If shes born on 9 October 1918, and the movie was shot in 1964, that means that she is only 46.........? WTF.... she looks clear over 65, is this makeup or what
even monkeys fall from trees
Lila Zedrova did look older than 46 in the film. However, 46 was about the right age for the Madame Hortense character in the film. The events in the film were supposed to take place after the First World War - perhaps around 1920. Dame Hortense's story about her pleading the three admirals not to fire on the Cretans ("Please no boom boom!") was presumably a reference to the revolt in Crete in 1895. So if Hortense was 25 in 1895 (give and take a few years), she should be around 50 when Zorba and Basil came to the village.
She was definitely not meant to be 60 or 65. In the book, she tried to charm both the narrator ("Basil" in the film) and Zorba but finally settled for the latter. Given that "Basil" was 35, it was not likely that she thought that he might be attracted to a woman 30 years older.
Dame Hortense probably looked older than her age, especially taking into account what she had been through.
It was makeup, because I have seen her in other films from the '60s where she was quite attractive and younger looking.
No blah, blah, blah!