Who profits from being old ?

In our society, only stage and screen actors can earn a great deal of money for 'appearing' to be old and these days, some of them who are old, still get paid a lot of money because they are old.

Orson Wells was 25 when he played, with the help of facial prosthetics and make up, the seventy eight year old newspaper magnate, Charles Foster Kane in 1941, expiring with the enigmatic words, " Rosebud", on his lips.

Charlton Heston was 33 when, in 1956, he played with the help of grey hair and beard, the Old Testament Prophet, Moses, in 'The Ten Commandments'.

Dustin Hoffman was 33 when, in 1970, he played, with the help of facial prosthetics, the, over one hundred year, old Jack Crabbe - the only survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Kate Winslett was 22 when, in 1997, she played the ancient Rose DeWitt Bukator, again with the help of prosthetics - the only living survivor from the Titanic disaster.

Marlon Brando was 48 when he played the ageing Mafia don, Vito Corleone, in the 1972 film, 'The Godfather'. His distinction was that, while the other four 'played' at being old, Brando 'was', with help of simple tissues, stuffed inside his cheeks and his slow speech and deportment, convincingly old. When you are in that 'old' category, you can recognise the genuine thing.