They Didn't Age Well

[Menard]

I was glancing at the cover of a back issue of Entertainment Weekly (no, it was not mine) which was showcasing the re-release of E.T. to the big screen. This was a few years ago and the cover featured Drew Barrymore, Steven Spielburg, and Henry Thomas. Looking at the pictures, Henry Thomas looked to be in his 40s, even though he was around 30 in the picture. He looked about like the ideal actor to play a greasy junkie in a film. This got me to wondering about other actors, especially child stars, who just have not weathered time very well.

The most blatant example of which I can think of is Leif Garrett. Boy, talk about a complete reversal of forune in the looks department.

Yes, in some ways, this is a cruel thread. But take a shot at it anyway. Who would you consider not to have aged well?

[clockworkcanary]

I saw a picture of Corey Haim recently that scared the $h!t outta me.  Also, and I don't know if this was a photoshop job or what, but I saw a picture of the dad from Alf (name escape me) who was sitting around in his underwear with other guys hitting a crack pipe!  Talk about frightening!

[Derf]

I'll name Farrah Fawcett since she's from my neck of the woods. She hasn't aged well at all.
Somebody just commented to me yesterday about Alice Cooper not aging well, but I'm not sure whether to mention him here since he was never much of a pretty boy anyway.
David Lee Roth's lifestyle has definitely caught up with him as well.

Then on the other end of the spectrum, I recently saw a photo shoot for a calendar featuring Sophia Loren, who, at 70, is still pretty danged va-va-voom.

[Him]

The kid from HR Puff n Stuff

[Amanda]

Jani Lane - the singer from Warrant.  It's horrible...just....horrible.  Not to mention CC Deville from Poison, or Stephen Pearcy from Ratt. 

I thought Henry Thomas was nice looking in Masters of Horror and Nightmares and Dreamscapes. 

[Yaddo 42]

Haven't seen recent photos, but when he hosted the Problem Child films on USA several years ago, Michael Oliver who played Junior, was in his mid teens and looked bloated, out of shape and awful. Hope it was just an awkward stage.

Alice Cooper is still slim, as he points out often on his show, but if anything his face combined with the stage makeup suits even better for his stage and public persona. But having seen him on TV at those golf tournies, he does look rougher than most, maybe too much sun from the golf courses combined with age.

Did CC Deville ever look good, or was he buried under deep makeup during his Poison days?

I saw b-movie actress Laurene Landon on the Masters of Horror film Pick Me Up, her face and voice were rough (Did something happen to her while away from acting?), but her body looked decent.

[BeyondTheGrave]

Jani Lane - the singer from Warrant.  It's horrible...just....horrible.  Not to mention CC Deville from Poison, or Stephen Pearcy from Ratt. 

I thought Henry Thomas was nice looking in Masters of Horror and Nightmares and Dreamscapes. 

Has anyone seen Sebastian Bach from Skid Row lately? Man he looks bad. Also Mick Mars from Motley Crue. Thinking about it alot ot the Hair Metal/Glam Metal guys don't look to good. Expect for Dee Sinder. He looks pretty much the same.

[dean]

Oh there be plenty of examples of the 'gone bad' variety, but something struck me the other day when I saw a show recently with Peter MacNicol in it.  Peter, for those playing at home played the illustrious part of 'Janosz' in Ghostbusters 2 [or the terrifically voiced X the Eliminator in Harvey Birdman], and other than a slight haircut, seems to have barely aged in the 20 odd years from then till now.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001493/ So that was a little odd, but anywho...
 

[Yaddo 42]

All that rough living is finally catching up with the Hair Band guys I guess. Not everyone can look ugly like Keith Richards and just get more "interesting" looking from the years of hard living.

Then there's the folks who we don't know if they would have aged well or not since they've overdone the plastic surgery: Burt Reynolds, Gary Busey, Loretta Swit, Jennilee Harrison, etc. Feel free to add to the list.

I saw a photo of Richard Boone from his Have Gun, Will Travel heyday and compared it to his later villain and character actor days. Wow, did the booze do a number on him.

After not seeing him in much of anything for a while, I couldn't believe how much Jeffery Jones ballooned up when I saw him in Ravenous and on Deadwood.

How about Yvonne DeCarlo? She was a vision of beauty in McClintock and even under the vampire makeup in The Munsters, much like during her film career peak. But seeing her on talk shows later on, when she kept proving she wasn't dead (I guess people were mixing her up with Carolyn Jones), she was often unrecognizeable until she spoke.

Dean, I remember first seeing Peter MacNichol in Dragonslayer, and then seeing him later in the 80s when he gained weight and lost some hair, but yeah from that point on he has looked remarkably the same, permanently homely perhaps. On a similar note, except for losing hair and a few wrinkles, the character actor Geoffrey Lewis looks almost the same to me.

[RCMerchant]

I saw a picture of Tom Laughlin of BILLY JACK fame in an issue of Pschotronic Video magazine a few years ago...boy,did he ever go to seed! On the other hand Yvette Vickers (ATTACK of the 50 FOOT WOMAN) has aged quite well. Briddgetee Bardot is pretty spooky looking nowadays. And Steven Hawkes (BLOOD FREAK) is in great shape. Peter Lorres unique personality kept him working,even when he gained a lot of weight due to health problems. This is a cruel thread,for we all age, and who knows what WE will look like 20 years down the road. I"m 5'2 and 44 years old and even with 30 years of alcholism under my belt have held up well,(people mistake me for much younger) but in 20 years from now, I will probelally end up looking like Yoda.

[Andrew]

Tura Satana from "Faster, p***ycat! Kill! Kill!" should be mentioned.  She changed quite a bit since those days; this shot is from her in "Mark of the Astro-Zombies:"

[Menard]

On a similar note, except for losing hair and a few wrinkles, the character actor Geoffrey Lewis looks almost the same to me.

Geoffrey Lewis has not had that much hair to lose anyway. He has held up amazingly well over all these years and probably is the most recognizable actor of which nobody knows what his name is. IMDB has him listed as having been in 200 films; I think the count is low.

Back on the topic of those who have not aged well. Jan Michael Vincent became the poster child for what someone should not do to their body; though he had a car accident in 1996 which caused an injury to 3 vertebrae, he had already been on a long road of drug and alcohol abuse. It was truly heartbreaking to see him in interviews in later years.

I didn't know that Gary Busey had gone under the knife. He has always looked like Gary Busey to me and he actually improved in his appearance after the motorcycle accident when he dropped the drugs and the weight. If he had continued at the same pace he was going, he would have been much worse off today.

Stuart Pankin, though looking a little sallow in the face, is looking pretty good these days, and he is 60. He was always a heavy actor, but lost a lot of the weight over the past several years. I have seen him in these infomercials for the walking insoles which is what he credits for helping him to overcome back pain and to be able to do more physical activity and slim down. He was recently in an episode of Boston Legal playing a judge.

[Yaddo 42]

When Busey was turning up on The 700 Club and on shows on TBN, his face had a very plastic and frozen appearance. His cheeky appeared shiny and not just from makeup, theskin looked too tight.

When I saw Busey on Celebrity Fit Club (whichever season), as he lost the weight his face, especially around his eyes, seemed to show it even more. He had that semi-permanent startled look (call it "Nancy Pelosi eyes") of people who have had facelifts. The squintly looks that he used in so many film roles didn't seem to be as pronounced, you'd think they'd get even more so as he got older.

Tom Laughlin is roughly 75 years old now so he can be forgiven for not looking like we remember him. Plus he was out of the public eye for so long after his heyday, there was little transition from what he looked like then to what he looks like now, so the difference seems even more pronounced.

I saw Stuart Pankin in those infomercials, if I hadn't seen him in the earlier one where he was still heavy, I wouldn't have recognized him in the later one. Even his voice seems different.

RCMerchant's right this thread could get mean, but these are people who make they're living in the public eye, their appearance is a big part of how they are known, so major changes (good or bad) or the lack of them will draw attention.

In my own life, I'm noticing the difference in how I am treated and interacted with now that I've finally begun to take better care of myself, eating better, exercise, a few minor changes in appearance and how I dress. But who knows if I backslide or as I age, so I'm going to stick with it as much as I can. We humans are social creatures and how you look affects so much, however shallow that may be, it's still there.

[Foywonder]

Stars that haven't aged well at all, eh?

Two words: Tawny Kitaen

[Scott]

Everyone ages. If you don't age then your not old. Some say it's a state of mind. Others might refer to it physically. Hopefully we will all age, pass on, and enter Godhood.