Pajiba

Yes, but Stacey Dash is Stacey Dash and so everything she does is proper and right. I love that you used a shot from her Playboy spread, which might be the last time she's appeared in public.

How about EVERYONE in the cast of 'Grease'?

Only one entry from Grease? I was under the impression that entire school existed in some sort of time warp.

I need to start stalking Stacey Dash, ASAP.

Oh, and Charisma Carpenter is really pretty.

This list is BOLD!

Taylor Kitsch is 28? Ugh. Taylor Kitsch just became too old for me.

At least the adults they cast to play teenagers these days actually kinda look like teenagers. Seriously. Compare Winkler and Channing to Lohman and Kitsch. Until a few years ago, I had no idea Fonzie was MEANT to be a teenager. I always assumed he was a slightly backwards adult, and Mrs. C had a soft spot for the mentally challenged.

And Rizzo was the hottest thing ever. Stockard Channing RULES.

I agree, however, I never bought her as a teenager.

Henry Winkler (29 Years Old), “Happy Days” (1974) (The Fonz’s Age: 29)

Damn, how did he sell that?

Age Differential: 12 Years

One of us has to go back to school.

Ug, Dustin, you forgot to close the bold tag on:

2. Gabrielle Carteris

Basic HTML fail man.

Wasn't Angela Bassett in some movie about Rosa Parks where she briefly played her as a teenager?

Who picked the fug header photo?

Hello? Does nobody remember the opening scenes of The Natural? Robert Redford was 48 fucking years old! I love that movie, but that part always bothered me.

Wow, I'm surprised about Alan Ruck as well. Damn.

I think honorable mention should also go to Gabrielle Union. She played Chastity in 1999's 10 Things I Hate About You at age 27. She was also a teenager in Bring It On in 2000, when she was 28. She's a lovely girl and STILL looks super young.

Meryl Streep is 60, and she played the mom in Momma Mia (age about 40) and Julia Child (age 40). Then again, she can pull it off (well, except for Momma Mia).

Figgy: Charisma's breasts really are that pendulous. Although I don't remember them being that big in the early Buffy's. They got big around Angel time. I really think they look out of proportion on her.

Is it me or is that photo of Charisma Carpenter really way out of proportion? her head looks tiny. Are her breasts really that huge? or is it just the weird angle?
It just looks very bizarre for some reason.
Posted by: figgy at August 20, 2009 4:39 PM

Totally irrelevant. As long as she actually has a head attached (preferably still breathing). Anything beyond that is just being picky.

Meh, Charisma's a tall lady, I always thought her boobs looks good on her frame. That particular picture is awkward, though.

What? No old-high schooler list is complete without Luke Perry. I don't care how old he really was, dude looked about forty.

I think the difference is that, nowadays, they're much more likely to cast actual young people playing the roles of teenagers. Look at Greek. Half of those kids really are the age they're playing, or are extremely close. I'm sure there are a hundred legitimate reasons why, but it's clear TV/Hollywood is much fonder now of genuinely young actors playing young characters than it used to be.

To the above poster, yep - Dante Basco was 30 when he played a 17 year old in "Take the Lead" with Banderas. Boy does not age.:)

And Alison Lohman has a history of these kinds of roles - wasn't she 24 when she played a 14 year old in "Matchstick Men?" Damn, I want those kinds of genes!:D

Wow that's funny... they just did the same thing on collegehumor yesterday... not as well though

Jason Earles plays the older brother on Hannah Montana, and he is currently 32...when the show started he was supposed to be about 15 or 16 but was really around 29 or 30!

A very similar article appeared on Collegehumor.com yesterday:

http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1789493

you also forgot jennifer jason leigh's segment in Palindromes. She was 42 playing a 13 year old. Now that's old.

Shirley Henderson has a bigger age gap than any of these - she was 35+ when she played Moaning Myrtle (14) in the Harry Potter films.

BWeaves - I completely agree that a large number of the higher-profile youngsters have turned out to be rather tortured individuals (probably by no small amount due to the environment they grew up in). I realize, now, that when I said "legitimate reasons" that comment was misleading. I meant legit as in accurate, not as in acceptable. I'm not entirely certain if that's what your comment was intended toward, but I just wanted to be sure.

Also, it's vercordio, with an "o". I couldn't come up with a non-douchebag way of saying that, and I normally wouldn't say anything at all, but I swear every time someone calls me by name on this site they say "vercordia". That strikes me as being the feminine conjugation of the word, which would be more appropriate if I wasn't a guy.

figgy I got distracted between comparing the ages and actually making the post.

The point I wanted to make was that Keiko Agena is closer in age to Lauren Graham than Alexis Bledel.

I wonder how close in age hollywood has come when pairing actresses for mother/daugther roles. Any mothers younger than daughters?

What about Kevin Bacon?

In 1978 he was in college. (Animal House)

In 1984 he was in high school. (Footloose). One of the few times I wanted to get up and leave a movie. The soundtrack still gives me the willies.

Charisma Carpenter and I went to the same high school, although she graduated 5 years before me. So really, I guess there is no relevance to my post other than the phrase "high school."

But no one ever talks about "Moving"!

What about John C Reilly playing a 15 year old Dewey Cox?! Hilarious.

BWeaves: "And look how well it's turned out. Britney Spears, Linsay Lohan, etc. etc.

Maybe they need to be hiring adults again."

Posted by: BWeaves at August 20, 2009 5:25 PM

But when hiring of age-appropriate actors for teenage parts is done well, and the actors are treated with respect and given good opportunities, we get masterpieces like Freaks and Geeks. Seth Rogen was his character's age (17 or so), now he's movie star. And he seems to have his head on straight.

Future addition:

Kristen Chenoweth (42 years old), Wicked (2010) (Galinda's age: 18)

Age differential: 24 (christ.)

One should not waste one's sexual peak years on those not mature enough to appreciate it.

On the other hand, there's something to be said for coupling with someone who is also at his sexual peak, and has the stamina and the energy of youth on his side so he can go, say, 4 or 5 times in the course of a long afternoon.

Meryl Streep in The House of Spirits. I think she was in her 40's and played a 15-year-old girl in a flashback sequence.

I'm 52 and I play 18.

+34

Fuck y'all.

Oh my god yes, Luke Perry! What was going on with his forehead? You could have grown potatoes in there!

Thank you for a good laugh.

My husband and I have recently been watching the early seasons of Buffy, and as much as I like Cordelia (well, maybe "like" isn't always the right word), every time she's on screen I think, "There is no way she's a highschooler. No way."

It's interesting that someone mentioned Gabrielle Union in 10 Things I Hate About You. I didn't realize she was so old then. One of the things I really liked about that movie is that most of the highschoolers were played by actual, you know, highschoolers. Even Heath Ledger was only 20, which isn't that old.

Also, I am pretty surprised to find out Alan Ruck was 30 when he played Cameron.

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I'm absolutely in shock that Ralph Macchio is not on this list. It is my understanding that he was in his mid-20s when playing a 16/17 year old. (only estimated 7-year differential)

Course he is mid 40s now and could probably still play an 18-year-old.

Roddy McDowall in "Lord Love a Duck." 38 playing 18. And any Pajiban who hasn't seen the movie doesn't deserve the title.

Here a list I put together a couple years back (recently updated) of about 30 old actors playing teens. Starting age was 26:

Old School! Too Old to Play Teens

Corntree, I would think the exact same thing about Cordy while watching Buffy--gorgeous, yes; fun character, yes; good actress, yes; teenager? No fucking way. Especially in that scene where she arrives at the prom. Teenage girls do not look like that or carry themselves that way.

There was also an episode of Angel where he saves the life of a famous actor, who then becomes desperate to have him turn her into a vampire so she can stop aging and keep her looks and her job, and at one point she says to her manager "I'm twenty (something)," and I could hardly watch the rest of the episode, given that she didn't look younger than forty. I liked the actress and she was pretty and all, but I can only suspend my disbelief so much.

Ooh, I forgot Emma Thompson in Sense and Sensibility. She was 36 when that movie was made. In the book, Elinor is 19. I think they tried to downplay it by portraying her as more of an old maid, but it still bugs me. Every time she popped up, I said, "Thirty-six!" It started to get on my husband's nerves. :)

And DeadBessie, I definitely agree about the prom. Teenage girls do not look like that.

I don't really care what age Charisma Carpenter is playing as long as she keeps looking the way she does. She's incredible. Hell, I'm going to have to watch that idiotic 'Legend of the Seeker' crap because she's going to be a Mord-sith or whatever that hack called the dominatrix chicks in red leather.

Stop hyping that 18-year-old male sexual peak myth.

Gentlemen, I understand your distress with that notion, and could not agree with you more, but my comment was to say that I am at my sexual peak in middle age and would not waste it on a youngster. Not that there are any beating down my door, but that may have something to do with the fact that my husband looks a good deal like an axe murderer when he doesn't shave, which is to say most of the time.

I have to give Alison Lohman a pass on this one because unlike all the other actors on this list she looks fucking young! I remember when I saw Matchstick Men (another movie where she plays a 15 year old) I was SHOCKED when I found out how old she actually was. She'll be playing a younger person well into her mid thirties.

Alan ruck was 30 years old in 1986, I guess Principal Rooney wasn't the only "problem' in those days.

DeadBessie, that's bad news for the actress so, as she was only 31 when that episode filmed. (Tamara Gorski, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0331341/) To be honest, I had no problem suspending disbelief with regard to her age - my problem was that she thought she could continue a successful career as an actress who can never go out in daylight or be near mirrors. Moron.

Just thought of another good one - Rachel McAdams playing Regina George, a high school Junior, at age 32. That said, I have serious trouble imagining anyone else in that role, so I guess it's worth letting it slide.

I am strictly dickly but I'd let Stacey Dash change that if she wanted to. Other than my momentary lapse in sexuality, cool list. I never knew Alan Ruck was that old.

I keep seeing that picture of Charisma Carpenter on the front page. It's distracting, dammit.

Cher and Dionne were 15 years old in the movie. That makes Stacy Dash's age differential 14. Actually.

Wow, can we get more middle-aged men desperately trying to get attention for their recently-discovered sexual "achievements"? Shut the FUCK up and stop creeping people out.