The most ridiculous parent/child casting was on Y&R when John O'Hurley (born 1954) played father to Peter Barton (born 1956). It was having mostly gray hair that made John O'Hurley look older than he actually was.

Jed Allan (1935) was 15 years older than Lane Davies (1950), who played his oldest son, Mason, on Santa Barbara. Marj Dusay, (1936) who played Mason's mother, was only 14 years older than Davies. But the most ridiculous age difference - or lack thereof - was Karen Moncrieff (who would ironically join SB a few years later!), born in December 1963, playing the MOTHER of Charlotte Ross' Eve on Days. Ross was born in January 1968. So only a 4-year age difference!

Edited June 5, 20205 yr by Wendy

Another one is Tanya Boyd playing Celeste who was Lexie's mother on DAYS even though she is only seven years older than Renee Jones.

Edited June 5, 20205 yr by ReddFoxx

DOOL

Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie) was 7 yrs older than onscreen son David (Richard Guthrie)

 

AW

Victoria Wtndham  (Rachel) was 9 years older than onscreen son Richard Bekins (Jamie)

I always thought it was ridiculous to cast Lisa LoCicero as Dante's mother on GH. There is only a 9 year age difference but it looks like less.

 

Then GH gave Kate (Kelly Sullivan) that kid Trey (Eric Valdez) who is 2 years younger than her.

 

And finally when Claudia was revealed to be Johnny's mom.  SJB is 5 years older than BB.

Michelle Stafford  & Michael Graziadei
 

KKL & Jacob Young/Ashley Brown...

41 minutes ago, Aback said:

Michelle Stafford  & Michael Graziadei
 

KKL & Jacob Young/Ashley Brown...

Michelle is 14 yrs older than Michael

 

Sharon Case is 14 yrs older than Robert Adamson (Noah)

 

KKL is 18 years older than Jacob  and 15 years older than Ashley  Jones

6 hours ago, ReddFoxx said:

Another one is Tanya Boyd playing Celeste who was Lexie's mother on DAYS even though she is only seven years older than Renee Jones.

That surprised me when I learned that. Partially because Tanya Boyd always seemed so regal as Celeste that it made her seemed older, but also because Renee Jones looks about 15 or more years younger than her age.

I was surprised about Moss and McCook. I had no idea. Hagman and Bel Geddes on DALLAS are another example (9 years difference I think).

 

I feel like a lot of the examples are "ridiculous" only if you know the actors' ages. The majority of the audience doesn't look up/compare those. It's all about how those actors read on camera. I would've never guessed O'Hurley and Barton were basically the same age!

24 year old Peter Galman was cast as Tom Hughes in 1969. Eileen Fulton was 12 years older and Don Hastings was 11 years older than him.  

 

Barbara Berjer was quickly made a grandmother and great grandmother. Eileen talked about the people in the control booth saying they had to kill her off. After killing Barbara off, Eileen created the grandma clause in her contract. 

2 hours ago, carolineg said:

I always thought it was ridiculous to cast Lisa LoCicero as Dante's mother on GH. There is only a 9 year age difference but it looks like less.

 

Then GH gave Kate (Kelly Sullivan) that kid Trey (Eric Valdez) who is 2 years younger than her.

 

And finally when Claudia was revealed to be Johnny's mom.  SJB is 5 years older than BB.

 

Thank goodness Claws was dead when this was revealed so viewers got over it rather quickly because there is absolutely no way folks would not be distracted by how ridiculous it was.

Does anyone feel like growing up with soaps and SORASing has screwed up their ability to guess real people's ages? LOL I for one almost never get the age right.

49 minutes ago, ChitHappens said:

 

Thank goodness Claws was dead when this was revealed so viewers got over it rather quickly because there is absolutely no way folks would not be distracted by how ridiculous it was.

 

True, but the fact that she was dead made it utterly pointless too.  And Sonny revealing it to everyone was just gross and awful.

3 minutes ago, carolineg said:

 

True, but the fact that she was dead made it utterly pointless too.  And Sonny revealing it to everyone was just gross and awful.

 

Super pointless.  Felt like a last minute rewrite to give rise to something else.  

4 minutes ago, ChitHappens said:

 

Super pointless.  Felt like a last minute rewrite to give rise to something else.  

 

I can't remember what it really led to.  All I remember is feeling bad for Johnny even though he was sleeping with Connie/Kate and Carly at the time lol.  I wonder if it was a swipe at SJB since she didn't have the best things to say about her stint as Claudia after it was over.