Maurice

1. Malcolm McDowell (b.1943) public-schoolboy Mick Travis in "If...." (1968)
Travis's friends reinforce the discrepancy.

2. Daniel Newman (b.1976) was convincing in 15 - The Life and Death of Philip
Knight (1993) - but less so as "Billy aged 14" in Speak Like a Child (1998).

3. Lee Ingleby, 23, was 16-year-old David Witton in Nature Boy (2000).
The latter should, perhaps, have been described as 22, 23 or 24 - removing
the incongruity.

4. The History Boys (2006) suffers a loss of credibility - caused by the decision to
use the cast of the original stage play, all in their 20s.

Steve Crook

Richard Attenborough was 25 when he played a working class boy just starting at a posh school in The Guinea Pig (1948) - so his character would have been meant to have been about 12!

But then again, Richie Cunningham got away with it until September 1984 - when Ron Howard was 30! Henry Winkley was 39 in that last episode - but he was still cool

Steve

davidb

whilst were on this subject ,weve got a few australian members havent we ? is the school leaving age over there 25 or something ? whenever i catch a glimpse of neighbours or home and away it seems to be that way

marty

Something that always amuses me is pretty much the whole class in Please Sir were in their mid 20's when the film was made in 1971.

Peter Cleal was 26, David Barry 27 , Carol Hawkins was one of the youngest at 22.

John Alderton who played the teacher was only 31

batman

James Dean made a pretty convincing teenager at age 23.

"Aha Mr Aubergine ... that's where you're wrong!"

phil

Most of the BOYS IN BROWN.

batman

Christopher Eccleston and Paul Reynolds were also pretty convincing as teenagers in Let Him Have It.

"Aha Mr Aubergine ... that's where you're wrong!"

christoph404

Not really playing a teenager but 30 year old Dustin Hoffman makes a pretty convincing college graduate in the 1967 film. Ten years later he's still in college aged 40 as possibly the oldest student ever in "Marathon Man" Its convincing though,but lets not even go into the laughable scenario of Hoffman playing Sean Connery's son in "Family Business" with only a 7 year age gap!

CaptainWaggett

They weren't meant to be teenagers though. Men of 23 could be - and were - sentenced to Borstal for up to three years so some Borstal boys were 25 or 26. John Blythe's character (I think it's him) mentions having a wife and kids and they all seem to have been working for several years.

He's not bad, and I saw him as a teen in a play c1990 (where he did convince even from only few feet away), but I felt rather sorry for Simon Russell Beale having to play an 18 year old in Dance to the Music of Time when they had younger actors for all the other pars

Chevyman

Tim Roth and quite a few of the cast of "Scum" spring to mind

"Don't interrupt Pike or you'll be sent home!"

batman

James Kenney and his mates in Cosh Boy were also pretty good as were the lads in The Boys, especially Dudley Sutton.

Not forgetting Dickie in Brighton Rock .... he may not have looked fifteen, but he passed as a teenager for me.

"Aha Mr Aubergine ... that's where you're wrong!"

christoph404

Sally Thomsett appeared in 1970 in "The Railway Children" aged 20, playing what looks like a 12 year old! A few years later (1973) she is Richard O'Sullivans sexy flatmate in "Man About The House" How quickly children grow up!

Steve Crook

Even better, she was playing Jenny Agutter's kid sister - but she's about 18 months older than Jenny

Steve

Wicked Lady

The cast of Grease were a tad long in the tooth to play teenagers.

Gary D.

I was a teenager (Sal Mineo's age, within a few days) when I saw Rebel Without a Cause--and Dean didn't look like anyone I'd seen in my high school corridors. He could fool older people, not we teens.

Young men seem to be able to get away with playing teens, sometimes well into their twenties. Take Robert Arthur, who was Edward VI's whipping boy, Barnaby, in 1953's Young Bess. Arthur was twenty-seven at the time and could have passed for seventeen. I think I covered him when I brought up Hurd Hatfield in Dorian Gray.

Then, you have unfortunates like Laird Creagor (sp?), who looked 45 when he was still in his twenties. Splendid actor, however.