A Look At Stars From Decades Prior

Dec 16, 2020 by apost team

Everyone enjoys looking back at old photos of themselves and loved ones. It's fun to see what the people in our lives looked like when they were younger, especially if we didn't know them back then.

The enjoyment is the same as when we look at photos of celebrities when they were younger. It is always fascinating to see how the people we see in movies have developed over the years. We look back at the ‘then vs. now’ of 20 male actors to see their transformations.

Actor Morgan Freeman was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1937. After spending a few years in the United States Air Force, he pursued an acting career and never looked back.

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The 83-year-old has been nominated for an impressive five Academy Awards, winning one for Best Actor for his role in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby. His distinctive voice will always be remembered as ‘God’ in Bruce Almighty.

65-year-old Denzel Washington has received huge critical acclaim for his acting. He has done justice to real-life figures, portraying South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Cry Freedom in 1987 and Malcolm X human rights activist Malcolm X in Malcolm X in 1992.

He has won two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for his role in Glory in 1989, and Best Actor for his role in the thriller Training Day in 2001. He was born in 1954, in New York.

Robert De Niro reached his acting peak with his portrayal of the young Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's film The Godfather Part II, giving De Niro the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He was born in New York City in 1943. The 77-year-old first began acting when he dropped out of high school at the age of 16.

Kevin Costner stole hearts around the world with his roles in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991 and The Bodyguard in 1992. He has received two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

The 65-year old was born in 1955 in Lynwood, California, and also performs with his country-rock band Kevin Costner & Modern West. In 2019, he worked on his first-ever voice-over for the film The Art of Racing in the Rain, where he provided the voice of Enzo the dog.

Patrick Stewart is everyone’s favorite sci-fi actor. Born in 1940 in Yorkshire, England, he began his career by acting as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The 80-year-old is known for his roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek: The Next Generation film franchise and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men series.

62-year-old Kevin Bacon leaped onto our screens with parts in the musical-drama film Footloose in 1984 and the historical docudrama Apollo 13 in 1995.

He was born in 1958 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and took part in a state-funded five-week arts program to study in New York. Bacon received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003.

Michael Keaton was born in Pennsylvania in 1951. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in the black comedy film Birdman for which he was also nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award.

The 69-year-old also received praise for his portrayal of the protagonist superhero in Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns.

68-year-old Jeff Goldblum has always been a heartthrob since he hit our screens in blockbusters such as Jurassic Park in 1993 and Independence Day in 1996. Born in 1952 in Pennsylvania, he is also a talented musician.

For any jazz fans out there, his band, Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, released their first album, The Capitol Studios Sessions, in 2018.

Liam Neeson didn’t have a straight pathway into acting. After a stint playing football, a college degree, some teacher training, and work in a brewery, Neeson began theater work which developed into a full-time acting career. His performance in Shindler’s List saw him get nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Hailing from Ballymena in Northern Ireland, the 68-year-old star also became a cult hero after his role in the Taken trilogy.

64-year-old Tom Hanks was born in 1956 in California. Many see him as an American cultural icon and his popularity is international. He is one of only two actors to win two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor. 

His first was for his role in Philadelphia in 1993 and his second was for Forrest Gump in 1994. Hanks also provides the voice of Woody in the iconic Pixar film franchise Toy Story. His son, Colin, 43, has followed in his footsteps and is also an actor and the father-son duo have even starred together in The Great Buck Howard. Their resemblance is uncanny!

Veteran actor Jack Nicholson was born in 1937 in New Jersey. The 83-year-old holds quite an impressive record. He has twelve Academy Award nominations—eight for Best Actor and four for Best Supporting Actor—making him the most nominated male actor in Academy Awards history. Quite the accolade!

We’re sure no one will be able to forget his iconic performance in The Shining in 1980.

Daniel Day-Lewis was born in London in 1957. He is well-known for being a method actor, to such an extent that he remains in character throughout filming.

He announced his retirement in 2017 after winning Oscars for My Left Foot in 1990, There Will Be Blood in 2007, and biographical drama Lincoln in 2012. Is he happy about retiring? “Not yet. I have great sadness. And that’s the right way to feel. How strange would it be if this was just a gleeful step into a brand-new life. Now, I want to explore the world in a different way,” he told W Magazine. He will be sorely missed from our screens.

Sylvester Stallone rose to fame by playing the iconic role of Rocky Balboa in the Rocky film series. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor when he reprised the role for the Creed films in 2015.

The 74-year-old is a New York native and was a struggling actor before he hit stardom in 1976 with the first Rocky movie. His signature droopy jaw and unique style of speech are due to a minor paralysis incurred during birth, but it has made him who he is.

Al Pacino was born in 1940, in New York City. He has racked up an incredible number of awards and nominations, including nine Oscar nominations, winning one for The Scent of a Woman in 1993.

The 80-year-old has never been married, and after over four decades on our screens, he is showing no signs of slowing down, having recently starred in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman in 2019.

Samuel Leroy Jackson was born in Washington D.C. in 1948.  He originally wanted to study marine biology in college, but after joining an acting group he realized that’s where his heart was.

He overcame his stutter to become the icon of cult classic Snakes on a Plane and he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

George Takei was born in 1937. Not only is he best known for his roles in the voices of English characters in the dubbing of Japanese monster films, and his recurring role as Captain Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, but he has won multiple awards for his human rights and Japan-United States relations work.

Takei began acting in the late 1950s and is an active supporter of LGBT organizations.

77-year-old Christopher Walken was born in New York in 1943. He is best known for his 1978 role in The Deer Hunter where he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He was also nominated for the same award and won BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Awards for Catch Me If You Can, in 2002. While most stars are big on technology Walken recently said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, “I don't have a cellphone or a computer.”

People will know 78-year-old Harrison Ford as a national treasure for legendary roles in the Indiana Jones film series, Blade Runner and as Star Wars’ Han Solo, but he doesn’t just act.

He is also a qualified pilot and has even provided emergency helicopter services. He was born in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. According to the BBC, the actor is set to reprise his role as Indiana Jones which is said to be the fifth and final installment of the film franchise. We are sure superfans will be sad to hear this!

Richard Gere was born in 1949 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In his younger years, he garnered a lot of attention from fans for his charming looks, but his acting career has also been stellar.

After his role as Billy Flynn in the 2002 Academy Award-winning musical Chicago, he won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Some of his top films include Pretty Woman and An Officer and a Gentleman. You may not know this, but he also played and composed the theme song to Pretty Woman on the piano! An all-around talent!

Do you know anyone who looks better with age? Let us know your thoughts and share this with anyone who wants to see what their icons looked like in the past, compared to now.