Actors Who Were WAAAAY Too Old for Their Roles

Here's a countdown of ten that were pretty egregious: 

10. Tim Matheson

Veteran actor Matheson was already 31 when he portrayed college lothario Otter in the classic Animal House, and was a weathered-looking 37 when he played essentially the same character in 1984's Up the Creek.

9. Stacy Dash

Gorgeous though she was, Dash was 29 when she played high-schooler Dionne, best friend to 18-year-old Cher (Alicia Silverstone) in 1995's Clueless. Remarkably, four years later, at age 33, Dash was still playing the same role in the Clueless TV series.

8. Ralph Macchio

Macchio was a noticeably paunchy 27 when he reprised his role as teenager Daniel LaRusso in 1989's Karate Kid Part III.

7. Clint Eastwood

In the Line of Fire was a great thriller, but as part of its romantic subplot, we're forced to watch a grizzled 62-year-old Eastwood make out with Rene Russo -- who was young enough to be his daughter... Nauseating.

6. and 5. Lorna Luft and Stockard Channing With their crow's feet beginning to show, Luft and Channing were 29 and 34, respectively, when they took their turns as Pink Ladies and Rydell High seniors (Channing in 1978's Grease and Luft in 1982's Grease 2.)

4. Lorna Luft (again) 

It's also hard to buy a 31-year-old Luft as spring breaking college coed Carole in Where the Boys Are '84, particularly in her "Hot Bod Contest" scene and others where she plays opposite twenty-something co-stars.

3. Roger Moore 

In his last two turns as James Bond, 1983's Octopussy and 1985's A View to a Kill, the mid-fiftyish Moore had visibly thinning hair, an abundance of wrinkles and liver spots, and needed a stuntman for just about every scene that required him to do anything more strenuous than get out of a chair. 

2. Robert Redford 

In The Natural, Robert Redford plays baseball prodigy Roy Hobbs, who returns from a mysterious 16-year absence to lead his team to the pennant. And though he's middle-aged throughout most of the film, in early scenes, we're supposed to buy a 47-year-old Redford as the 22-year-old version of Hobbs.

1. The entire cast of Mamma Mia

The film's central character, bride-to-be Sophie, is twenty. But instead of actors in their early 40s (which would have been consistent with the chronology of events presented during the film's exposition) we get 58-year-old Meryl Streep as Sophie's mom, and 54 year old Pierce Brosnan and 56 year old Stellan Skarsgard as two of her possible dads. (They'd have been much more believable as Sophie's grandparents.) Rounding out were cast were 57-year-old Julie Walters and 55-year-old Christine Baranski, and watching this group of near 60 actors dance and frolic onscreen to ABBA songs, is downright embarrassing.

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