Happy Birthday to Abe Vigoda

[Elmont]

  Abe Vigoda turned 88 today. Happy birthday Abe and many more.

[Annie]

HAPPY B-DAY ABE AND MANY MORE !
                Love Anne

[The Doctor and K9]

It's odd to realize that the man who played the "very old" Mr. Braithwaite was only about 1 or 2 years older than I am now.  He only has a few years on Frid as well.

[dom]

Sobering, isn't it?

Happy belated birthday, Abe.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Though let's not forget that much of "very old" Mr. Braithwaite's look was achieved with makeup. In fact, Abe looks better today than he ever did on DS. And it's not like many actors haven't played roles that are decades older than themselves. And most importantly, it's not like any of us actually look like Mr. Braithwaite. At least I hope not. 

[The Doctor and K9]

Of course it's true that Braithwaite's advanced age was simulated through makeup.  My post was really commenting on two ideas.  First, as a kid, my friends and I thougt of certain people as OLD.  For example we thought Dr. Smith on Lost in Space was OLD].  In reality, Jonathan Harris was just over 50.  I thought of Professor Robinson as played by Guy Williams as being relatively young, yet he was closer in age to Harris than he was to Mark Goddard (Don West).  When I started watching Barney Miller, Fish seemed pretty ancient, and yet he's not that much older than Barney, Hal Linden. 

The second thing I was kind of obliquely commenting on is how are perceptions of age change.  As a kid, 46 seemed pretty old. In fact I've have been surprised to learn that Guy Williams was almost that old during Lost in Space.   I certainly don't feel old now.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And yet some perceptions never seem to change. Case in point: when watching DS nowadays several fans, myself included, continue to almost always think of almost all the DS characters as being older than themselves when, in fact, they're almost all younger. Of course, that stems from the fact that when we originally watched DS as children, the characters were older, and that perception is still ingrained in our minds despite the actual passage of time. But this is a topic about Abe Vigoda's birthday, so it's probably best to not say anymore about that type of perception here.