as Mark Twain once said age is an issue
of mind over matter if you don’t mind it
doesn’t matter
you worried no if I was worried I’d ask
you what you’ve got but I’m not so I’m
just gonna assume you’ve got something
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top 10
actors who became famous when they were
old for this list we’re counting down
actors and actresses who achieved global
fame beyond the age of 40 look you want
to play blind man go walk with a
shepherd with me my eyes are wide open
let’s be clear some actors received
attention in their younger years and
while some of those on our list fall
under that category it doesn’t
necessarily mean they were famous yeah
well you know what they say it’s better
to have loved and lost than never to
have loved at all try number 10 Tommy
Lee Jones you know we’re always
fascinated when we find leg irons with
no legs in them
while this harvard-educated Texan did
receive multiple Emmy nominations
throughout the 80s not many people
remember him for roles in Lonesome Dove
or the executioner song I said give me
that ring hunk
he said are you the devil I didn’t
answer it I just took his ring in 1991
at 45 years of age Jones turned heads in
Oliver Stone’s JFK and in 1993 he earned
an Oscar for his portrayal of deputy US
Marshal Samuel Gerard in the fugitive
listen up ladies and gentlemen our
fugitive has been on the run for 90
minutes average foot speed over uneven
ground barring injuries 4 miles an hour
that gives us a radius of 6 miles
oh and he’s one-half of the men in black
all right well he’s plus our level 5 is
subsonic implosion factor 1 just shoot
the damn thing on account of 81 right
this distinguished actor often plays
existential characters and his cinematic
persona stays closely connected to his
old age older age that is you do know
Elvis is dead right no it’s not dead it
just went home number 9 Leslie Nielsen
surely you can’t be serious I am serious
and don’t call me sugar while Nielsen
earned a great deal of acclaim among his
peers and even starred opposite Debbie
Reynolds in the 1957 film Tammy in The
Bachelor yeah that’s about all we ever
do
he was seen as a character actor rather
than a leading man for years everything
changed in 1980 however when Nielsen
starred as the oblivious doctor room AK
in the disaster spoof airplane surely
that must be something you can do I’m
doing everything I can stop calling me
Shirley well beyond 50 years of age with
decades of credits to his name Nielson
embarked on a new career in absurdist
comedy
nice Bieber thank you I just had a
stuffed let me help you with that a
career that would last another 30 years
until his death we’re sorry to bother at
a time like this mrs. twice we would
have come earlier but your husband
wasn’t dead damn number 8 Betty White
I’ve been the caretaker of this house
for 50 years but you can kick me out
yeah I wouldn’t no worries if you can
escape from the Nazis you can handle
anything beginning in 1939 Betty White
hustled away in the Hollywood industry
and by the mid 50s she became the first
woman to produce her own sitcom just say
I want a new hat or I want to paint the
house or I want a hundred dollars how
did you guess which one
Oh although her accomplishments were
groundbreaking mainstream America still
didn’t know who she was for at least a
couple of decades
she earned a larger following at over 50
years of age upon landing a role on The
Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 70s I
better get my wrap that nice man said
he’d be bringing the car around any
minute now wasn’t that sweet of him to
say take me home I’m sorry we didn’t get
a chance to talk more dear Betty White’s
career reached new heights in the 80s
with her role as the dim-witted Rose
Nylund on the Golden Girls I wonder what
he looks like I just hope he doesn’t
have hair in his ears and she continued
strong well past 90 years of age so what
are you like a hundred I don’t like you
number seven Christoph Waltz Oh
harpy please forgive me it is a second
language there are a couple of reasons
why North Americans were stunned by this
man’s performance in Inglourious
Basterds one he was terrifying yet
strangely likeable as Hans Landa may I
smoke my pockets with two nobody’d seen
him before
waltzes filmography mainly consisted of
German titles such as Bond feet and
kernig Davidson taga I see for sauce me
a bit however Walt studied method acting
in the 70s under the great Lee Strasberg
and Stella Adler in America Lubuntu mon
la petición de passe a lonely polo esta
la mama se Co something by the time you
won an Oscar at the age of 53 for
Inglourious Basterds and another in 2012
for Django Unchained he had certainly
paid his dues when and I despise slavery
on the other hand I need your help if
you’re not in a
to refuse all the better number six
judi dench tastes like I don’t know
Dench earned the official label of Dame
in 1988 after decades of hard work
she was primarily a stage performer in
the 60s and 70s but at over fifty years
old she earned a BAFTA nomination for
the star-studded adaptation of a room
with a view to low females in an unknown
City now that’s what I called an
adventure
roughly a decade later Dench took over
as M the leader of mi6 in Goldeneye one
take
not quite w7 if you think for one moment
I don’t have the balls send a man out to
die your instinct to get wrong what
followed was a plethora of Academy Award
nominations including a Best Supporting
Actress win for Shakespeare in Love but
I know something of a woman in a man’s
profession
she’s since shown no signs of slowing
down and doesn’t look like she’ll retire
any time soon
thanks this was
number five steve carell I don’t know
what were yelling about in 1991 Carell
was performing at Chicago’s second city
with Stephen Colbert as his understudy
and made his feature debut that same
year in curly sue Tesio yes you go and
notify Albert’s that we have the
situation in his late 30s he nabbed a
gig as a Daily Show correspondent you
know there is one way of settling this
crusade all right there are two ways of
settling and soon after he appeared as
the intellectually challenged brick
Tamland in anchorman years later a
doctor will tell me that I have an IQ of
48 and then what some people call
mentally retarded but in 2005 at age 43
Carell landed two iconic roles one as a
40 year old virgin and one as an inept
office manager I think that pretty much
sums it up I found it at Spencer Gifts
now with an Oscar nomination to his
credit Carell is proven that he’s an
actor that only gets better with age
when we fail to honor that we should be
honored it’s a problem number four
samuel l.jackson I want you to go in
that bag and find my wallet which one is
it it’s the one that says bad mother now
known as one of the baddest mothers in
Hollywood samuel l.jackson made his film
debut in 1972 but despite over a decade
of stage work that followed Jackson was
still unknown to mainstream audiences by
1989 at over 40 years old Jackson
appeared in Spike Lee’s do the right
thing
Here I am at my hand you know it it you
know and Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas
the following year even stacks Edwards
got in on it now one of the most
entertaining actors ever to grace the
big screen he’s also one
the most bankable as no other actor has
equalled samuel l.jackson z– box-office
success and you will know my name is the
law when I lay my vengeance upon thee
number three ian mckellen oh but you
have done I have to explain this to you
because clearly you don’t understand can
you name a film Ian McKellen starred in
pre 1991 probably not by then Sir Ian
was already in his 50s but the best was
yet to come the only group you can count
on the vote is a solid block because
it’s literally life and death from now
is the gay vote throughout the 90s he
starred in numerous box-office hits and
landed the lead role in Richard the
third how is the winter of our
discontent made glorious summer by this
son of York
however these performances would all be
trumped by his roles as magneto in the
x-men franchise and Gandalf in The Lord
of the Rings franchise the wizard is
never late Frodo Baggins
nor is he earning he arrives precisely
when he means to the early 2000s were a
transformative period for the aging
actor and retirement was thankfully not
in the works
number two Patrick Stewart immortality
that defines a solid it’s part of the
truth of our existence the year the
original Star Trek series debuted this
man became a member of the Royal
Shakespeare Company after 20 years as a
successful stage performer jean-luc
Picard would make Patrick Stewart a
household name before his 50th birthday
kill my people are in trouble
let me help them please while this
particular role wouldn’t define his
career artistically speaking
Picard was most certainly an iconic
character for all the trekkers of the
world what we leave behind is not as
important as how we’ve lived Stewart
became even more well-known when he took
to a wheelchair to play x-men’s
Professor X in 2000 give me a chance I
may be able to help you find some
answers you know you’re not the only one
with gifts are you boys in some circles
Stewart may be perceived as an actor’s
actor but many will always associate him
with Star Trek and the x-men and hey
it’s not a bad gig well I am psychic you
know before we unveil our number one
pick here are some honorable mentions
Ricky if you know how I look in the
morning would you still marry me
Oh Dorothy can I borrow your Lynx toe
it’s Miami in June only cats are wearing
fur this is a matter of inconvenient
timing that’s all for this action was
inevitable happens necessary so let them
fumble about outside and stay calm this
is simply in the beginning
yeah I can’t park my car tip my badge
put on some weight we’re you wrote this
I did mrs. Fletcher you astound me Oh
Ralph you’re not astounded at all as a
matter of fact you’re full of clam dip
number one Morgan Freeman
get busy living or get busy dyin that’s
goddamn right by the 1970s Morgan
Freeman was certainly a seasoned
performer given his 780 appearances on
The Electric Company ok brothers and
sisters and misses and misters here’s
your daddy yo with a sound to go no
shuckin no jivin I’m telling you your
musics arriving aah
believe it or not he was 50 years old
when he started as a pimp in 1987
street-smart and the performance led to
his first Oscar nomination
so penis how you doing I’m good ok
janae McGee Freeman gained further
acclaim in Driving Miss Daisy and
stunned Hollywood with his poignant
performance in the Shawshank Redemption
that kids long gone his old man is
always left I got a live with that with
an iconic voice and an overdue Academy
Award win for Million Dollar Baby
Freeman’s got a certain kind of charisma
that’s all his own if there’s magic in
boxing it’s the magic of fighting
battles beyond endurance it’s the magic
of risking everything for a dream that
nobody sees but you do you agree with
our list
who’s your favorite actor who became
famous when they were old Hokkien from
vote quite a while back they said I won
right in the head till they put me out
in the nervous hospital instead of a
jail for more mind-blowing top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com Monsieur vote for me
you have a wash should he come that’s it
you
of mind over matter if you don’t mind it
doesn’t matter
you worried no if I was worried I’d ask
you what you’ve got but I’m not so I’m
just gonna assume you’ve got something
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top 10
actors who became famous when they were
old for this list we’re counting down
actors and actresses who achieved global
fame beyond the age of 40 look you want
to play blind man go walk with a
shepherd with me my eyes are wide open
let’s be clear some actors received
attention in their younger years and
while some of those on our list fall
under that category it doesn’t
necessarily mean they were famous yeah
well you know what they say it’s better
to have loved and lost than never to
have loved at all try number 10 Tommy
Lee Jones you know we’re always
fascinated when we find leg irons with
no legs in them
while this harvard-educated Texan did
receive multiple Emmy nominations
throughout the 80s not many people
remember him for roles in Lonesome Dove
or the executioner song I said give me
that ring hunk
he said are you the devil I didn’t
answer it I just took his ring in 1991
at 45 years of age Jones turned heads in
Oliver Stone’s JFK and in 1993 he earned
an Oscar for his portrayal of deputy US
Marshal Samuel Gerard in the fugitive
listen up ladies and gentlemen our
fugitive has been on the run for 90
minutes average foot speed over uneven
ground barring injuries 4 miles an hour
that gives us a radius of 6 miles
oh and he’s one-half of the men in black
all right well he’s plus our level 5 is
subsonic implosion factor 1 just shoot
the damn thing on account of 81 right
this distinguished actor often plays
existential characters and his cinematic
persona stays closely connected to his
old age older age that is you do know
Elvis is dead right no it’s not dead it
just went home number 9 Leslie Nielsen
surely you can’t be serious I am serious
and don’t call me sugar while Nielsen
earned a great deal of acclaim among his
peers and even starred opposite Debbie
Reynolds in the 1957 film Tammy in The
Bachelor yeah that’s about all we ever
do
he was seen as a character actor rather
than a leading man for years everything
changed in 1980 however when Nielsen
starred as the oblivious doctor room AK
in the disaster spoof airplane surely
that must be something you can do I’m
doing everything I can stop calling me
Shirley well beyond 50 years of age with
decades of credits to his name Nielson
embarked on a new career in absurdist
comedy
nice Bieber thank you I just had a
stuffed let me help you with that a
career that would last another 30 years
until his death we’re sorry to bother at
a time like this mrs. twice we would
have come earlier but your husband
wasn’t dead damn number 8 Betty White
I’ve been the caretaker of this house
for 50 years but you can kick me out
yeah I wouldn’t no worries if you can
escape from the Nazis you can handle
anything beginning in 1939 Betty White
hustled away in the Hollywood industry
and by the mid 50s she became the first
woman to produce her own sitcom just say
I want a new hat or I want to paint the
house or I want a hundred dollars how
did you guess which one
Oh although her accomplishments were
groundbreaking mainstream America still
didn’t know who she was for at least a
couple of decades
she earned a larger following at over 50
years of age upon landing a role on The
Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 70s I
better get my wrap that nice man said
he’d be bringing the car around any
minute now wasn’t that sweet of him to
say take me home I’m sorry we didn’t get
a chance to talk more dear Betty White’s
career reached new heights in the 80s
with her role as the dim-witted Rose
Nylund on the Golden Girls I wonder what
he looks like I just hope he doesn’t
have hair in his ears and she continued
strong well past 90 years of age so what
are you like a hundred I don’t like you
number seven Christoph Waltz Oh
harpy please forgive me it is a second
language there are a couple of reasons
why North Americans were stunned by this
man’s performance in Inglourious
Basterds one he was terrifying yet
strangely likeable as Hans Landa may I
smoke my pockets with two nobody’d seen
him before
waltzes filmography mainly consisted of
German titles such as Bond feet and
kernig Davidson taga I see for sauce me
a bit however Walt studied method acting
in the 70s under the great Lee Strasberg
and Stella Adler in America Lubuntu mon
la petición de passe a lonely polo esta
la mama se Co something by the time you
won an Oscar at the age of 53 for
Inglourious Basterds and another in 2012
for Django Unchained he had certainly
paid his dues when and I despise slavery
on the other hand I need your help if
you’re not in a
to refuse all the better number six
judi dench tastes like I don’t know
Dench earned the official label of Dame
in 1988 after decades of hard work
she was primarily a stage performer in
the 60s and 70s but at over fifty years
old she earned a BAFTA nomination for
the star-studded adaptation of a room
with a view to low females in an unknown
City now that’s what I called an
adventure
roughly a decade later Dench took over
as M the leader of mi6 in Goldeneye one
take
not quite w7 if you think for one moment
I don’t have the balls send a man out to
die your instinct to get wrong what
followed was a plethora of Academy Award
nominations including a Best Supporting
Actress win for Shakespeare in Love but
I know something of a woman in a man’s
profession
she’s since shown no signs of slowing
down and doesn’t look like she’ll retire
any time soon
thanks this was
number five steve carell I don’t know
what were yelling about in 1991 Carell
was performing at Chicago’s second city
with Stephen Colbert as his understudy
and made his feature debut that same
year in curly sue Tesio yes you go and
notify Albert’s that we have the
situation in his late 30s he nabbed a
gig as a Daily Show correspondent you
know there is one way of settling this
crusade all right there are two ways of
settling and soon after he appeared as
the intellectually challenged brick
Tamland in anchorman years later a
doctor will tell me that I have an IQ of
48 and then what some people call
mentally retarded but in 2005 at age 43
Carell landed two iconic roles one as a
40 year old virgin and one as an inept
office manager I think that pretty much
sums it up I found it at Spencer Gifts
now with an Oscar nomination to his
credit Carell is proven that he’s an
actor that only gets better with age
when we fail to honor that we should be
honored it’s a problem number four
samuel l.jackson I want you to go in
that bag and find my wallet which one is
it it’s the one that says bad mother now
known as one of the baddest mothers in
Hollywood samuel l.jackson made his film
debut in 1972 but despite over a decade
of stage work that followed Jackson was
still unknown to mainstream audiences by
1989 at over 40 years old Jackson
appeared in Spike Lee’s do the right
thing
Here I am at my hand you know it it you
know and Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas
the following year even stacks Edwards
got in on it now one of the most
entertaining actors ever to grace the
big screen he’s also one
the most bankable as no other actor has
equalled samuel l.jackson z– box-office
success and you will know my name is the
law when I lay my vengeance upon thee
number three ian mckellen oh but you
have done I have to explain this to you
because clearly you don’t understand can
you name a film Ian McKellen starred in
pre 1991 probably not by then Sir Ian
was already in his 50s but the best was
yet to come the only group you can count
on the vote is a solid block because
it’s literally life and death from now
is the gay vote throughout the 90s he
starred in numerous box-office hits and
landed the lead role in Richard the
third how is the winter of our
discontent made glorious summer by this
son of York
however these performances would all be
trumped by his roles as magneto in the
x-men franchise and Gandalf in The Lord
of the Rings franchise the wizard is
never late Frodo Baggins
nor is he earning he arrives precisely
when he means to the early 2000s were a
transformative period for the aging
actor and retirement was thankfully not
in the works
number two Patrick Stewart immortality
that defines a solid it’s part of the
truth of our existence the year the
original Star Trek series debuted this
man became a member of the Royal
Shakespeare Company after 20 years as a
successful stage performer jean-luc
Picard would make Patrick Stewart a
household name before his 50th birthday
kill my people are in trouble
let me help them please while this
particular role wouldn’t define his
career artistically speaking
Picard was most certainly an iconic
character for all the trekkers of the
world what we leave behind is not as
important as how we’ve lived Stewart
became even more well-known when he took
to a wheelchair to play x-men’s
Professor X in 2000 give me a chance I
may be able to help you find some
answers you know you’re not the only one
with gifts are you boys in some circles
Stewart may be perceived as an actor’s
actor but many will always associate him
with Star Trek and the x-men and hey
it’s not a bad gig well I am psychic you
know before we unveil our number one
pick here are some honorable mentions
Ricky if you know how I look in the
morning would you still marry me
Oh Dorothy can I borrow your Lynx toe
it’s Miami in June only cats are wearing
fur this is a matter of inconvenient
timing that’s all for this action was
inevitable happens necessary so let them
fumble about outside and stay calm this
is simply in the beginning
yeah I can’t park my car tip my badge
put on some weight we’re you wrote this
I did mrs. Fletcher you astound me Oh
Ralph you’re not astounded at all as a
matter of fact you’re full of clam dip
number one Morgan Freeman
get busy living or get busy dyin that’s
goddamn right by the 1970s Morgan
Freeman was certainly a seasoned
performer given his 780 appearances on
The Electric Company ok brothers and
sisters and misses and misters here’s
your daddy yo with a sound to go no
shuckin no jivin I’m telling you your
musics arriving aah
believe it or not he was 50 years old
when he started as a pimp in 1987
street-smart and the performance led to
his first Oscar nomination
so penis how you doing I’m good ok
janae McGee Freeman gained further
acclaim in Driving Miss Daisy and
stunned Hollywood with his poignant
performance in the Shawshank Redemption
that kids long gone his old man is
always left I got a live with that with
an iconic voice and an overdue Academy
Award win for Million Dollar Baby
Freeman’s got a certain kind of charisma
that’s all his own if there’s magic in
boxing it’s the magic of fighting
battles beyond endurance it’s the magic
of risking everything for a dream that
nobody sees but you do you agree with
our list
who’s your favorite actor who became
famous when they were old Hokkien from
vote quite a while back they said I won
right in the head till they put me out
in the nervous hospital instead of a
jail for more mind-blowing top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com Monsieur vote for me
you have a wash should he come that’s it
you
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