During your childhood, do you remember famous old actors in their final films?

[toddly6666]

As a child I remember being aware that there used to be big famous stars that were popular before my time and I had a sort of sad feeling seeing their final films or just the trailers for them. Does anyone remember this feeling as in "you had a feeling they used to be big stars (or maybe our parents told us about them
being popular in the old days) and you could tell that it felt like their last big theatrical release as in their last chances of stardom? Or in other words, there were some actors we were aware of as children but only really were aware of them as being old, not young. Here are some of the movies/trailers that I remembered seeing with that feeling:

1. Tough Guys with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas
2. 2010 with Roy Scheider
3. The Black Stallion with Mickey Rooney
4. Psycho 3 with Anthony Perkins
5. Death Wish 4 with Charles Bronson
6. The Boys From Brazil with Gregory Peck, Lawrence Olivier and James Mason
7. Clash of the Titans with Lawrence Olivier
8. Iron Eagle sequels with Louis Gossett Jr.

[Buscemi]

The Douglas/Lancaster film was Tough Guys. Wise Guys was the Brian De Palma comedy from the same year with Danny DeVito and Joe Piscopo.

Two I recall from the fourth year of my life:

- Street Fighter and Down Came a Blackbird being promoted as the final films of Raul Julia.
- Trading Mom being Andre the Giant's final film.

John Candy also had some posthumous films around that time but I didn't know he died until a few years after.

And a few years later, Almost Heroes and Dirty Work were the final films of Chris Farley (I still remember NBC Nightly News breaking the story about his death). Though in Dirty Work's case, the marketing kept Farley's role a secret (along with the Adam Sandler cameo).

[toddly6666]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

The Douglas/Lancaster film was Tough Guys. Wise Guys was the Brian De Palma comedy from the same year with Danny DeVito and Joe Piscopo.

Two I recall from the fourth year of my life:

- Street Fighter and Down Came a Blackbird being promoted as the final films of Raul Julia.
- Trading Mom being Andre the Giant's final film.

John Candy also had some posthumous films around that time but I didn't know he died until a few years after.

And a few years later, Almost Heroes and Dirty Work were the final films of Chris Farley (I still remember NBC Nightly News breaking the story about his death). Though in Dirty Work's case, the marketing kept Farley's role a secret (along with the Adam Sandler cameo).

Thanks, I always mixed up Wise Guys and Tough Guys!

[Optimus-Prime-Rox]

Vincent Price in Edward Scissorhands.

Was Rocky 5 or Grumpier Old Men Burgess Merideth's final film?

[toddly6666]

i guesa final can also include their final film before dying, but I was thinking of final films before either retiring or before doing B-movie/tv movies.

[Abby is Q]

The Island of Dr. Moreau

Not because Marlon Brando retired shortly after, but because even as a ten-year-old watching that in the theater I knew Val Kilmer's career was dead.


edit - Just a bizarre coincidence... I looked up the movie on IMDB and today marks the 20th anniversary since its release! How fitting that I unknowingly make a post about how terrible it is.

[Moviefan2k4]

I remember Burt Lancaster as "Doc Graham" in Field of Dreams.

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by Optimus-Prime-Rox

Vincent Price in Edward Scissorhands.

I loved that one, too.

Was Rocky 5 or Grumpier Old Men Burgess Meredith's final film?

The latter.

[The Great Owl]

When I was a kid, one of my favorite movies was The Earthling, which was William Holden's final role.

[Ray Jackson]

I remember watching John Holmes' final performance in The Devil in Mr. Holmes when I was in grade school.

It was an emotional experience.

He was clearly not what he once was.

And was gone soon after that.

...mourn you til I join you big guy.

[Show spoiler]

[qb2333]

Funny Ray. ^^^

I remember Perter Sellers in Being There. Didn't get how good it was till years later.

[UltraMario9]

Sean Connery in The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Michael Jeter in The Polar Express and Jurassic Park III