Old School! Too Old to Play Teens
By Jeff Lyons on Oct 29, 2007 in Lists

The Mathletes Club here at UsedWigs High have compiled a classroom full of actors who were well past their teenage years when they portrayed high-schoolers on the big and small screens. Age calculations are based on when the film was released or the year the character debuted on the TV show. The information was gleaned from IMDB.com.
| ACTOR | BORN | FILM/TV SHOW | YEAR | AGE |
| Stockard Channing | 1944 | Grease | 1978 | 34 |
| Curtis Armstrong | 1953 | Better Off Dead | 1985 | 32 |
| Sean Patrick Thomas | 1970 | Save the Last Dance | 2001 | 31 |
| Olivia Newton-John | 1948 | Grease | 1978 | 30 |
| John Cho | 1972 | Better Luck Tomorrow | 2002 | 30 |
| Derek Luke | 1974 | Friday Night Lights | 2004 | 30 |
| Alan Ruck | 1956 | Ferris Bueller’s Day Off | 1986 | 30 |
| Frank Whaley | 1963 | Swing Kids | 1993 | 30 |
| Stacey Dash | 1966 | Clueless | 1995 | 29 |
| Gabrielle Carteris | 1961 | Beverly Hills, 90210 | 1990 | 29 |
| Gedde Watanabe | 1955 | Sixteen Candles | 1984 | 29 |
| Parry Chen | 1973 | Better Luck Tomorrow | 2002 | 29 |
| P.J. Soles | 1950 | Rock ‘n’ Roll High School | 1979 | 29 |
| Tony Danza | 1951 | The Hollywood Knights | 1980 | 29 |
| Glynn Turman | 1946 | Cooley High | 1975 | 29 |
| Kerr Smith | 1972 | Final Destination | 2000 | 28 |
| Adrian Zmed | 1954 | Grease 2 | 1982 | 28 |
| Gabrielle Union | 1972 | Bring It On | 2000 | 28 |
| Jeff Conaway | 1950 | Grease | 1978 | 28 |
| Jon Heder | 1977 | Napoleon Dynamite | 2004 | 27 |
| Parminder Nagra | 1975 | Bend It Like Beckham | 2002 | 27 |
| Selma Blair | 1972 | Cruel Intentions | 1999 | 27 |
| Charisma Carpenter | 1970 | Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 1997 | 27 |
| Rebecca Gayheart | 1972 | Jawbreaker | 1999 | 27 |
| Lori Singer | 1957 | Footloose | 1984 | 27 |
| Sissy Spacek | 1949 | Carrie | 1976 | 27 |
| Tobey Maguire | 1975 | Spider-Man | 2002 | 27 |
| Denise Richards | 1971 | Wild Things | 1998 | 27 |
| Kevin Bacon | 1958 | Footloose | 1984 | 26 |
| Jamie Kennedy | 1970 | Scream | 1996 | 26 |
| Matthew Lillard | 1970 | Scream | 1996 | 26 |
| Skeet Ulrich | 1970 | Scream | 1996 | 26 |
| Paul Walker | 1973 | She’s All That | 1999 | 26 |
| Scott Wolf | 1968 | Party of Five | 1994 | 26 |
| Ian Ziering | 1964 | Beverly Hills, 90210 | 1990 | 26 |







Yeah, basically the whole cast of “Grease” was about 30 Years old:
Stockard Channing (34), Michael Tucci “Sonny” (32), Jamie Donnelly “Jan” (31), Olivia Newton John (30), Barry Pearl “Doody” (28), Jeff Conaway (28), Didi Cohn (27), John Travolta (24), Kelly Ward “Putzie” (22), Dinah Manoff “Marty” (20)
Then there was the guy who was the head of the rival gang I think he was about 41.
Also, what was the deal with having about 90% of the cast from Brooklyn?
Rydell High School looks like some waspy L.A. Suburb, and yet there are all these 30 year old “teenagers” from Brooklyn running around.
And what’s the message in this so-called “Family-Film” guys won’t like a girl unless she’s a “Slut”?
One of the stupidest and definately most over-rated movies of all-time.
John Q | Oct 8, 2007 | Reply
Anthony Cumia & Greg Hughes
Really teenagers pretending to be little girls named Marge.
Loopy | Oct 30, 2007 | Reply
Chester - Really a dead dog pretending to be a inline skate.
Loopy | Oct 30, 2007 | Reply
EROCK - AN OVERWEIGHT NOTHING PRETENDING TO BE POPULAR
TMAC | Oct 30, 2007 | Reply
Are you guys a couple now? When is the commitment ceremony? Who’s Brad Pitt in the relationship?
Rob | Oct 30, 2007 | Reply
I think Jamie Kennedy pulled off the highschool roll in “Scream”. Jamie Kennedy is my favorite actor though.
shanaenae | Nov 8, 2007 | Reply