Old timers: Hollywood actors who have gone from wild to mild boys
They were celebrity heart-throbs for decades but are these Hollywood legends now past their prime after hitting their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s? Kerry Parnell finds out how time is treating Hollywood’s former wild boys.
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When they were in their prime, these Hollywood bad boys made a name and reputation for themselves.
But now that stars like Clint Eastwood, Hugh Grant and Paul Hogan have grown older, have they become too tame for today’s generation?
Kerry Parnell finds out what the old timers have been up to.
SWINGING 60s
Val Kilmer just hit the big six-zero and brought out a memoir to celebrate. Labelled a difficult actor in his youth, he reveals he once lived too near to Charles Manson and didn’t want to be in the original Top Gun, but contacted the producers to get a role in Top Gun: Maverick.
The throat-cancer survivor says he hasn’t had a girlfriend in 20 years, but adds Daryl Hannah broke his heart.
He joins a raft of other big names swinging their way into their 60s, led by Hugh Grant, who celebrates his big birthday in September. With five children, the Four Weddings heart-throb has given up on his womanising ways and is now happily married to Swedish television producer Anna Eberstein.
Sean Penn also turns 60 in August and the former wild man is still going strong. With marriages to Madonna and Robin Wright and an engagement to Charlize Theron behind him, he has turned novelist and is making a TV series about US President Andrew Jackson.
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Twice-divorced Antonio Banderas also has his 60th in August and is making multiple movies a year, including the prequel The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard with Ryan Reynolds.
They can take tips from other bad grandads, including Jimmy Barnes, who just turned 64, Bruce Willis, who has hit 65, and Billy Bob Thornton, who reaches the same milestone in August.
None of the naughty boys are the retiring type, with hard rocker Barnesy still belting out hits and his album My Criminal Record last year topping the charts.
Bruce, meanwhile, is churning out movies and showing there are no hard feelings by spending lockdown with ex Demi Moore and their kids, while wife Emma Heming and two children stay in LA.
Notorious Mickey Rourke, 67, has eight new movies on the go and human headline Mel Gibson, 64, four new films, including Boss Level with Naomi Watts.
Meanwhile, Bad Santa himself, Billy Bob Thornton, seems to have settled down. With five divorces behind him, including Angelina Jolie, he is still with sixth wife Connie Angland and working regularly, most recently in TV series Goliath.
On-screen hardman Liam Neeson turns 68 next month, but is ever the action hero, making new thrillers, including Honest Thief, The Minuteman and The Ice Road. Well he does have a very “particular set of skills”.
SEXY 70s
Joining the 70s rebels this year is Bill Murray, who despite his “difficult” reputation continues to pull in roles, including the new Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Serial divorcer and father-of-eight Rod Stewart hit 75 earlier this year and rocks on, touring and recently releasing his 30th studio album.
He can take tips from fellow dad-of-eight Mick Jagger and wild man Keith Richards who will both be 77 this year and are still swaggering on stage.
Even Rambo turns 74, as Sylvester Stallone fights on in Rambo: Last Blood and has a Demolition Man sequel in the works.
ACCEPTABLE IN THE 80s
Meanwhile the over-80s club is laughing at the young bloods, with Al Pacino and Martin Sheen turning 80, joining John Cleese, Paul Hogan and George Lazenby, who hit the milestone late last year.
Serial dater Al, who has never married, is holding back time with his Oscar-nominated turn in The Irishman and Martin, who has been arrested 66 times for activism, appears in hit series Grace And Frankie.
George, dubbed by Bond-co-star Diana Rigg as “bloody impossible” and who had a reported 1000 lovers, has two movies in the pipeline and fellow Aussie Hoges has made The Very Excellent Dundee with Chevy Chase, 76, four-times-married John Cleese and Olivia Newton-John, 71.
Already “acceptable in the 80” as Calvin Harris says, are Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, both 83, and Barry Humphries 86. Jack and Warren, both legendary ladies’ men, are now taking it easy. Dame Edna is still touring and continuing to offend, saying she is spending lockdown with Thomas Markle.
PARTYING IN THEIR 90s
Former TV hunk Robert Wagner, who is still surrounded by the mystery of wife Natalie Wood’s drowning, turned 90 this year and father-of-eight Clint Eastwood rides into the decade this month, followed by former lothario Sean Connery in August.
Robert is still on-screen in NCIS and Clint is clocking up plaudits for directing hits such as American Sniper and Sully. Sean is retired.
Originally published as Old timers: Hollywood actors who have gone from wild to mild boys