Age of Actors - Blackboard Jungle (1955) Discussion

[–] Kanamit99 17 years ago

No, not really because the actors you mentioned were young looking.

In Grease, the musical about High Schoolers, the age differences were more acute.

John Travolta was 24.
Olivia Newton-John was 30.
Stockard Channing was 34.

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[–] DJMan-51 16 years ago

Used to be, kids could be "held back," i.e., not promoted for bad grades or conduct. When I was a teacher, I had a few kids pushing 20 in junior high. I suspect that New York thugs of the 1950s might be around until adults or until their seat was needed.

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[–] jtr_erwin_rommel 16 years ago

I went to school with some real self-inflated fool and he was 20 in his senior year. There were PGs (Post-Grads) who were in their early twenties almost every year I was there. I suppose the actors are old, but I feel that many "high school" movies star people who are older than they actually are. On the other hand, B movies tend to employ of-age people for such films.

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[–] rondine 12 years ago

Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller's Day Off was 24.

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[–] SaltyD3954 16 years ago

I thought Sydney Poiter was entirely believable as a highschool student. He looked young enought but Vic Morrow looked really old. It actually bothered me quite a bit during the movie because he looked like he was like 30. He also reminded me of the people from the episode of the Twilight Zone where there was a lady with her face in bandages because she was apparently hideous and when she took the bandages off she looked normal but all of the doctors looked really weird but she was the weird one. He reminded of the doctors, no offense intended, I just thought his mouth was similar.

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[–] teevee 16 years ago

^Vic Morrow was a great actor and he was great in this movie.

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[–] toshguy 15 years ago

And it's interesting that only ten years after playing a juvenile delinquent who is eventually set straight by his teacher, Poiter plays the teacher in "To Sir, With Love" who does the same with young punks.

I'm here, Mr. Man, I can not tell no lie and I'll be right here 'till the day I die

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[–] saundersgirl 15 years ago

Yeah. "To Sir With Love" was like the perfectly cast sequel to Blackboard Jungle. You just knew that Poitiers character, after encouragement from Mr Dadier, had the potential to really change his life and make something of himself. Artie West, on the other hand, was a lost cause.

In regards to the ages of both Morrow and Poitier in their roles,
I also thought they looked a little too old to be high school kids.
But they acted their parts with such conviction, I think they did a pretty ace job overall and thus really launched their careers as actors.

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[–] Noirdame79 15 years ago

Some sources state that Vic Morrow was born as late as 1932, other sources, such as IMDB (and his headstone, I might add), list his year of birth as 1929. Some claim that Morrow was 22 in this role, others say 26. I would think that Paul Mazursky, who knew Vic very well from New York and worked with him later in a film Morrow directed, would know what he was talking about when he said that Vic was 25 during filming and 26 when the film was released (as Mazursky states on the DVD commentary). But who knows. Maybe the studio knocked a few years off of his age to make him seem younger to audiences.

It has also been claimed that Sidney Poitier was 30 when the film was shot. Has anyone noticed different birth years for Poitier from some sources?

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[–] sadie_beth_1124 15 years ago

Good point about being "held back" but there is a scene where Dadier refers to Miller (Poitier) as coming "of age after this term". So it doesn't apply here, maybe the other guys though.

"There's no such thing as an original sin."

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[–] bradford-1 14 years ago

Poitier was one of the few actors I've read about who initially lied about his age to make people think he was older. He usually said he was born in 1924, but he was really born in 1927.

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[–] craigballantyne2006 14 years ago

look at the breakfast club judd nelson, ally sheedy and emilio estevez were all in their 20's, anthony michael hall and molly ringwald were the ones of school age both 16-17

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[–] mp01 13 years ago

exactly what i was thinking! im not American. Grease was ridiculous but that was more light-hearted than this so i have less of an issue with that

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[–] OnlyRocknRoll 11 years ago

I agree. When 'teenage' movies were being made in the 50's and 60's they were alway played by older actors. Witness Steve McQueen in 'The Blob'. I don't think that teen parts were played by real teens until well into the 70's.

_______________________________________
"ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??!!"

Maximus Decimus Meridius

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[–] deforest-1 11 years ago

Actors actually aged 16 to 18 who are good enough to pull off the classic performances in Blackboard Jungle are few and far between. I can think of one: Leo DiCaprio. And he wasn't around at the time. For example, I don't know how old the actors playing the teens in Halloween (1978), including Jamie Lee Curtis, were, but I get the impression simulating sex and screaming their lungs out was about their limit at that stage of their career.

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