Movie Film Trivia

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Quokka said:
Bringing it back to the film trivia if you keep an eye on the computer behind the writer it changes depending on how old the movie is, even becoming a typewriter for the original Willy Wonker and the Chocolate Factory.
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Yep. And the clothing and hairstyles too.
 
STFU Donnie said:
The thing is, she really could have passed for a 12 year old, and the producers knew it. From her wikipedia page: "Her contract forbade her from revealing her true age during the making of the film, and she was not allowed to be seen smoking, drinking, driving her car or in the company of her boyfriend during the shoot"
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I had a look at some of the clips on Youtube and I agree Sally Thomsett doesn't look out of place despite being an adult playing a child. Sometimes this stands out in films with older actors playing younger roles. For example, Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer were both aged in their mid-20s when portraying 18-year-olds in 'Footloose' in 1984. In scenes together and with adult characters, they looked pretty convincing as teenagers. But put them in scenes with Sarah Jessica Parker (aged 18 in real life, looks 18, playing 18) and you can see that Bacon and Singer are way older than Parker.

Talking about 'The Railway Children', I noticed that the brother in this was played Gary Warren, who also played Cedric in the second series of Catweazle the same year. Gary Warren, now aged 66, is the only surviving cast member of either series of Catweazle.
 

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emuboy said:
I had a look at some of the clips on Youtube and I agree Sally Thomsett doesn't look out of place despite being an adult playing a child. Sometimes this stands out in films with older actors playing younger roles. For example, Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer were both aged in their mid-20s when portraying 18-year-olds in 'Footloose' in 1984. In scenes together and with adult characters, they looked pretty convincing as teenagers. But put them in scenes with Sarah Jessica Parker (aged 18 in real life, looks 18, playing 18) and you can see that Bacon and Singer are way older than Parker.

Talking about 'The Railway Children', I noticed that the brother in this was played Gary Warren, who also played Cedric in the second series of Catweazle the same year. Gary Warren, now aged 66, is the only surviving cast member of either series of Catweazle.
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How about Isabelle Fuhrman (then 23) playing a 9-year old in 2009's Orphan? The twist of course is that she was actually a grown woman masquerading as a child.

Then in 2010, a real Indiana couple adopted a 6 year old Ukranian girl. The parents then claimed she was a 22 year old psycopath and abandoned her. Even Dr. Phil got involved.
 
GG.exe said:
What about the other way around? Who's the youngest real life person who played an older character? Biggest age difference (especially child/teen actor)?
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I'm not sure of young actors (say under 23) playing much older roles, except maybe in flash forward scenes.

Some interesting cases that I can think of include:

Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (1964) - As well as playing Bert, Dick Van Dyke (then aged 40) also played the elderly Mr. Dawes, the decrepit managing director of the bank and an octogenarian.

Clive Dunn in Dad's Army (1968-1977) - Clive Dunn played an elderly Corporal Jones in this much loved British Sitcom, but in real life Dunn was only aged in his 50s during the show and was aged by make up to look elderly. A younger actor was required to portray the character due to the physical comedy required for the role.

Kenneth Waller in Are You Being Served? (1981) - One of the funniest recurring jokes of AYBS in the 1970s was the appearance of the doddering Young Mr. Grace, played by Harold Bennett. People would be amazed that this was Young Mr. Grace, somebody commenting that 'Old Mr. Grace doesn't get around much anymore' and Old Mr. Grace remained unseen. Until 1981 that is, when after a year's hiatus the show returned with Harold Bennett too ill to continue, and he died aged 82 in September of that year. Old Mr. Grace (born in 1891) was then seen for the first time, and he was played by Kenneth Waller, a man born in 1927 and aged only 54. Pretty fit for his age, Waller had to be placed in tons of aging make-up to play the role, and it looked pretty bad. Old Mr. Grace lasted only one season, and the Young Mr. Grace became an unseen character for the duration of the show.

Stephanie Cole in Waiting For God (1990-1994) - This British sitcom was about elderly residents of a retirement home ran by an insanely pompous manager and his loopy PA. Stephanie Cole (born 1941) was only aged in her late 40s when she took on the role of the crotchety old lady Diana, while the actor who played her on-screen love interest (and later husband) Tom was the late Graham Crowden, who was born in 1922. One question from this series remains; how did Tom manage to hide the Nimon from his wife, other residents and the home management the whole time? (Graham Crowden is well remembered for playing Soldeed, the evil and sycophantic priest from the 1979 Doctor Who story 'The Horns of Nimon', with Crowden (normally a serious dramatic actor) hamming up the role to amazing levels, such as entering the Nimon's complex and calling it like a pet - 'Lord Nimon, Lord Niiiimon, it is I, Soldeed!')

Vanessa Downing from Bullpit (1997) - Best remembered as the first Pippa from Home and Away, Vanessa Downing in 1997 and then aged 39 took on a role in the sitcom Bullpit playing Muriel, a woman aged in her 70s.

Martin Short from Clifford (1994) - An interesting case, in this movie Martin Short then aged 40 played a 10-year-old boy and a 75-year-old man.
 
GG.exe said:
What about the other way around? Who's the youngest real life person who played an older character? Biggest age difference (especially child/teen actor)?
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Do you mean without make-up?
emuboy said:
I'm not sure of young actors (say under 23) playing much older roles, except maybe in flash forward scenes.

Some interesting cases that I can think of include:

Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (1964) - As well as playing Bert, Dick Van Dyke (then aged 40) also played the elderly Mr. Dawes, the decrepit managing director of the bank and an octogenarian.

Clive Dunn in Dad's Army (1968-1977) - Clive Dunn played an elderly Corporal Jones in this much loved British Sitcom, but in real life Dunn was only aged in his 50s during the show and was aged by make up to look elderly. A younger actor was required to portray the character due to the physical comedy required for the role.

Kenneth Waller in Are You Being Served? (1981) - One of the funniest recurring jokes of AYBS in the 1970s was the appearance of the doddering Young Mr. Grace, played by Harold Bennett. People would be amazed that this was Young Mr. Grace, somebody commenting that 'Old Mr. Grace doesn't get around much anymore' and Old Mr. Grace remained unseen. Until 1981 that is, when after a year's hiatus the show returned with Harold Bennett too ill to continue, and he died aged 82 in September of that year. Old Mr. Grace (born in 1891) was then seen for the first time, and he was played by Kenneth Waller, a man born in 1927 and aged only 54. Pretty fit for his age, Waller had to be placed in tons of aging make-up to play the role, and it looked pretty bad. Old Mr. Grace lasted only one season, and the Young Mr. Grace became an unseen character for the duration of the show.

Stephanie Cole in Waiting For God (1990-1994) - This British sitcom was about elderly residents of a retirement home ran by an insanely pompous manager and his loopy PA. Stephanie Cole (born 1941) was only aged in her late 40s when she took on the role of the crotchety old lady Diana, while the actor who played her on-screen love interest (and later husband) Tom was the late Graham Crowden, who was born in 1922. One question from this series remains; how did Tom manage to hide the Nimon from his wife, other residents and the home management the whole time? (Graham Crowden is well remembered for playing Soldeed, the evil and sycophantic priest from the 1979 Doctor Who story 'The Horns of Nimon', with Crowden (normally a serious dramatic actor) hamming up the role to amazing levels, such as entering the Nimon's complex and calling it like a pet - 'Lord Nimon, Lord Niiiimon, it is I, Soldeed!')

Vanessa Downing from Bullpit (1997) - Best remembered as the first Pippa from Home and Away, Vanessa Downing in 1997 and then aged 39 took on a role in the sitcom Bullpit playing Muriel, a woman aged in her 70s.

Martin Short from Clifford (1994) - An interesting case, in this movie Martin Short then aged 40 played a 10-year-old boy and a 75-year-old man.
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With make up I'd say a 32 year old Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man playing 121 years of age.

Without make-up is interesting....

Christopher Lloyd in BTTF 2 and 3 playing a guy in his 70s? Though he still had the wig.
 
GG.exe said:
What about the other way around? Who's the youngest real life person who played an older character? Biggest age difference (especially child/teen actor)?
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Well, seeing as this began as a discussion of unconvincing portrayals, then I nominate, as a clear winner, Guy Pearce in Prometheus. He was supposed to be 102 or something, but the make-up was woeful. Just like everything else about that turkey.
 
RolandF1 said:
Jennifer Lawrence was 21 when she did Silver Linings Playbook and while its implied her character is at least in her late 20s in the film, the character in the book is actually 39.
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Some interesting side trivia about Jennifer Lawrence. There is a misconception that as a teenager in the mid 2000s Jennifer Lawrence was on the MTV reality show 'My Super Sweet 16' and that's how she got her big break. Lawrence was never actually one of the teens featured on the show, but in 2005 and then aged 15 she was in the adverts for the show, so that's how people remembered this wrong.

In fact, Lawrence got her big break playing the teenage daughter in 'The Bill Engvall Show', a sitcom that aired in 2007, 2008 & 2009. I haven't seen much of the show which well over a decade later is largely forgotten, but I was struck at how anachronistic it was in the premise. It followed a family sitcom formula frequently used in the 1980s and up to the mid 1990s (think the Miller-Boyett sitcoms that were popular during this era) but which even by the late 1990s was starting to look dated.
 
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RolandF1 said:
Jennifer Lawrence was 21 when she did Silver Linings Playbook and while its implied her character is at least in her late 20s in the film, the character in the book is actually 39.
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Good call, I immediately thought of her as well, even in American Hustle.
 
emuboy said:
Some interesting side trivia about Jennifer Lawrence. There is a misconception that as a teenager in the mid 2000s Jennifer Lawrence was on the MTV reality show 'My Super Sweet 16' and that's how she got her big break. Lawrence was never actually one of the teens featured on the show, but in 2005 and then aged 15 she was in the adverts for the show, so that's how people remembered this wrong.
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A Jennifer Lawrence Mandela Effect.

I like it.
 
Twin actresses Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen were popular child and teenage stars from the late 1980s to the mid 2000s, getting their big break on the sitcom 'Full House' and starring in a whole series of movies for about a decade after this show ended in 1995.

However, despite them having such similar looks that the two girls were able to share the role of Michelle Tanner in Full House and always playing identical twins in their movies, the girls are not medically identical twins (one egg splits) but fraternal twin sisters (two eggs). Now as adults and no longer in the acting profession, one girl stands slightly taller than the other and one left handed and the other right (although mirror image identical twins have that characteristic), but this seems one of the few ways to tell the sisters apart.
 
GG.exe said:
What about the other way around? Who's the youngest real life person who played an older character? Biggest age difference (especially child/teen actor)?
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Max von Sydow was only 43 when he appeared in The Exorcist, playing a priest in his late 70s.

The thing is, the make up used to age him was perfect. He looked exactly like Max von Sydow did in his actual late 70s. A far cry from the laughable effort with Guy Pearce in Prometheus.
 
When I was looking up which of the Treasure Island film adaptions was the best to watch, I stumbled on a bit of trivia but I can't remember it fully in detail, or the link, to copy and paste here....but basically that the character who played a pirate in that 1950 Disney movie was from a particular part of England that had a particular accent which due to the success of the movie, that accent became the staple way all pirates spoke in culture and media ever-since. That whole ah ha me mateys thing. It was due to the actor that made that become forever more as pirate-speak, and not the other way around that actual pirates from that region of England actually did speak that way that made it famous.
 
GG.exe said:
When I was looking up which of the Treasure Island film adaptions was the best to watch, I stumbled on a bit of trivia but I can't remember it fully in detail, or the link, to copy and paste here....but basically that the character who played a pirate in that 1950 Disney movie was from a particular part of England that had a particular accent which due to the success of the movie, that accent became the staple way all pirates spoke in culture and media ever-since. That whole ah ha me mateys thing. It was due to the actor that made that become forever more as pirate-speak, and not the other way around that actual pirates from that region of England actually did speak that way that made it famous.
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Wouldn't happen to be from Somerset would they?
 
RedmanWasHere said:
Wouldn't happen to be from Somerset would they?
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Robert Newton, who played Long John Silver in the 1950 adaptation of Treasure Island, gave us many popular pirate phrases.

His pirate accent was a very exaggerated version of his own accent (southwest England/Cornwall) and created the arrrrrr as a character signature. He also used phrases he picked up from sailing communities back home.
 
American actor Dan Hedaya is best known for playing the gruff father of Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) in the classic 1995 teen comedy 'Clueless'. In 1999, he starred in another teen comedy 'Dick' with Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst. This film was about two naive teenage girls in the 1970s who on a school trip to the White House accidentally blunder their way into the Oval Office where they meet President Richard Nixon and become involved in the Watergate Scandal. Hedaya played Richard Nixon in the film, but sadly over 20 years this very original and amusing teen comedy is largely forgotten.

Interestingly, just three years earlier in 1996 Hedaya had played an advisor to President Nixon in the failed biopic 'Nixon', starring Anthony Hopkins in the titular role.
 
Most of the male cast of 'National Lampoon's Vacation' in 1983 were very tall. Chevy Chase (Clark Griswold) stands 1.92 m, Randy Quaid (Cousin Eddie) 1.96 m, the late John Candy (Wally World Security Guard) was 1.88 m while Anthony Michael Hall (Rusty Griswold) would grow to be 1.85 meters in height.
 
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