At the end of last year I was watching the 1984 Dudley Moore movie Unfaithfully Yours. Whenever I finish watching a movie I head straight to IMDb to get trivia and facts about the movie. One of the pieces of information I picked up at IMDb was the fact that when I watched the movie I was the same age (47) that Dudley Moore was when he made the movie. For some reason this really fascinated me.
Over the last 6 months I have been debating if a movie page that looks at the ages of the stars when they made their iconic movies would be interesting to anybody besides me. About a month ago I decided to do this page….but ran into a huge problem almost right away. My movie database, which my lovely wife designed, did not include the birthdays of the actors and actresses that were in the database. Luckily my talented and lovely wife was able to modify the database and now it provides the ages of actors when their movies were released in theaters.
This page lists 4 performances for each age from 13 to 80. In some cases….trying to pick 4 movie performances for an age was difficult as there were many excellent possible candidates. On the other hand, some ages had very few candidates (I guess I am trying to explain why Michael Douglas in Last Vegas made the page). Finally I must admit…..I have actually found this page a little disturbing. Since I first thought about doing this page, I have turned 48. That now means I am older than when Marlon Brando made The Godfather. I am older than Robert Shaw when he played Quint in Jaws. I am the same age as John Wayne when he made The Searchers. I almost the same age as Shirley MacLaine when she made Terms of Endearment. I am older than those old guys in the movies….how the hell did that happen? So here is a warning for you….although I think this is a fun page….it might get your mind thinking about the your own mortality….I know it did when I was researching and writing this page.
Christian Bale was 13 when 1987’s Empire of the Sun was released.
Iconic Movie Roles By Age – Actors In Their Teens
Age Column = Age of performer when movie was released in theaters.
Actor/Movie Columns = Name of Actor and the movie they starred in.
A Number
AGE of Actor At Release
Actor/Movie - Gold
Actor/Movie - Silver
Actor/Movie - Bronze
9
Tatum O'Neal - Paper Moon (1973)
Shirley Temple - Little Miss Broadway (1938)
Shirley Temple - Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938)
10
Brandon De Wilde - Shane (1953)
Dean Stockwell - Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Elizabeth Taylor - Lassie Come Home (1943)
11
Haley Joel Osment - The Sixth Sense (1999)
Anna Paquin - The Piano (1993)
Ivan Jandl - The Search (1948)
12
Elizabeth Taylor - National Velvet (1944)
Bonita Granville - These Three (1936)
Tatum O'Neal - Bad News Bears (1975)
13
Jodie Foster - Taxi Driver (1976)
Scarlett Johansson - The Horse Whisperer (1998)
Christian Bale - Empire of the Sun (1987)
14
Linda Blair - The Exorcist (1973)
Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit (2010)
Elizabeth Taylor - Life with Father (1947)
15
Patty Duke - The Miracle Worker (1962)
Shirley Temple - Since You Went Away (1944)
Judy Garland - Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
16
Ann Blyth - Mildred Pierce (1945)
Sal Mineo - Rebel without a Cause (1955)
Mickey Rooney - Captains Courageous (1937)
17
Natalie Wood - Rebel without a Cause (1955)
Judy Garland - The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Mickey Rooney - Boys Town (1937)
18
Angela Lansbury - Gaslight (1944)
Diane Varsi - Peyton Place (1957)
Keira Knightley - P.O.T.C: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
19
Ron Howard - American Graffiti (1973)
Anne Shirley - Stella Dallas (1937)
Elizabeth Taylor - A Place In The Sun (1947)
19
Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone
Olivia de Havilland in Captain Blood (1935)
Eddie Murphy was 20 when 48 HRs (1982) was released.
Iconic Movie Roles By Age – Actors In Their Twenties
Age Column = Age of performer when movie was released in theaters.
Actor/Movie Columns = Name of Actor and the movie they starred in.
AGE
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
20
Timothy Hutton in Ordinary People (1980)
Johnny Depp in Nighmare on Elm Street (1984)
Olivia de Havilland in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
William Holden in The Golden Boy (1939)
21
Charlie Sheen in Platoon (1986)
Eddie Murphy in 48 HRS. (1982)
Jeff Bridges in The Last Picture Show (1971)
Cameron Diaz in The Mask (1994)
22
Kate Winslet in Titanic (1997)
Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (1990)
Emma Stone in The Help (2011)
Grace Kelly in High Noon (1952)
23
John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (1953)
Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Tom Cruise in Top Gun (1986)
24
James Dean in Rebel without a Cause (1955)
Ginger Rogers in Top Hat (1935)
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air (2009)
Orlando Bloom in L.O.R. Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
25
Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage (1934)
Orson Welles in Citizen Kane (1941)
Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment (1960)
Liza Minnelli in Cabaret (1972)
26
Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind (1939)
Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel (1932)
Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968)
27
Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca (1942)
Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
Robert Mitchum in Story of G. I. Joe (1945)
Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
28
Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins (1964)
Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Anthony Perkins in Psycho (1960)
29
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight (2008)
Sigourney Weaver in Alien (1979)
Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (1965)
Sandra Bullock in Speed (1994)
Marilyn Monroe was 32 when 1959’s Some Like It Hot was released.
Iconic Movie Roles By Age – Actors In Their Thirties
Age Column = Age of performer when movie was released in theaters.
Actor/Movie Columns = Name of Actor and the movie they starred in.
AGE
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
30
Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Sylvester Stallone in Rocky (1976)
Meryl Streep in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate (1967)
31
Robert DeNiro in The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Tom Hanks in Big (1988)
Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Hugh Jackman in X-Men (2000)
32
Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot (1959)
James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Montgomery Clift in From Here to Eternity (1953)
Sean Connery in Dr. No (1962)
33
Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988)
Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Bill Murray in Ghostbusters (1984)
34
Harrison Ford in Star Wars (1977)
Steve Martin in The Jerk (1979)
Keanu Reeves in The Matrix (1999)
Clark Gable in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
35
Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959)
Cary Grant in His Girl Friday (1940)
Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves (1990)
Chris Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
36
Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur (1959)
Russell Crowe in Gladiator (2000)
Paul Newman in The Hustler (1961)
Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam (1987)
37
Jack Nicholson in Chinatown (1974)
Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (1944)
Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Frank Sinatra in From Here to Eternity (1953)
38
Angelina Jolie in Maleficent (2014)
Steve McQueen in Bullitt (1968)
Kirk Douglas in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
39
Mel Gibson in Braveheart (1995)
Bradley Cooper in American Sniper (2014)
Gene Kelly in Singin' In The Rain (1952)
Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (1945)
Humphrey Bogart was 42 when 1942’s Casablanca was released.
Iconic Movie Roles By Age – Actors In Their Forties
Age Column = Age of performer when movie was released in theaters.
Actor/Movie Columns = Name of Actor and the movie they starred in.
AGE
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
40
Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend (1945)
Alan Ladd in Shane (1953)
Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948)
Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night (1967)
41
Gene Hackman in The French Connection (1971)
Bing Crosby in Going My Way (1944)
Liam Neeson in Schindler's List (1993)
Cher in Moonstruck (1987)
42
Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
Bette Davis in All About Eve (1950)
James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Woody Allen in Annie Hall (1977)
43
Robert Downey, Jr. in Iron Man (2008)
Alec Guinness in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
George C. Scott in Patton (1970)
Lee Marvin in The Dirty Dozen (1967)
44
Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Steve McQueen in The Towering Inferno (1974)
Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen (1951)
Bob Hope in The Paleface (1948)
45
Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie (1982)
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side (2009)
James Mason in A Star Is Born (1954)
Richard Widmark in The Alamo (1960)
46
James Stewart in Rear Window (1954)
Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times (1936)
Denzel Washington in Training Day (2001)
47
Marlon Brando in The Godfather (1972)
Robert DeNiro in Awakenings (1990)
Robert Shaw in Jaws (1975)
Joe Pesci in Goodfellas (1990)
48
John Wayne in The Searchers (1956)
Fred Astaire in Easter Parade (1948)
Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar (1954)
Jack Nicholson in Prizzi's Honor (1985)
49
Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment (1983)
Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride (1950)
Frederic March in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking (1995)
Morgan Freeman was 57 when 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption was released.
Iconic Movie Roles By Age – Actors in Their Fifties
Age Column = Age of performer when movie was released in theaters.
Actor/Movie Columns = Name of Actor and the movie they starred in.
AGE
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
50
Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood (2007)
Henry Fonda in Mister Roberts (1955)
Shelley Winters in The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
Colin Firth in The King's Speech (2010)
51
Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen (1951)
Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Gary Cooper in High Noon (1952)
Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (1988)
52
Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman (1992) Hoo-ah!
Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Dean Martin in Airport (1970)
Bill Murray in Lost in Translation (2003)
53
Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Charles Bronson in Death Wish (1974)
Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
James Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
54
Peter Sellers in Being There (1979)
Cary Grant in North by Northwest (1959)
Edward G. Robinson in Key Largo (1948)
William Powell in Life with Father (1947)
55
Marlene Dietrich in Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men (1992)
Michael Caine in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now (1979)
56
Sean Connery in The Untouchables (1987)
Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady (1964)
James Cagney in Mister Roberts (1955)
Burt Lancaster in Airport (1970)
57
Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Paul Newman in The Verdict (1982)
Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips (2013)
58
Gene Hackman in Mississippi Burning (1988)
William Holden in Network (1976)
Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Charles Laughton in Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
59
J.K. Simmons in Whiplash (2014)
Robert Duvall in Days of Thunder (1990)
Marlene Dietrich in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Cary Grant in Father Goose (1964)
Paul Newman was 69 when he made 1994’s Nobody’s Fool
Iconic Movie Roles By Age – Actors in Their Sixties
Age Column = Age of performer when movie was released in theaters.
Actor/Movie Columns = Name of Actor and the movie they starred in.
AGE
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
60
Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets (1997)
Katharine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind (1960)
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart (2009)
61
Helen Mirren in The Queen (2006)
Gregory Peck in The Boys from Brazil (1978)
Sydney Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter (1968)
62
Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven (1992)
John Wayne in True Grit (1969)
Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Gene Hackman in Unforgiven (1992)
63
Albert Finney in Erin Brockovich (2000)
Claude Rains in Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
64
Ethel Barrymore in None but the Lonely Heart (1944)
James Mason in The Mackintosh Man (1973)
Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables (2010)
Barry Fitzgerald in The Quiet Man (1952)
65
Sean Connery in The Rock (1996)
Victor McLaglen in The Quiet Man (1952)
Laurence Olivier in Sleuth (1972)
Ray Milland in Love Story (1970)
66
Michael Caine in The Cider House Rules (1999)
Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln (2012)
James Garner in Maverick (1994)
Sally Field in Lincoln (2012)
67
John Huston in Chinatown (1974)
Morgan Freeman in Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Burt Lancaster in Atlantic City (1981)
Spencer Tracy in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
68
Melvyn Douglas in I Never Sang for My Father (1970)
Michael Douglas in Last Vegas (2013)
Jack Lemmon in Grumpy Old Men (1993)
Lionel Barrymore in It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
69
Burgess Meredith in Rocky (1976)
Helen Hayes in Airport (1970)
Paul Newman in Nobody's Fool (1994)
Jack Nicholson in The Departed (2006)
Henry Fonda was 76 and Katharine Hepburn was 74 when 1981’s On Golden Pond was released.
Iconic Movie Roles By Age – Actors in Their Seventies
Age Column = Age of performer when movie was released in theaters.
Actor/Movie Columns = Name of Actor and the movie they starred in.
AGE
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
Actor/Movie
70
Laurence Olivier in The Boys from Brazil (1978)
Clint Eastwood in Space Cowboys (2000)
John Houseman in The Paper Chase (1973)
Charlton Heston in True Lies (1994)
71
Edward G. Robinson in The Cincinati Kid (1965)
Ruth Gordon in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Martin Sheen in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
72
Lauren Bacall in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
Michael Caine in Batman Begins (2005)
Jack Palance in City Slickers (1991)
James Garner in Space Cowboys (2000)
73
Bette Davis in The Watcher in the Woods (1981)
Gregory Peck in Old Gringo (1989)
James Mason in The Verdict (1983)
Michael Caine in The Prestige (2006)
74
Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond (1981)
Stanley Holloway in My Fair Lady (1964)
Clint Eastwood in Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Dame Edith Evans in Tom Jones (1963)
75
Fred Astaire in The Towering Inferno (1974)
Burt Lancaster in Field of Dreams (1989)
Jane Fonda in Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013)
Morgan Freeman in The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
76
Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond (1981)
Dustin Hoffman in Chef (2014)
Peggy Ashcroft in A Passage to India (1984)
Robert Redford in All Is Lost (2013)
77
John Gieglud in Arthur (1981)
Don Ameche in Cocoon (1985)
Robert Redford in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Bruce Dern in Nebraska (2013)
78
Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino (2008)
George Burns in The Sunshine Boys (1975)
Melvyn Douglas in Being There (1979)
Judi Dench in Philomena (2013)
79
Bette Davis in The Whales of August (1987)
Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green (1973)
Robert Duvall in Get Low (2010)
Richard Farnsworth in The Straight Story (1999)
80
Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station (2009)
Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)
Michael Caine in Now You See Me (2013)
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42 thoughts on “Iconic Movie Roles By Age”
Give me Jack Nicholson in Chinatown. I like this chart!
UMR Hall of Famer, George V. says this page is too depressing….but it is one of my favorites. I am currently the same age Al Pacino was when he won A Scent of a Woman, the same age Morgan Freeman was when he made Driving Miss Daisy, the same age Dean Martin was when he made Airport and the same age Bill Murray was when he made Lost in Translation. Fun stuff…in my opinion.
As you indicate Bogie and Cooper were around 51 when they made the films that you mention and when you’re 77 as I am that’s young!
However both men were sadly old before their time and indeed when the 45 year old Bogie married the 21 year old Betty Bacall the latter’s father is reported to have wistfully said to a close friend as the couple sped off in a taxi for their honeymoon “They should be taking Bogie to the morgue instead of the honeymoon bed!”
By a great ironic coincidence I was thinking about YOU in relation to the ageing process about 1 hour before I read your 8.17am post. As you already know over Christmas I have been watching a lot of the rather banal but harmlessly feel-good Xmas made-for-TV movies and in several of them there have been big screen look-alikes in the leading roles.
So about 60 minutes ago I was watching one of the final ones that I recorded, called Welcome to Christmas (2018), and in it the lead actor was an uncanny Harrison Ford doppelganger whose professional name is Eric Mabius. So I said to W o Bob “The Work Horse would like that guy if he wasn’t so young. Bruce prefers his heroes to be old men like Stallone, Willis and ole Han Solo!”
Actually Eric is 47 [just a few years younger than you] and in Welcome to Christmas he played an American small-town Lawman just as Coop did in High Noon
Hi Cogerson,
It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to comment, but I appreciate all the new pages (Robert Young, Lollobrigida, Lansbury, Charisse etc..). I find this page also interesting, though in a number of cases, I’m not sure the actor’s most iconic or even best roles are included. Hence, I agree with John that 20,000 Leagues may have been a huge hit but it’s hardly one of Kirk Douglas’ best roles. Ditto with Burt Lancaster in Airport, Steve McQueen in The Towering Inferno, or Michael Caine in Now You see Me. However, since you are considering nominations for the next update, may I suggest the following:
John Wayne in Stagecoach
Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath
Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (and/or Champion as his star-making role)
William Holden in Stalag 17
Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter
Ava Gardner in The Killers or the Barefoot Contessa
Gregory Peck in 12 O’Clock High or The Gunfighter
Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront
Steve McQueen in The Great Escape
Natalie Wood in West Side Story
Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (albeit mostly for the beach scene)
Jack Lemmon and Walter Mattheau in The Odd Couple
Charles Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West
Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther and Dr. Strangelove
Michael Caine in Alfie
Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek
Yul Brynner in The King and I and The Ten Commandments
Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments
Burt Lancaster? Agree with Atlantic City, but what about The Killers, From Here to Eternity, Sweet Smell of Success, Elmer Gantry, Birdman of Alcatraz and/or The Leopard (at least in Europe)?
Perhaps one way to limit or structure the page would be to include only the actor’s first iconic role?
Hey Phil….good to hear from you again. Thanks for all the suggestions. I will be sure to include some of them in the update. I think this could be a very fun page if we could get it way more user friendly….but one day will figure it out. My visual of the page and WoC figuring out how to do it…has been an interesting situation at the old Cogerson house.
It has been nice that this page has found some traffic. I remember being all excited about this idea…..one day we will get it right.
Hey Phil…..just some of the names in our database for the age of 37….anyway….this is ranked by UMR score…..and you can see how hard it is to just pick 4 out of so many
Actor Role MovieYear
Frank Sinatra Actor/Actress From Here to Eternity (1953)
Tom Hanks Actor/Actress Forrest Gump (1994)
Vivien Leigh Actor/Actress A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Red Buttons Actor/Actress Sayonara (1957)
Russell Crowe Actor/Actress A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Robert Redford Actor/Actress The Sting (1973)
Tom Berenger Actor/Actress Platoon (1986)
Barbara Stanwyck Actor/Actress Double Indemnity (1944)
Gene Hackman Actor/Actress Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Dan Aykroyd Actor/Actress Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Harrison Ford Actor/Actress Apocalypse Now (1979)
Broderick Crawford Actor/Actress All the King’s Men (1949)
Robin Williams Actor/Actress Dead Poets Society (1989)
Jack Nicholson Actor/Actress Chinatown (1974)
Claire Trevor Actor/Actress Key Largo (1948)
Christopher Nolan Director The Dark Knight (2008)
John Cassavetes Actor/Actress The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Jessica Chastain Actor/Actress The Martian (2015)
Harrison Ford Actor/Actress Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Jean Arthur Actor/Actress You Can’t Take It with You (1938)
Rod Steiger Actor/Actress The Longest Day (1962)
Joan Cusack Actor/Actress Toy Story 2 (1999)
Bradley Cooper Actor/Actress Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress Marty (1955)
Susan Hayward Actor/Actress I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955)
Tom Hanks Actor/Actress Philadelphia (1993)
Robert Stack Actor/Actress Written on the Wind (1956)
Clint Eastwood Actor/Actress The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Mike Myers Actor/Actress Shrek (2001)
Robert Duvall Actor/Actress Bullitt (1968)
Robert DeNiro Actor/Actress Raging Bull (1980)
Julie Christie Actor/Actress Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Jack Lemmon Actor/Actress Irma La Douce (1963)
Robert Montgomery Actor/Actress Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Agnes Moorehead Actor/Actress Mrs. Parkington (1944)
Paul Newman Actor/Actress Hud (1963)
Helen Hunt Actor/Actress Cast Away (2000)
Jessica Chastain Actor/Actress Interstellar (2014)
Fred Astaire Actor/Actress Swing Time (1936)
Dianne Wiest Actor/Actress Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Norma Shearer Actor/Actress The Women (1939)
Sally Field Actor/Actress Places in the Heart (1984)
Steven Spielberg Director Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Robert Ryan Actor/Actress Crossfire (1947)
Gary Cooper Actor/Actress Beau Geste (1939)
Deborah Kerr Actor/Actress Separate Tables (1958)
Eddie Murphy Actor/Actress Mulan (1998)
Doris Day Actor/Actress Lover Come Back (1961)
Brad Pitt Actor/Actress Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Martin Scorsese Director Raging Bull (1980)
William Wyler Director The Letter (1940)
Sidney Poitier Actor/Actress A Patch of Blue (1965)
James Garner Actor/Actress Grand Prix (1966)
Spencer Tracy Actor/Actress Test Pilot (1938)
Cary Grant Actor/Actress Suspicion (1941)
Warner Baxter Actor/Actress In Old Arizona (1929)
Joe Pesci Actor/Actress Raging Bull (1980)
Owen Wilson Actor/Actress Cars (2006)
Michael Keaton Actor/Actress Batman (1989)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress Vera Cruz (1954)
William Hurt Actor/Actress Broadcast News (1987)
Robert Redford Actor/Actress The Way We Were (1973)
Glynis Johns Actor/Actress The Sundowners (1960)
Irene Dunne Actor/Actress Show Boat (1936)
Henry Fonda Actor/Actress Immortal Sargeant (1943)
Bette Davis Actor/Actress A Stolen Life (1946)
Vincent Price Actor/Actress The Three Musketeers (1948)
Gene Kelly Actor/Actress On the Town (1949)
Montgomery Clift Actor/Actress The Young Lions (1958)
Fred Astaire Actor/Actress Shall We Dance (1937)
Arnold Schwarzenegger Actor/Actress The Terminator (1984)
Steven Spielberg Director The Terminator (1984)
George Cukor Actor/Actress Camille (1936)
James Caan Actor/Actress A Bridge Too Far (1977)
José Ferrer Actor/Actress Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
Meg Ryan Actor/Actress You’ve Got Mail (1998)
Warren Beatty Actor/Actress Shampoo (1975)
Audrey Hepburn Actor/Actress Wait until Dark (1967)
Bob Hope Actor/Actress Louisana Purchase (1941)
Katharine Hepburn Actor/Actress Without Love (1945)
Richard Burton Actor/Actress Cleopatra (1963)
Glenn Close Actor/Actress The Natural (1984)
Paul Muni Actor/Actress I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Bob Hope Actor/Actress Caught in The Draft (1941)
John Ford Director Arrowsmith (1932)
Denzel Washington Actor/Actress Malcolm X (1992)
Greer Garson Actor/Actress Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
Angela Lansbury Actor/Actress The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Hugh Jackman Actor/Actress X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Irene Dunne Actor/Actress Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
Cameron Diaz Actor/Actress Shrek Forever After (2010)
Benedict Cumberbatch Actor/Actress 12 Years a Slave (2013)
Simone Signoret Actor/Actress Room at the Top (1959)
Franchot Tone Actor/Actress Five Graves To Cairo (1943)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress Dead End (1937)
Dean Martin Actor/Actress Living It Up (1954)
Jack Nicholson Actor/Actress Tommy (1975)
Ron Howard Director Backdraft (1991)
Claude Rains Actor/Actress They Won’t Forget (1937)
Tim Robbins Director Dead Man Walking (1995)
Bing Crosby Actor/Actress Birth of the Blues (1941)
Tom Cruise Actor/Actress Mission: Impossible II (2000)
Cher Actor/Actress Silkwood (1983)
Robert Mitchum Actor/Actress Not as a Stranger (1955)
Annette Bening Actor/Actress The American President (1995)
Bruce Dern Actor/Actress The Great Gatsby (1974)
William Wyler Director The Westerner (1940)
William Holden Actor/Actress The Proud and Profane (1956)
Bing Crosby Actor/Actress Road to Zanzibar (1941)
Bob Hope Actor/Actress Road to Zanzibar (1941)
Edward G. Robinson Actor/Actress Little Caeser (1931)
John Wayne Actor/Actress Tall in the Saddle (1944)
Telly Savalas Actor/Actress Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Johnny Depp Actor/Actress Chocolat (2000)
James Coburn Actor/Actress Our Man Flint (1966)
Katharine Hepburn Actor/Actress Dragon Seed (1944)
Robert Redford Actor/Actress The Great Gatsby (1974)
Michelle Pfeiffer Actor/Actress Dangerous Minds (1995)
Sharon Stone Actor/Actress Casino (1995)
Susan Hayward Actor/Actress Soldier of Fortune (1955)
Danny Kaye Actor/Actress The Inspector General (1949)
Ginger Rogers Actor/Actress The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
Gene Kelly Actor/Actress Summer Stock (1950)
Celia Johnson Actor/Actress Brief Encounter (1946)
Geraldine Page Actor/Actress Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
Cary Grant Actor/Actress Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)
Joanne Woodward Actor/Actress Rachel Rachel (1968)
Bette Davis Actor/Actress Deception (1946)
Julia Roberts Actor/Actress Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
James Mason Actor/Actress Odd Man Out (1947)
Howard Hawks Director Twentieth Century (1934)
Charlize Theron Actor/Actress Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Leslie Howard Actor/Actress A Free Soul (1931)
John Wayne Actor/Actress Back to Baatan (1945)
Ann-Margret Actor/Actress The Cheap Detective (1978)
Marlene Dietrich Actor/Actress Destry Rides Again (1939)
Ronald Colman Actor/Actress Condemned (1929)
Eddie Murphy Actor/Actress Doctor Dolittle (1998)
Kevin Costner Actor/Actress The Bodyguard (1992)
Gregory Peck Actor/Actress Night People (1954)
Ian Bannen Actor/Actress The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
Steve McQueen Actor/Actress The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Fred Astaire Actor/Actress A Damsel in Distress (1937)
Barbra Streisand Actor/Actress The Main Event (1979)
Jack Lemmon Actor/Actress Under The Yum Yum Tree (1963)
William Powell Actor/Actress Street of Chance (1930)
Adam Sandler Actor/Actress 50 First Dates (2004)
Tom Cruise Actor/Actress Magnolia (1999)
Henry Fonda Actor/Actress The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
Paul Newman Actor/Actress Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
Alec Guinness Actor/Actress The Lavender Hill Mob (1952)
Woody Harrelson Actor/Actress The Thin Red Line (1998)
George Clooney Actor/Actress The Thin Red Line (1998)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress Kid Galahad (1937)
Daniel Craig Actor/Actress Munich (2005)
Jerry Lewis Actor/Actress The Nutty Professor (1963)
Tom Cruise Actor/Actress Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Sidney Poitier Actor/Actress The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
Fredric March Actor/Actress Anna Karenina (1935)
Claude Rains Actor/Actress The Prince and the Pauper (1937)
George Clooney Actor/Actress Out of Sight (1998)
Linda Hunt Actor/Actress The Year of Living Dangerously (1983)
Sean Penn Actor/Actress The Game (1997)
Claudette Colbert Actor/Actress Remember The Day (1941)
Glenn Close Actor/Actress Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan (1984)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress Marked Woman (1937)
Ann-Margret Actor/Actress Magic (1978)
Cate Blanchett Actor/Actress Notes on a Scandal (2006)
Amy Adams Actor/Actress The Master (2012)
Cate Blanchett Actor/Actress Babel (2006)
Judy Davis Actor/Actress Husbands and Wives (1992)
Norma Shearer Actor/Actress Idiot’s Delight (1939)
Clark Gable Actor/Actress Idiot’s Delight (1939)
Michael Fassbender Actor/Actress Steve Jobs (2015)
Kevin Kline Actor/Actress Silverado (1985)
Joaquin Phoenix Actor/Actress The Master (2012)
Audrey Hepburn Actor/Actress Two For The Road (1967)
Richard Burton Actor/Actress The V.I.P.s (1963)
David Niven Actor/Actress The Other Love (1947)
Gary Cooper Actor/Actress The Cowboy and the Lady (1938)
Bob Hope Actor/Actress Nothing But The Truth (1941)
John Ford Director Air Mail (1932)
Jane Wyman Actor/Actress Just For You (1952)
Bruce Willis Actor/Actress Death Becomes Her (1992)
Ronald Colman Actor/Actress Bulldog Drummond (1929)
Brad Pitt Actor/Actress Spy Game (2001)
Lee Marvin Actor/Actress The Comancheros (1961)
John Garfield Actor/Actress Breaking Point (1950)
Richard Widmark Actor/Actress Don’t Bother To Knock (1952)
Walter Matthau Actor/Actress King Creole (1958)
John Cusack Actor/Actress Runaway Jury (2003)
Kirk Douglas Actor/Actress Ulysses (1954)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress Violent Saturday (1955)
William Holden Actor/Actress Toward The Unknown (1956)
Greer Garson Actor/Actress When Ladies Meet (1941)
Jennifer Aniston Actor/Actress The Break-Up (2006)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress Stand-In (1937)
Errol Flynn Actor/Actress Escape Me Never (1947)
John Garfield Actor/Actress He Ran All The Way (1951)
Edward Norton Actor/Actress The Illusionist (2006)
Gig Young Actor/Actress Come Fill the Cup (1951)
Brad Pitt Actor/Actress The Mexican (2001)
Nicole Kidman Actor/Actress The Interpreter (2005)
Doris Day Actor/Actress Billy Rose’s Jumbo (1962)
Julianne Moore Actor/Actress The Big Lebowski (1998)
Jack Nicholson Actor/Actress The Passenger (1975)
Vince Vaughn Actor/Actress Into the Wild (2007)
Cliff Robertson Actor/Actress My Six Loves (1963)
Johnny Depp Actor/Actress Blow (2001)
Van Heflin Actor/Actress Act of Violence (1949)
Robert Stack Actor/Actress The Tarnished Angels (1957)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress Run For Cover (1955)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress Black Legion (1937)
Arthur Kennedy Actor/Actress Rancho Notorious (1952)
Burt Lancaster Actor/Actress Ten Tall Men (1951)
Deborah Kerr Actor/Actress The Journey (1959)
Charles Bronson Actor/Actress Never So Few (1959)
Michael Caine Actor/Actress Get Carter (1971)
Cate Blanchett Actor/Actress I’m Not There. (2007)
Robin Williams Actor/Actress The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989)
Julia Roberts Actor/Actress Closer (2004)
Annette Bening Actor/Actress Richard III (1995)
Anthony Quinn Actor/Actress Ride Vaquero! (1953)
Jerry Lewis Actor/Actress The Disorderly Orderly (1964)
Vincent Price Actor/Actress The Bribe (1949)
Jerry Lewis Actor/Actress The Patsy (1964)
Susan Hayward Actor/Actress Untamed (1955)
Sidney Poitier Actor/Actress The Bedford Incident (1965)
Leslie Howard Actor/Actress Five and Dime (1931)
Goldie Hawn Actor/Actress Best Friends (1982)
Burt Lancaster Actor/Actress Jim Thorpe–All American (1951)
Bradley Cooper Actor/Actress “The Place Beyond the Pines
(2013)”
Mary Pickford Actor/Actress Kiki (1931)
Claude Rains Actor/Actress Stolen Holiday (1937)
Gig Young Actor/Actress Only the Vailiant (1951)
Cameron Diaz Actor/Actress Knight & Day (2010)
Anthony Quinn Actor/Actress Against All Flags (1952)
William Powell Actor/Actress For The Defense (1930)
Claudette Colbert Actor/Actress Skylark (1941)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress The Great O’Malley (1937)
John Ford Director Flesh (1932)
Warren Beatty Actor/Actress The Parallax View (1974)
Jeff Bridges Actor/Actress The Morning After (1986)
Robert Ryan Actor/Actress Trail Street (1947)
Chester Morris Actor/Actress Five Came Back (1939)
Jeff Chandler Actor/Actress Pillars of the Sky (1956)
Sandra Bullock Actor/Actress Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)
Leslie Howard Actor/Actress Devotion (1931)
Kurt Russell Actor/Actress Tequila Sunrise (1988)
Robert Mitchum Actor/Actress Man with a Gun (1955)
John Garfield Actor/Actress Under My Skin (1950)
Mel Gibson Actor/Actress The Man without a Face (1993)
Mark Ruffalo Actor/Actress Just Like Heaven (2005)
Jodie Foster Actor/Actress Anna and the King (1999)
Henry Fonda Actor/Actress The Big Street (1942)
Anthony Quinn Actor/Actress Seminole (1953)
Joan Crawford Actor/Actress Reunion in France (1942)
Annette Bening Actor/Actress Mars Attacks (1996)
Daniel Craig Actor/Actress Fateless (2006)
Bradley Cooper Actor/Actress The Hangover Part III (2013)
Christopher Walken Actor/Actress Dogs of War (1981)
Michael Fassbender Actor/Actress Slow West (2015)
Meryl Streep Actor/Actress Heartburn (1986)
Ned Beatty Actor/Actress W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975)
Jessica Chastain Actor/Actress Crimson Peak (2015)
Errol Flynn Actor/Actress Cry Wolf (1947)
Faye Dunaway Actor/Actress Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
Reese Witherspoon Actor/Actress The Good Lie (2014)
Robert Ryan Actor/Actress The Woman on the Beach (1947)
Richard Widmark Actor/Actress My Pal Gus (1952)
Maggie Smith Actor/Actress Travels with My Aunt (1972)
Michael Keaton Actor/Actress The Dream Team (1989)
Daniel Craig Actor/Actress Layer Cake (2005)
Sylvester Stallone Actor/Actress Staying Alive (1983)
Reese Witherspoon Actor/Actress Inherent Vice (2014)
Steve Martin Actor/Actress The Man with Two Brains (1983)
Richard Widmark Actor/Actress O’Henry’s Full House (1952)
Michelle Pfeiffer Actor/Actress Up Close and Personal (1996)
Gregory Peck Actor/Actress The Purple Plain (1954)
Gregory Peck Actor/Actress Man with a Million (1954)
Rock Hudson Actor/Actress A Gathering of Eagles (1963)
Sophia Loren Actor/Actress Man of La Mancha (1972)
Matthew McConaughey Actor/Actress We Are Marshall (2006)
Edward Norton Actor/Actress The Painted Veil (2006)
Denzel Washington Actor/Actress Mississippi Masala (1992)
Edward G. Robinson Actor/Actress Smart Money (1931)
Walter Matthau Actor/Actress Ride a Crooked Trail (1958)
Johnny Depp Actor/Actress Before Night Falls (2000)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress San Quentin (1937)
Anthony Quinn Actor/Actress City Beneath The Sea (1953)
Ann-Margret Actor/Actress The Villian (1979)
Kay Francis Actor/Actress The Feminine Touch (1941)
Holly Hunter Actor/Actress Home for the Holidays (1995)
Edmond O’Brien Actor/Actress The Bigamist (1953)
Woody Harrelson Actor/Actress EDtv (1999)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress The Last Command (1955)
Jack Warden Actor/Actress Darby’s Rangers (1958)
Leslie Howard Actor/Actress Never the Twain Shall Meet (1931)
Gene Hackman Actor/Actress The Split (1968)
Michael Caine Actor/Actress The Last Valley (1971)
Michael Fassbender Actor/Actress Macbeth (2015)
Glenn Close Actor/Actress The Stone Boy (1984)
Robert Duvall Actor/Actress The Rain People (1969)
Harrison Ford Actor/Actress The Frisco Kid (1979)
Jill Clayburgh Actor/Actress First Monday in October (1981)
Walter Matthau Actor/Actress Voice in the Mirror (1958)
James Cagney Actor/Actress Something To Sing About (1937)
James Garner Actor/Actress Mister Buddwing (1966)
Peter Sellers Actor/Actress Heavens Above! (1963)
Vincent Price Actor/Actress Bagdad (1949)
Shelley Winters Actor/Actress Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960)
Jennifer Aniston Actor/Actress Friends with Money (2006)
Paul Newman Actor/Actress A New Kind of Love (1963)
Willem Dafoe Actor/Actress Light Sleeper (1992)
Anthony Quinn Actor/Actress Blowing Wild (1953)
Owen Wilson Actor/Actress You Me and Dupree (2006)
Keanu Reeves Actor/Actress Hardball (2001)
Joan Crawford Actor/Actress Above Suspicion (1943)
Peter Sellers Actor/Actress The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963)
James Coburn Actor/Actress What Did You Do in the War Daddy? (1966)
Montgomery Clift Actor/Actress Lonelyhearts (1958)
James Coburn Actor/Actress Waterhole #3 (1966)
Whoopi Goldberg Actor/Actress Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993)
Peter Sellers Actor/Actress Never Let Go (1963)
James Garner Actor/Actress Duel at Diablo (1966)
Vince Vaughn Actor/Actress Fred Claus (2007)
Charles Boyer Actor/Actress Private Worlds (1935)
James Coburn Actor/Actress Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966)
Tilda Swinton Actor/Actress Love Is the Devil (1998)
Burt Lancaster Actor/Actress Vengenance Valley (1951)
Ben Affleck Actor/Actress Extract (2009)
Gene Kelly Actor/Actress Black Hand (1950)
Tommy Lee Jones Actor/Actress Nate and Hayes (1983)
Jennifer Jones Actor/Actress The Barrets of Wimpole Street (1957)
Deborah Kerr Actor/Actress Beloved Infidel (1959)
Sean Penn Actor/Actress She’s So Lovely (1997)
Halle Berry Actor/Actress Gothika (2003)
Shirley MacLaine Actor/Actress The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972)
Jay Mohr Actor/Actress Street Kings (2008)
Ava Gardner Actor/Actress The Angel Wore Red (1960)
Kurt Russell Actor/Actress Winter People (1989)
Susan Sarandon Actor/Actress The Buddy System (1984)
Sandra Bullock Actor/Actress Murder by Numbers (2002)
Kay Francis Actor/Actress The Man Who Lost Himself (1941)
Mickey Rooney Actor/Actress Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958)
Daniel Craig Actor/Actress The Jacket (2005)
Liam Neeson Actor/Actress Next of Kin (1989)
Meg Ryan Actor/Actress Hurlyburly (1998)
M. Night Shyamalan Director The Happening (2008)
Mark Wahlberg Actor/Actress The Happening (2008)
Christopher Walken Actor/Actress Heaven’s Gate (1980)
Vince Vaughn Actor/Actress Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show (2008)
Richard Widmark Actor/Actress Red Skies of Montana (1952)
Woody Harrelson Actor/Actress The Hi-Lo Country (1998)
Hugh Jackman Actor/Actress Scoop (2006)
Lana Turner Actor/Actress Another Time Another Place (1958)
Dwayne Johnson Actor/Actress Planet 51 (2009)
Al Pacino Actor/Actress Bobby Deerfield (1977)
Nicolas Cage Actor/Actress Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001)
Deborah Kerr Actor/Actress Count Your Blessings (1959)
Cameron Diaz Actor/Actress The Box (2009)
Kay Francis Actor/Actress Play Girl (1941)
Nicole Kidman Actor/Actress Birth (2004)
Dwayne Johnson Actor/Actress The Tooth Fairy (2010)
Michael Caine Actor/Actress Kidnapped (1971)
Anthony Perkins Actor/Actress WUSA (1970)
Amy Adams Actor/Actress On The Road (2012)
Mark Wahlberg Actor/Actress Max Payne (2008)
Larry Parks Actor/Actress Love Is Better Than Ever (1952)
Ben Stiller Actor/Actress Duplex (2003)
Jeff Bridges Actor/Actress Nadine (1987)
Sam Worthington Actor/Actress Sabotage (2014)
James Garner Actor/Actress A Man Could Get Killed (1966)
Dan Aykroyd Actor/Actress Loose Cannons (1990)
Johnny Depp Actor/Actress The Man Who Cried (2001)
Cate Blanchett Actor/Actress The Good German (2006)
Angela Lansbury Actor/Actress In The Cool of The Night (1963)
John Travolta Actor/Actress Shout (1991)
Elizabeth Taylor Actor/Actress The Only Game in Town (1970)
Halle Berry Actor/Actress Catwoman (2004)
Sylvester Stallone Actor/Actress Rhinestone (1984)
Arnold Schwarzenegger Actor/Actress Red Sonja (1985)
Eddie Murphy Actor/Actress Holy Man (1998)
Timothy Hutton Actor/Actress Playing God (1997)
Willem Dafoe Actor/Actress Body of Evidence (1993)
Kate Winslet Actor/Actress Movie 43 (2013)
Elisabeth Bergner Actor/Actress Escape Me Never (1935)
Paulette Goddard Actor/Actress So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
Looking at the bottom of the list makes me think it would be fun to show the really bad movies too. Sure it is great that Frank Sinatra made From Here To Eternity when he was 37…..but knowing Stallone made Rhinestone at 37 seems equally important….lol.
What the…ok Bruce, you made your point!!!! There are many roles to chose from particularly when stars are in their 30s? But maybe that means, limiting iconic roles to 4 per age does not quite work. Would be interesting to have a list of THE iconic role of each major star to the extent they have one, or the role that made him or her a major star, and compare their ages at the time. Of course, in a number of cases, there will be subjectivity involved. By the way, Tim Dirk’s Filmsite also does a good job of identifying the “definite” role of stars, particularly classic ones, as well as other great roles. I don’t agree with all of his choices, but usually he’s pretty much on the mark. Thanks for your voluminous response 🙂
Hey Phil. All of these recent comments have me tweaking the page again. Toying with linking all of these massive lists to the page…now that would be a massive amount of information. I will have to check out Tim Dirk’s Filmsite. Thanks for the comment.
Cogerson
Some who should have made the list–age 13. Rin-tin-tin in The Lightning Warrior.
Age 38–Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind. James Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life. These two are hard to see leaving off a list of iconic roles. Kirk Douglas in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? I don’t think he was even the iconic role in that movie. James Mason was as Nemo.
Hey John. Seems I had some rules when picking out these movies…but now I have no idea why I left off some of your suggestions. When we update this page I will be sure to include some of these awesome suggestions. Hoping when this page is “dynamic”…. you will just type in an age and a picture of the performance and the movie will pop up… if that happens we will need more than 4 per year. Thanks for the feedback,,,.it is greatly appreciated.
At the end of last year I was watching the 1984 Dudley Moore movie Unfaithfully Yours. Whenever I finish watching a movie I head straight to IMDb to get trivia and facts about the movie. One of the pieces of information I picked up at IMDb was the fact that when I watched the movie I was the same age (47) that Dudley Moore was when he made the movie. For some reason this really fascinated me.
Give me Jack Nicholson in Chinatown. I like this chart!
UMR Hall of Famer, George V. says this page is too depressing….but it is one of my favorites. I am currently the same age Al Pacino was when he won A Scent of a Woman, the same age Morgan Freeman was when he made Driving Miss Daisy, the same age Dean Martin was when he made Airport and the same age Bill Murray was when he made Lost in Translation. Fun stuff…in my opinion.
I am now the same as Bogart when he made The African Queen and Cooper when he made High Noon…..cool or depressing?
HI BRUCE
As you indicate Bogie and Cooper were around 51 when they made the films that you mention and when you’re 77 as I am that’s young!
However both men were sadly old before their time and indeed when the 45 year old Bogie married the 21 year old Betty Bacall the latter’s father is reported to have wistfully said to a close friend as the couple sped off in a taxi for their honeymoon “They should be taking Bogie to the morgue instead of the honeymoon bed!”
By a great ironic coincidence I was thinking about YOU in relation to the ageing process about 1 hour before I read your 8.17am post. As you already know over Christmas I have been watching a lot of the rather banal but harmlessly feel-good Xmas made-for-TV movies and in several of them there have been big screen look-alikes in the leading roles.
So about 60 minutes ago I was watching one of the final ones that I recorded, called Welcome to Christmas (2018), and in it the lead actor was an uncanny Harrison Ford doppelganger whose professional name is Eric Mabius. So I said to W o Bob “The Work Horse would like that guy if he wasn’t so young. Bruce prefers his heroes to be old men like Stallone, Willis and ole Han Solo!”
Actually Eric is 47 [just a few years younger than you] and in Welcome to Christmas he played an American small-town Lawman just as Coop did in High Noon
Hi Cogerson,
It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to comment, but I appreciate all the new pages (Robert Young, Lollobrigida, Lansbury, Charisse etc..). I find this page also interesting, though in a number of cases, I’m not sure the actor’s most iconic or even best roles are included. Hence, I agree with John that 20,000 Leagues may have been a huge hit but it’s hardly one of Kirk Douglas’ best roles. Ditto with Burt Lancaster in Airport, Steve McQueen in The Towering Inferno, or Michael Caine in Now You see Me. However, since you are considering nominations for the next update, may I suggest the following:
John Wayne in Stagecoach
Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath
Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (and/or Champion as his star-making role)
William Holden in Stalag 17
Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter
Ava Gardner in The Killers or the Barefoot Contessa
Gregory Peck in 12 O’Clock High or The Gunfighter
Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront
Steve McQueen in The Great Escape
Natalie Wood in West Side Story
Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (albeit mostly for the beach scene)
Jack Lemmon and Walter Mattheau in The Odd Couple
Charles Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West
Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther and Dr. Strangelove
Michael Caine in Alfie
Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek
Yul Brynner in The King and I and The Ten Commandments
Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments
Burt Lancaster? Agree with Atlantic City, but what about The Killers, From Here to Eternity, Sweet Smell of Success, Elmer Gantry, Birdman of Alcatraz and/or The Leopard (at least in Europe)?
Perhaps one way to limit or structure the page would be to include only the actor’s first iconic role?
Hey Phil….good to hear from you again. Thanks for all the suggestions. I will be sure to include some of them in the update. I think this could be a very fun page if we could get it way more user friendly….but one day will figure it out. My visual of the page and WoC figuring out how to do it…has been an interesting situation at the old Cogerson house.
It has been nice that this page has found some traffic. I remember being all excited about this idea…..one day we will get it right.
Hey Phil…..just some of the names in our database for the age of 37….anyway….this is ranked by UMR score…..and you can see how hard it is to just pick 4 out of so many
Actor Role MovieYear
Frank Sinatra Actor/Actress From Here to Eternity (1953)
Tom Hanks Actor/Actress Forrest Gump (1994)
Vivien Leigh Actor/Actress A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Red Buttons Actor/Actress Sayonara (1957)
Russell Crowe Actor/Actress A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Robert Redford Actor/Actress The Sting (1973)
Tom Berenger Actor/Actress Platoon (1986)
Barbara Stanwyck Actor/Actress Double Indemnity (1944)
Gene Hackman Actor/Actress Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Dan Aykroyd Actor/Actress Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Harrison Ford Actor/Actress Apocalypse Now (1979)
Broderick Crawford Actor/Actress All the King’s Men (1949)
Robin Williams Actor/Actress Dead Poets Society (1989)
Jack Nicholson Actor/Actress Chinatown (1974)
Claire Trevor Actor/Actress Key Largo (1948)
Christopher Nolan Director The Dark Knight (2008)
John Cassavetes Actor/Actress The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Jessica Chastain Actor/Actress The Martian (2015)
Harrison Ford Actor/Actress Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Jean Arthur Actor/Actress You Can’t Take It with You (1938)
Rod Steiger Actor/Actress The Longest Day (1962)
Joan Cusack Actor/Actress Toy Story 2 (1999)
Bradley Cooper Actor/Actress Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress Marty (1955)
Susan Hayward Actor/Actress I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955)
Tom Hanks Actor/Actress Philadelphia (1993)
Robert Stack Actor/Actress Written on the Wind (1956)
Clint Eastwood Actor/Actress The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Mike Myers Actor/Actress Shrek (2001)
Robert Duvall Actor/Actress Bullitt (1968)
Robert DeNiro Actor/Actress Raging Bull (1980)
Julie Christie Actor/Actress Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Jack Lemmon Actor/Actress Irma La Douce (1963)
Robert Montgomery Actor/Actress Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Agnes Moorehead Actor/Actress Mrs. Parkington (1944)
Paul Newman Actor/Actress Hud (1963)
Helen Hunt Actor/Actress Cast Away (2000)
Jessica Chastain Actor/Actress Interstellar (2014)
Fred Astaire Actor/Actress Swing Time (1936)
Dianne Wiest Actor/Actress Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Norma Shearer Actor/Actress The Women (1939)
Sally Field Actor/Actress Places in the Heart (1984)
Steven Spielberg Director Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Robert Ryan Actor/Actress Crossfire (1947)
Gary Cooper Actor/Actress Beau Geste (1939)
Deborah Kerr Actor/Actress Separate Tables (1958)
Eddie Murphy Actor/Actress Mulan (1998)
Doris Day Actor/Actress Lover Come Back (1961)
Brad Pitt Actor/Actress Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Martin Scorsese Director Raging Bull (1980)
William Wyler Director The Letter (1940)
Sidney Poitier Actor/Actress A Patch of Blue (1965)
James Garner Actor/Actress Grand Prix (1966)
Spencer Tracy Actor/Actress Test Pilot (1938)
Cary Grant Actor/Actress Suspicion (1941)
Warner Baxter Actor/Actress In Old Arizona (1929)
Joe Pesci Actor/Actress Raging Bull (1980)
Owen Wilson Actor/Actress Cars (2006)
Michael Keaton Actor/Actress Batman (1989)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress Vera Cruz (1954)
William Hurt Actor/Actress Broadcast News (1987)
Robert Redford Actor/Actress The Way We Were (1973)
Glynis Johns Actor/Actress The Sundowners (1960)
Irene Dunne Actor/Actress Show Boat (1936)
Henry Fonda Actor/Actress Immortal Sargeant (1943)
Bette Davis Actor/Actress A Stolen Life (1946)
Vincent Price Actor/Actress The Three Musketeers (1948)
Gene Kelly Actor/Actress On the Town (1949)
Montgomery Clift Actor/Actress The Young Lions (1958)
Fred Astaire Actor/Actress Shall We Dance (1937)
Arnold Schwarzenegger Actor/Actress The Terminator (1984)
Steven Spielberg Director The Terminator (1984)
George Cukor Actor/Actress Camille (1936)
James Caan Actor/Actress A Bridge Too Far (1977)
José Ferrer Actor/Actress Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
Meg Ryan Actor/Actress You’ve Got Mail (1998)
Warren Beatty Actor/Actress Shampoo (1975)
Audrey Hepburn Actor/Actress Wait until Dark (1967)
Bob Hope Actor/Actress Louisana Purchase (1941)
Katharine Hepburn Actor/Actress Without Love (1945)
Richard Burton Actor/Actress Cleopatra (1963)
Glenn Close Actor/Actress The Natural (1984)
Paul Muni Actor/Actress I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Bob Hope Actor/Actress Caught in The Draft (1941)
John Ford Director Arrowsmith (1932)
Denzel Washington Actor/Actress Malcolm X (1992)
Greer Garson Actor/Actress Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
Angela Lansbury Actor/Actress The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Hugh Jackman Actor/Actress X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Irene Dunne Actor/Actress Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
Cameron Diaz Actor/Actress Shrek Forever After (2010)
Benedict Cumberbatch Actor/Actress 12 Years a Slave (2013)
Simone Signoret Actor/Actress Room at the Top (1959)
Franchot Tone Actor/Actress Five Graves To Cairo (1943)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress Dead End (1937)
Dean Martin Actor/Actress Living It Up (1954)
Jack Nicholson Actor/Actress Tommy (1975)
Ron Howard Director Backdraft (1991)
Claude Rains Actor/Actress They Won’t Forget (1937)
Tim Robbins Director Dead Man Walking (1995)
Bing Crosby Actor/Actress Birth of the Blues (1941)
Tom Cruise Actor/Actress Mission: Impossible II (2000)
Cher Actor/Actress Silkwood (1983)
Robert Mitchum Actor/Actress Not as a Stranger (1955)
Annette Bening Actor/Actress The American President (1995)
Bruce Dern Actor/Actress The Great Gatsby (1974)
William Wyler Director The Westerner (1940)
William Holden Actor/Actress The Proud and Profane (1956)
Bing Crosby Actor/Actress Road to Zanzibar (1941)
Bob Hope Actor/Actress Road to Zanzibar (1941)
Edward G. Robinson Actor/Actress Little Caeser (1931)
John Wayne Actor/Actress Tall in the Saddle (1944)
Telly Savalas Actor/Actress Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Johnny Depp Actor/Actress Chocolat (2000)
James Coburn Actor/Actress Our Man Flint (1966)
Katharine Hepburn Actor/Actress Dragon Seed (1944)
Robert Redford Actor/Actress The Great Gatsby (1974)
Michelle Pfeiffer Actor/Actress Dangerous Minds (1995)
Sharon Stone Actor/Actress Casino (1995)
Susan Hayward Actor/Actress Soldier of Fortune (1955)
Danny Kaye Actor/Actress The Inspector General (1949)
Ginger Rogers Actor/Actress The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
Gene Kelly Actor/Actress Summer Stock (1950)
Celia Johnson Actor/Actress Brief Encounter (1946)
Geraldine Page Actor/Actress Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
Cary Grant Actor/Actress Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)
Joanne Woodward Actor/Actress Rachel Rachel (1968)
Bette Davis Actor/Actress Deception (1946)
Julia Roberts Actor/Actress Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
James Mason Actor/Actress Odd Man Out (1947)
Howard Hawks Director Twentieth Century (1934)
Charlize Theron Actor/Actress Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Leslie Howard Actor/Actress A Free Soul (1931)
John Wayne Actor/Actress Back to Baatan (1945)
Ann-Margret Actor/Actress The Cheap Detective (1978)
Marlene Dietrich Actor/Actress Destry Rides Again (1939)
Ronald Colman Actor/Actress Condemned (1929)
Eddie Murphy Actor/Actress Doctor Dolittle (1998)
Kevin Costner Actor/Actress The Bodyguard (1992)
Gregory Peck Actor/Actress Night People (1954)
Ian Bannen Actor/Actress The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
Steve McQueen Actor/Actress The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Fred Astaire Actor/Actress A Damsel in Distress (1937)
Barbra Streisand Actor/Actress The Main Event (1979)
Jack Lemmon Actor/Actress Under The Yum Yum Tree (1963)
William Powell Actor/Actress Street of Chance (1930)
Adam Sandler Actor/Actress 50 First Dates (2004)
Tom Cruise Actor/Actress Magnolia (1999)
Henry Fonda Actor/Actress The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
Paul Newman Actor/Actress Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
Alec Guinness Actor/Actress The Lavender Hill Mob (1952)
Woody Harrelson Actor/Actress The Thin Red Line (1998)
George Clooney Actor/Actress The Thin Red Line (1998)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress Kid Galahad (1937)
Daniel Craig Actor/Actress Munich (2005)
Jerry Lewis Actor/Actress The Nutty Professor (1963)
Tom Cruise Actor/Actress Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Sidney Poitier Actor/Actress The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
Fredric March Actor/Actress Anna Karenina (1935)
Claude Rains Actor/Actress The Prince and the Pauper (1937)
George Clooney Actor/Actress Out of Sight (1998)
Linda Hunt Actor/Actress The Year of Living Dangerously (1983)
Sean Penn Actor/Actress The Game (1997)
Claudette Colbert Actor/Actress Remember The Day (1941)
Glenn Close Actor/Actress Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan (1984)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress Marked Woman (1937)
Ann-Margret Actor/Actress Magic (1978)
Cate Blanchett Actor/Actress Notes on a Scandal (2006)
Amy Adams Actor/Actress The Master (2012)
Cate Blanchett Actor/Actress Babel (2006)
Judy Davis Actor/Actress Husbands and Wives (1992)
Norma Shearer Actor/Actress Idiot’s Delight (1939)
Clark Gable Actor/Actress Idiot’s Delight (1939)
Michael Fassbender Actor/Actress Steve Jobs (2015)
Kevin Kline Actor/Actress Silverado (1985)
Joaquin Phoenix Actor/Actress The Master (2012)
Audrey Hepburn Actor/Actress Two For The Road (1967)
Richard Burton Actor/Actress The V.I.P.s (1963)
David Niven Actor/Actress The Other Love (1947)
Gary Cooper Actor/Actress The Cowboy and the Lady (1938)
Bob Hope Actor/Actress Nothing But The Truth (1941)
John Ford Director Air Mail (1932)
Jane Wyman Actor/Actress Just For You (1952)
Bruce Willis Actor/Actress Death Becomes Her (1992)
Ronald Colman Actor/Actress Bulldog Drummond (1929)
Brad Pitt Actor/Actress Spy Game (2001)
Lee Marvin Actor/Actress The Comancheros (1961)
John Garfield Actor/Actress Breaking Point (1950)
Richard Widmark Actor/Actress Don’t Bother To Knock (1952)
Walter Matthau Actor/Actress King Creole (1958)
John Cusack Actor/Actress Runaway Jury (2003)
Kirk Douglas Actor/Actress Ulysses (1954)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress Violent Saturday (1955)
William Holden Actor/Actress Toward The Unknown (1956)
Greer Garson Actor/Actress When Ladies Meet (1941)
Jennifer Aniston Actor/Actress The Break-Up (2006)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress Stand-In (1937)
Errol Flynn Actor/Actress Escape Me Never (1947)
John Garfield Actor/Actress He Ran All The Way (1951)
Edward Norton Actor/Actress The Illusionist (2006)
Gig Young Actor/Actress Come Fill the Cup (1951)
Brad Pitt Actor/Actress The Mexican (2001)
Nicole Kidman Actor/Actress The Interpreter (2005)
Doris Day Actor/Actress Billy Rose’s Jumbo (1962)
Julianne Moore Actor/Actress The Big Lebowski (1998)
Jack Nicholson Actor/Actress The Passenger (1975)
Vince Vaughn Actor/Actress Into the Wild (2007)
Cliff Robertson Actor/Actress My Six Loves (1963)
Johnny Depp Actor/Actress Blow (2001)
Van Heflin Actor/Actress Act of Violence (1949)
Robert Stack Actor/Actress The Tarnished Angels (1957)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress Run For Cover (1955)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress Black Legion (1937)
Arthur Kennedy Actor/Actress Rancho Notorious (1952)
Burt Lancaster Actor/Actress Ten Tall Men (1951)
Deborah Kerr Actor/Actress The Journey (1959)
Charles Bronson Actor/Actress Never So Few (1959)
Michael Caine Actor/Actress Get Carter (1971)
Cate Blanchett Actor/Actress I’m Not There. (2007)
Robin Williams Actor/Actress The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989)
Julia Roberts Actor/Actress Closer (2004)
Annette Bening Actor/Actress Richard III (1995)
Anthony Quinn Actor/Actress Ride Vaquero! (1953)
Jerry Lewis Actor/Actress The Disorderly Orderly (1964)
Vincent Price Actor/Actress The Bribe (1949)
Jerry Lewis Actor/Actress The Patsy (1964)
Susan Hayward Actor/Actress Untamed (1955)
Sidney Poitier Actor/Actress The Bedford Incident (1965)
Leslie Howard Actor/Actress Five and Dime (1931)
Goldie Hawn Actor/Actress Best Friends (1982)
Burt Lancaster Actor/Actress Jim Thorpe–All American (1951)
Bradley Cooper Actor/Actress “The Place Beyond the Pines
(2013)”
Mary Pickford Actor/Actress Kiki (1931)
Claude Rains Actor/Actress Stolen Holiday (1937)
Gig Young Actor/Actress Only the Vailiant (1951)
Cameron Diaz Actor/Actress Knight & Day (2010)
Anthony Quinn Actor/Actress Against All Flags (1952)
William Powell Actor/Actress For The Defense (1930)
Claudette Colbert Actor/Actress Skylark (1941)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress The Great O’Malley (1937)
John Ford Director Flesh (1932)
Warren Beatty Actor/Actress The Parallax View (1974)
Jeff Bridges Actor/Actress The Morning After (1986)
Robert Ryan Actor/Actress Trail Street (1947)
Chester Morris Actor/Actress Five Came Back (1939)
Jeff Chandler Actor/Actress Pillars of the Sky (1956)
Sandra Bullock Actor/Actress Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)
Leslie Howard Actor/Actress Devotion (1931)
Kurt Russell Actor/Actress Tequila Sunrise (1988)
Robert Mitchum Actor/Actress Man with a Gun (1955)
John Garfield Actor/Actress Under My Skin (1950)
Mel Gibson Actor/Actress The Man without a Face (1993)
Mark Ruffalo Actor/Actress Just Like Heaven (2005)
Jodie Foster Actor/Actress Anna and the King (1999)
Henry Fonda Actor/Actress The Big Street (1942)
Anthony Quinn Actor/Actress Seminole (1953)
Joan Crawford Actor/Actress Reunion in France (1942)
Annette Bening Actor/Actress Mars Attacks (1996)
Daniel Craig Actor/Actress Fateless (2006)
Bradley Cooper Actor/Actress The Hangover Part III (2013)
Christopher Walken Actor/Actress Dogs of War (1981)
Michael Fassbender Actor/Actress Slow West (2015)
Meryl Streep Actor/Actress Heartburn (1986)
Ned Beatty Actor/Actress W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975)
Jessica Chastain Actor/Actress Crimson Peak (2015)
Errol Flynn Actor/Actress Cry Wolf (1947)
Faye Dunaway Actor/Actress Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
Reese Witherspoon Actor/Actress The Good Lie (2014)
Robert Ryan Actor/Actress The Woman on the Beach (1947)
Richard Widmark Actor/Actress My Pal Gus (1952)
Maggie Smith Actor/Actress Travels with My Aunt (1972)
Michael Keaton Actor/Actress The Dream Team (1989)
Daniel Craig Actor/Actress Layer Cake (2005)
Sylvester Stallone Actor/Actress Staying Alive (1983)
Reese Witherspoon Actor/Actress Inherent Vice (2014)
Steve Martin Actor/Actress The Man with Two Brains (1983)
Richard Widmark Actor/Actress O’Henry’s Full House (1952)
Michelle Pfeiffer Actor/Actress Up Close and Personal (1996)
Gregory Peck Actor/Actress The Purple Plain (1954)
Gregory Peck Actor/Actress Man with a Million (1954)
Rock Hudson Actor/Actress A Gathering of Eagles (1963)
Sophia Loren Actor/Actress Man of La Mancha (1972)
Matthew McConaughey Actor/Actress We Are Marshall (2006)
Edward Norton Actor/Actress The Painted Veil (2006)
Denzel Washington Actor/Actress Mississippi Masala (1992)
Edward G. Robinson Actor/Actress Smart Money (1931)
Walter Matthau Actor/Actress Ride a Crooked Trail (1958)
Johnny Depp Actor/Actress Before Night Falls (2000)
Humphrey Bogart Actor/Actress San Quentin (1937)
Anthony Quinn Actor/Actress City Beneath The Sea (1953)
Ann-Margret Actor/Actress The Villian (1979)
Kay Francis Actor/Actress The Feminine Touch (1941)
Holly Hunter Actor/Actress Home for the Holidays (1995)
Edmond O’Brien Actor/Actress The Bigamist (1953)
Woody Harrelson Actor/Actress EDtv (1999)
Ernest Borgnine Actor/Actress The Last Command (1955)
Jack Warden Actor/Actress Darby’s Rangers (1958)
Leslie Howard Actor/Actress Never the Twain Shall Meet (1931)
Gene Hackman Actor/Actress The Split (1968)
Michael Caine Actor/Actress The Last Valley (1971)
Michael Fassbender Actor/Actress Macbeth (2015)
Glenn Close Actor/Actress The Stone Boy (1984)
Robert Duvall Actor/Actress The Rain People (1969)
Harrison Ford Actor/Actress The Frisco Kid (1979)
Jill Clayburgh Actor/Actress First Monday in October (1981)
Walter Matthau Actor/Actress Voice in the Mirror (1958)
James Cagney Actor/Actress Something To Sing About (1937)
James Garner Actor/Actress Mister Buddwing (1966)
Peter Sellers Actor/Actress Heavens Above! (1963)
Vincent Price Actor/Actress Bagdad (1949)
Shelley Winters Actor/Actress Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960)
Jennifer Aniston Actor/Actress Friends with Money (2006)
Paul Newman Actor/Actress A New Kind of Love (1963)
Willem Dafoe Actor/Actress Light Sleeper (1992)
Anthony Quinn Actor/Actress Blowing Wild (1953)
Owen Wilson Actor/Actress You Me and Dupree (2006)
Keanu Reeves Actor/Actress Hardball (2001)
Joan Crawford Actor/Actress Above Suspicion (1943)
Peter Sellers Actor/Actress The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963)
James Coburn Actor/Actress What Did You Do in the War Daddy? (1966)
Montgomery Clift Actor/Actress Lonelyhearts (1958)
James Coburn Actor/Actress Waterhole #3 (1966)
Whoopi Goldberg Actor/Actress Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993)
Peter Sellers Actor/Actress Never Let Go (1963)
James Garner Actor/Actress Duel at Diablo (1966)
Vince Vaughn Actor/Actress Fred Claus (2007)
Charles Boyer Actor/Actress Private Worlds (1935)
James Coburn Actor/Actress Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966)
Tilda Swinton Actor/Actress Love Is the Devil (1998)
Burt Lancaster Actor/Actress Vengenance Valley (1951)
Ben Affleck Actor/Actress Extract (2009)
Gene Kelly Actor/Actress Black Hand (1950)
Tommy Lee Jones Actor/Actress Nate and Hayes (1983)
Jennifer Jones Actor/Actress The Barrets of Wimpole Street (1957)
Deborah Kerr Actor/Actress Beloved Infidel (1959)
Sean Penn Actor/Actress She’s So Lovely (1997)
Halle Berry Actor/Actress Gothika (2003)
Shirley MacLaine Actor/Actress The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972)
Jay Mohr Actor/Actress Street Kings (2008)
Ava Gardner Actor/Actress The Angel Wore Red (1960)
Kurt Russell Actor/Actress Winter People (1989)
Susan Sarandon Actor/Actress The Buddy System (1984)
Sandra Bullock Actor/Actress Murder by Numbers (2002)
Kay Francis Actor/Actress The Man Who Lost Himself (1941)
Mickey Rooney Actor/Actress Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958)
Daniel Craig Actor/Actress The Jacket (2005)
Liam Neeson Actor/Actress Next of Kin (1989)
Meg Ryan Actor/Actress Hurlyburly (1998)
M. Night Shyamalan Director The Happening (2008)
Mark Wahlberg Actor/Actress The Happening (2008)
Christopher Walken Actor/Actress Heaven’s Gate (1980)
Vince Vaughn Actor/Actress Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show (2008)
Richard Widmark Actor/Actress Red Skies of Montana (1952)
Woody Harrelson Actor/Actress The Hi-Lo Country (1998)
Hugh Jackman Actor/Actress Scoop (2006)
Lana Turner Actor/Actress Another Time Another Place (1958)
Dwayne Johnson Actor/Actress Planet 51 (2009)
Al Pacino Actor/Actress Bobby Deerfield (1977)
Nicolas Cage Actor/Actress Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001)
Deborah Kerr Actor/Actress Count Your Blessings (1959)
Cameron Diaz Actor/Actress The Box (2009)
Kay Francis Actor/Actress Play Girl (1941)
Nicole Kidman Actor/Actress Birth (2004)
Dwayne Johnson Actor/Actress The Tooth Fairy (2010)
Michael Caine Actor/Actress Kidnapped (1971)
Anthony Perkins Actor/Actress WUSA (1970)
Amy Adams Actor/Actress On The Road (2012)
Mark Wahlberg Actor/Actress Max Payne (2008)
Larry Parks Actor/Actress Love Is Better Than Ever (1952)
Ben Stiller Actor/Actress Duplex (2003)
Jeff Bridges Actor/Actress Nadine (1987)
Sam Worthington Actor/Actress Sabotage (2014)
James Garner Actor/Actress A Man Could Get Killed (1966)
Dan Aykroyd Actor/Actress Loose Cannons (1990)
Johnny Depp Actor/Actress The Man Who Cried (2001)
Cate Blanchett Actor/Actress The Good German (2006)
Angela Lansbury Actor/Actress In The Cool of The Night (1963)
John Travolta Actor/Actress Shout (1991)
Elizabeth Taylor Actor/Actress The Only Game in Town (1970)
Halle Berry Actor/Actress Catwoman (2004)
Sylvester Stallone Actor/Actress Rhinestone (1984)
Arnold Schwarzenegger Actor/Actress Red Sonja (1985)
Eddie Murphy Actor/Actress Holy Man (1998)
Timothy Hutton Actor/Actress Playing God (1997)
Willem Dafoe Actor/Actress Body of Evidence (1993)
Kate Winslet Actor/Actress Movie 43 (2013)
Elisabeth Bergner Actor/Actress Escape Me Never (1935)
Paulette Goddard Actor/Actress So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
Looking at the bottom of the list makes me think it would be fun to show the really bad movies too. Sure it is great that Frank Sinatra made From Here To Eternity when he was 37…..but knowing Stallone made Rhinestone at 37 seems equally important….lol.
What the…ok Bruce, you made your point!!!! There are many roles to chose from particularly when stars are in their 30s? But maybe that means, limiting iconic roles to 4 per age does not quite work. Would be interesting to have a list of THE iconic role of each major star to the extent they have one, or the role that made him or her a major star, and compare their ages at the time. Of course, in a number of cases, there will be subjectivity involved. By the way, Tim Dirk’s Filmsite also does a good job of identifying the “definite” role of stars, particularly classic ones, as well as other great roles. I don’t agree with all of his choices, but usually he’s pretty much on the mark. Thanks for your voluminous response 🙂
Hey Phil. All of these recent comments have me tweaking the page again. Toying with linking all of these massive lists to the page…now that would be a massive amount of information. I will have to check out Tim Dirk’s Filmsite. Thanks for the comment.
Cogerson
Some who should have made the list–age 13. Rin-tin-tin in The Lightning Warrior.
Age 38–Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind. James Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life. These two are hard to see leaving off a list of iconic roles. Kirk Douglas in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? I don’t think he was even the iconic role in that movie. James Mason was as Nemo.
Age 66–Walter Brennan as Stumpy in Rio Bravo.
Age 31 (or 32)–James Cagney in The Public Enemy
Age 44–Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster
Age 47 or 48–Bela Lugosi as Dracula
Age 28 (I think)–Rita Hayworth as Gilda
Hey John. Seems I had some rules when picking out these movies…but now I have no idea why I left off some of your suggestions. When we update this page I will be sure to include some of these awesome suggestions. Hoping when this page is “dynamic”…. you will just type in an age and a picture of the performance and the movie will pop up… if that happens we will need more than 4 per year. Thanks for the feedback,,,.it is greatly appreciated.