60-Year-Old Actors Redefine Age Issues
For actors, turning 60 used to mean playing grumpy grandpas with canes or frail grandmas in sensible shoes. Think of Lionel Barrymore as the crusty banker in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” or Beulah Bondi, who played Jimmy Stewart’s adoring mom in the same film.
They were old. They looked it, they dressed it, they didn’t try to camouflage it. And they were cast accordingly.
What a difference a half-century makes. Today, as Baby Boomers push the mean age upward and the holy triad of fitness, nutrition and cosmetic surgery conspires to make celebrities look younger than their age, a generation of film stars is redefining what it is to be “old.”
In 1997 alone, a remarkable list of big-name actors, all born a decade before the Baby Boom began, is turning 60. Warren Beatty crossed the line March 30. His buddy Jack Nicholson, who’s aging more frankly and unapologetically than most of his peers, was hot on Beatty’s heels with an April 22 birthday.
Drink a toast to Bill Cosby this week (July 12) and then piggyback your birthday wishes to Dustin Hoffman (Aug. 8) and his one-time co-star Robert Redford (Aug. 18). Yep, that was 21 years ago that the two Oscar winners played investigative reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward in “All the President’s Men.”
Furiously fit Jane Fonda turns 60 on Dec. 21, the same day as Marlo Thomas, who seems frozen in her 30-year-old “That Girl” persona. They’re followed by Mary Tyler Moore (Dec. 29), who looks her age, isn’t afraid to play it and is more interesting for it.
Ditto Vanessa Redgrave, who became a sexagenarian Jan. 30 and doesn’t hesitate to embrace age and its lessons and rewards. You can’t say that about Dyan Cannon (Jan. 4), who, currently on display in “Out to Sea,” is still determined to play frisky babes with big hair and flashy teeth.
The Turning Sixty Club reminds us that Hollywood and American culture still impose a double standard when it comes to aging. While Beatty, Redford, Hoffman and Nicholson maintain big-star status - and in Beatty’s and Redford’s cases still play romantic leads - their female counterparts are unemployed or forced to work, like Moore, on cable TV and in independent films. Take a look at Morgan Freeman (June 1), who actually became a major star in his 50s after decades of hard work. Is there an actress of similar age you can say that about?
If mature women were properly valued, wouldn’t Jane Fonda still be making movies - instead of doing her Nancy Reagan act with husband Ted Turner? Wouldn’t Fonda and other female stars be aging naturally, onscreen and off, and enjoying the same status as Nicholson or Redford?
The 1997 Turning Sixty Club also includes Joan Rivers (June 8), Suzanne Pleshette (Jan. 31), Tom Smothers (Feb. 2), Billy Dee Williams (April 6), Ned Beatty (July 6), William Devane (Sept. 5), Linda Lavin (Oct. 15) and Loretta Swit (Nov. 4).