Old age catches up to everyone, unless of course we're talking about Christie Brinkley, who at the time of this writing is 61 and is still such a knockout that she's doing magazine covers in a swimsuit. (In fact, we're pretty sure she's a robot.) But for everyone else—even celebrities—time takes its toll, especially if they've remained relatively famous into their old age, making it easy to forget that some of them might have been real easy on the eyes, to use the parlance of their time. So, at the risk of this concept straying into the territory of listening to one's grandparents talking about sex, here is a list of older celebs you might have pined for back in the day.
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#1
Betty White has been a TV star for so long that she actually holds a Guinness World Record for it. But most audiences came to widely know her for her classic role as "Rose" on The Golden Girls when she was already in her sixties. Identifying her with that goofy, lovable grandma personality makes it not only difficult, but actually kind of icky to think of her as a sex symbol, but a quick Google search for "young Betty White" reveals an adorable, dark-haired beauty who sort of looks like Julia Louis-Dreyfus. At the very least, young Betty could pass for any one of the secretaries at Sterling Cooper Draper Price, and we all know they weren't exactly getting turned down for dates.
#2
When the Internet circulated a photo of a young Christopher Walken looking strikingly similar to to present day Scarlett Johansson, a lot of "Black Widow" fanboys got uncomfortable in a hurry. But that doesn't change the fact that the admittedly odd yet amazingly talented actor had the kind of androgynous good looks to make him a star at a young age. Yes, now he often looks like a chameleon wearing a bad toupee who just stuck his finger in an electrical socket, but that doesn't change the fact that he was "Max Zorin" in A View to a Kill, making him a Bond villain who was literally engineered from the womb to be the Nazi ideal of human perfection. You don't land that role if you're Clint Howard. Sorry, you just don't.
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#3
Still beautiful to this day, Helen Mirren was nothing short of stunning as a young woman. If you can find a copyor you know, just YouTube the clipof Helen's first film role in 1967's Herostratus, you'll see her deliver a totally weird, yet seductive performance in an advertisement for rubber gloves, which for some reason she's wearing with lingerie and fishnet stockings. Why? Our best guess: it was the late '60s. She's reminiscent of Jennifer Lawrence, but with an English accent and an acting pedigree from the Royal Shakespeare Company. Also, her resume doesn't have the stink of The Hunger Games and The Bill Engvall Show on it, so that's even better. What we meant to say is she's reminiscent of Jennifer Lawrence, but better.
#4
In the rare occasion that Jerry Lewis wasn't contorting his face into some type of comical doofus, he actually looked handsome. Granted, this is the exact trick that the entire premise of The Nutty Professor was based on, which paved the way for the unforgettable appearance of "Stefan Urquelle" in the classic Family Matters episode, "Dr. Urkel and Mr. Cool." We only hope that Jaleel White doesn't turn into a bloated, bitter old man who claims women aren't funny while he performs comedy routines he probably wrote in the '60s. But seriously, the guy was quite the looker in his heyday. Never mind the fact that when he now tries to pull a funny face only ends up scaring nightmares directly into children and small animals.
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#5
Yep, this is happening. The star of Murder She Wroteyes, the lady who looks like your great Aunt Martha who always makes sure that glass dish of hard candy is full for your visitswas a hottie way back when. We swear it's true. Angela Lansbury was a doe-eyed cutie with plump cheeks that Drew Barrymore has nothing on. No hate, Drew, we're still into you, too. Seriously though, Angela was 59 when she landed the role of "Jessica Fletcher," which made her a household name, but go find the movie poster for The Picture of Dorian Gray and tell us if it was 1945 right now, you wouldn't ask her out for a malt or to go see a moving picture or something. (Honestly, we have no idea what dates looked like back then. Was that what a sock hop was? We're just throwing anything out there now, really.)
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#6
Already an established comedian, Bill Cosby became a sitcom legend and television staple when he played "Dr. Cliff Huxtable" on The Cosby Show. By that time, he was nearing his fifties, and by no means an ugly man, although when compared to roughly 20 years before that, when he was a young, fit, handsome man of action on I Spy, the difference was already striking. Cut to present day when Bill's not only facing a horrible mountain of sexual assault accusations against him, but he also appears to have actively avoided maintaining his physical appearance. Often sporting a five- or six-day hobo beard and dressed like he's outfitting himself exclusively in clothing acquired from dumpster diving behind dollar stores, his well-known air of self-importance no longer matches his looks. Hopefully Bill kept a headshot from back in the '60s to remember his dapper glory days. We think it would look just great clipped to a prison cell mirror.
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#7
While it's true that she now gets insensitively compared to the Predator from, well, Predator, we'll just chalk that up to the stress from her failed marriage to that film's star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and not the suggestion that her face now looks like an alien grimace of death. Regardless, Maria Shriver was a total smokeshow back in her TV journalist days when she made her career with NBC News. And even if her almost Joan Jett kind of look from the late '80s and early '90s wasn't all that attractive, she did have that whole "being a member of America's Royal Family, the Kennedys" thing going for her. That tends to shed a whole different light on physical beauty. Looking at you, Ted.
