his nose before he joined AMC.

I wonder why he stayed with AMC all these years. Maybe it was the money and the 5 Emmys, but he will always be remembered as just a soap actor. And I'm sure he would have loved to be more than that.

He did a fascinating 2 1/2 hour interview with the Television Academy in 2004 where he talks about behind the scenes stuff on Bonanza. - Michael Landon had an actor fired bc he was competition and too good looking -

Canary seemed like a nice guy, but very guarded.

The interview Canary did in 2004.

The interview Canary did in 2004.

Census records for Joan Crawford (under her real name Lucille le seur) prove she was born in 1904 or 1905

Sharon Tate, age 26

Whitney Houston looked like a decade older than she was, poor baby.

R13 Tyrone Power may have been the most beautiful male actor of his time. But he smoked like a chimney and drank very heavily. His looks were all but gone even by his mid thirties. He died of a massive heart attack at age 44.

Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell were so gorgeous together in Mark of Zorro.

tyrone power and robert taylor, both dark haired beauties contemporaries that ruined their looks....

add jan michael vincent into this category as well...

George Michael

This person isn't dead. In fact, she's 91 now, but this is actress Joyce Mackenzie in the movie "Destination Murder." She was only 20 when this movie was made. She looks like she's about 40.

Madonna.

Julian Beck was only 60 years old in Poltergeist II : The Other Side but I would've guessed he was at least 15 years older. I suppose the cancer destroying his body could've accounted for his weak, frail appearance though.

Catherine