Caroll O'Connor was only 54 years old in the final season of All In The Family

And almost 47 when he started the show.

Don't tell me we're not aging better.

They all looked so old back then. When the Golden Girls premiered, Rue McClanahan was 51, same age as JLo and Jennifer Aniston today.

People just dress younger. 50 yr olds painting their hair and dressing like teenagers. Ppl refuse to grow up.

Valerie "Yoko Ono of Van Halen" Bertinelli was 50 when "Hot In Cleveland" begain.

r4, No...Valerie is/was beloved.

He didn't wear a rug or dye his hair or get everything lifted.

He was a class act and it was brilliant show.

Ahh, the good old days when people were judged on their talent, not their looks.

Archie wasn't supposed to be gorgeous. He was a blue collar schlub.

"All In The Family" was an Americanized version of the UK sitcom "Till Death Do Us Part" and the British original of Archie was Alf Garnett. Not much prettier.

I've been watching repeats of "In the Heat of the Night" and he doesn't appear to have aged since "All in the Family"

He still had nice skin in "All in the Family."

He looked the same age from the time he was in the movie Marlowe up until the first half of "In the Heat of the Night."

I actually think he looked worse earlier in the 1960s when he still had hair. Here he is in Cleopatra!

It was a gut-churning show with mostly strained laughs -- the toilet humor was the only "lightness". There was something grim about it all and jeezus the yelling and screaming. A lot of people took Archie as model rather than a warning. It may have laid the groundwork for Ronald Reagan, in my opinion.

People looked older mostly because plastic surgery hadn't become a big thing yet in Hollywood, nor was there such a heavy emphasis on skincare either (fillers, botox etc). Most people smoked and diets were more "meat and potatoes based."

R2 During the first season of Golden Girls, Betty White actually looks like she's the youngest. She was 63 when the show started but she looked close to mid-50s, while Rue was 51 but looked closer to 60. Rue totally got work done between Season 1 and 2 (Estelle got a facelift between those seasons). I think Betty had the bags under eyes removed mid-way through the show's run, but otherwise she aged only slightly.

People over 40 looked like shit before.

People are aging better. People back in the day were allowed to smoke everywhere: at the office, on airplanes and in restaurants. Alcohol was regularly consumed at lunch as per Mad Men. And though gyms have always existed, they weren't as numerous as they are now and a larger segment of the population frequent them. Also people have gotten the message regarding the hazards of too much sun! Sun, cigarettes and alcohol really age people. Look at Sean Penn!

Example: David Letterman in 1988 at 41 y/o. Holy shit, he looks like grandpa

I don't know. I think people looked healthier back then, certainly young people did. Less toxicity in the food, maybe? People had a glow then you rarely see. I mean, just think of what you see in vintage porn.

Also the way makeup is done on TV and in films today is way different. Back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, they used to cake on heavy 'stage makeup' which actually highlights wrinkles and drags the skin down a bit. Today's make up is much lighter and breaths better giving the skin a more 'full' and healthy look.

R17 right, but I can't believe Letterman is practically the same age in that photo as Ryan Gosling today. There are quite a few similar examples too. After a certain age, people carried themselves as more matronly and fatherly too.

Wasn't Letterman a big smoker?

Carroll led a hard life.

[quote]Carroll led a hard life.

If you had a girl's name, you would too.

Sexy bear daddy

Regular people looked so much older than the same age people Yoder. It really is striking when looking at pics

Stockard Channing looked like the world's oldest high school student in Grease!

There used to be a glamor to older women. Especially upper class society woman. Perfectly coiffed hair, jewlery on display, bulky fur coats, and flashy dresses. Perfume radiating. There was an elegance to them that is missing in many of today's older women.

Now, many of them have been botoxed and fillered so much that they look like muppets. And then they dress like they're still in their twenties.

[quote] the UK sitcom "Till Death Do Us Part"

Oh, dear!

(See your own link.)

[quote] Today's make up is much lighter and breaths better

Oh, DEAR!

r25, you are right. Last year, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I entered at the same time as a woman you described. She had not had any face work done, but that woman's hair, clothes, shoes and nails were immaculate. She was like a vision from another age. I followed her for just a few minutes because she radiated such confidence. She was there to take in the beauty of art. You just don't see women like that anymore.

R27 We all know you were just staring into a mirror.

R9 I actually think he actually looked younger on In The Heat of the Night than he did on All In The Family.

I humbly admit that I could not pull off this woman's style. It was chic without being flashy or obvious. I'm sure she had it tailored because the clothes fit her body well.

Well, Heat was filmed about twenty years later and was not on a soundstage. Also, as others have said, Archie was supposed to look “run down” as a tired blue collar worker. The Chief’s hair was much whiter and the character also was a little different and therefore shot different.

I meant r27, not r24.

[quote]Carroll led a hard life.

I know he dealt with a lot of issues concerning his adopted son. While living in Italy, Carroll and his wife adopted the son as a baby.

He even go the son an acting gig on The Heat of the Night, he was the tall skinny dark haired guy. He was a very wooden actor. Not sure what the son did besides try acting. He got addicted to drugs, then committed suicide. IIRC, Carroll then sued the drug dealer for his son's death, he won the case. Think the dealer was convicted and sent to jail.

I wanted Alan Autry "Bubba" in me quite deeply. I used to tape the show and freeze frame a shirtless scene and JO my guts out. So hot!

R34 Watch the end of the Grace Under Fire episode titled Good Neighbor Sam.

Consider it a nice holiday gift.

r24

I'm glad I never had plastic surgery

Alan Autry today.

He's a MAGAT?!

We have these conversations every few months.

The general consensus seems to be:

1. Everyone wanted to look older back then--teenage girls tried to look like middle aged matrons. So everyone looked older than they were, especially by today's standards where everyone wants to look like a teenager.

2. As a result, actors like O'Connor and Ed Asner who looked much older than their years were not pariahs and worked frequently.

3. Many of today's male actors began their careers by being 25 year olds who could play teenagers and so have always looked younger than their years.

Bea Arthur was 45 when she started doing Maude.

Rue was in her mid thirties.

Bea looked 60ish on Maude. She actually looked younger on GG a decade later.

He's OK here

Sounder

O'Connor had The Irish Curse.

I'm 60, but look 29.

Or so my Grindr profile states.

Yeah, but in your case it’s actually true.

Ed Asner was only 40 when the Mary Tyler Moore Show premiered.

Reading R47's link, I learned that, just like their characters, MTM & Ed Asner went out on a date in real life. with the same results.

Ed Asner was a hot hairy daddy in his '40s. Carroll O'Connor, not so much.

Honestly I’m glad older people look younger now (mainly because I’ll be old soon).

Gavin MacLeod was only 39 when THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW began.

Dang son

People routinely smoked, drank alcohol, and didn’t go to gym back then

I wonder if Archie ever rubbed one out in his iconic armchair. Did it reek of potatoes and semen?

You can't compare actors like Carroll O'Connor, Gavin MacLeod and Ed Asner in their 40s with hotties like Ryan Gosling in his 40s. Compare them to someone like Philip Seymour Hoffman or James Gandolfini in their 40s (yes, I know they're both dead).

Even in the 1970s you had actors who were still hot and hunky in their 40s, like Clint Eastwood and Sean Connery, both born in 1930, or Michael Caine born in 1933.

Most actors aged really well, so whether they were plain like Asner and O'Connor or hot like Connery, by the 1990s they all still looked good.

r49, Asner had TONS of back hair. No thanks.

Back then, turning 40 was a BIG thing' it seems.

A lot of people didn't smoke or drink back then and they still looked older. When I look at old family photos my grandparents and great aunts and great uncles, most of whom didn't smoke or drink, looked much older than their ages.

OP, it’s Carroll.