The Beverly Hillbillies: Irene Ryan Was Shockingly Young When She Played Granny - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 04-21-2024, 07:28 PM

https://screenrant.com/how-old-was-i...y-hillbillies/

Considering Granny's age in The Beverly Hillbillies and the year Irene Ryan was born, many wonder, "How old was Irene Ryan when she played Granny?"

SarahBellum · 04-22-2024, 11:26 AM

Kind of similar to the old lady on Golden Girls who was actually about 20 years younger than her character on the show.

Duster76 · 04-29-2024, 11:18 PM

We covered this same topic a little over a month ago! Let's start here:

"Granny, who has strong feelings about the Civil War and other 19th-century events, is supposed to be in her 80s".

No she's not, her age was discussed in an episode of the series.

I'm going to repost the information from the post of 3/9.

Ryan was 60 years old when the series began, there's nothing young about that. Wasn't Henning considering Bea Benaderet for the part, she was four years younger than Ryan!

Early in the show's run there was an episode where Granny had a line that went something like this, in all my 71 years..... . So when the show started she was 71. But to be honest that doesn't matter, casting older people to play younger people, or younger people to play older people was done all the time. It happened on two of Henning's shows. Elly May was somewhere in her late teens, Donna Douglas was 30 years old when the series started. Eleanor Audley played Eunice Douglas, Oliver's mother on Green Acres, she was 5 months older than Eddie Albert in real life. Lorne Greene was 44 when Bonanza started, he was 13 years older than the actors who played his sons Adam and Hoss. Based on what the expectations for the Granny character, there is no way anyone would be looking for an actress in their 70's to play the part.

04-21-2024, 07:28 PM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 127,102	The Beverly Hillbillies: Irene Ryan Was Shockingly Young When She Played Granny https://screenrant.com/how-old-was-i...y-hillbillies/ Considering Granny's age in The Beverly Hillbillies and the year Irene Ryan was born, many wonder, "How old was Irene Ryan when she played Granny?"

04-22-2024, 11:26 AM	#2
SarahBellum Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Sep 15, 2007 Location: Cleveland, OH Posts: 3,874	Kind of similar to the old lady on Golden Girls who was actually about 20 years younger than her character on the show.

04-29-2024, 11:18 PM	#3
Duster76 Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 01, 2008 Location: New jersey Posts: 1,657	We covered this same topic a little over a month ago! Let's start here: "Granny, who has strong feelings about the Civil War and other 19th-century events, is supposed to be in her 80s". No she's not, her age was discussed in an episode of the series. I'm going to repost the information from the post of 3/9. Ryan was 60 years old when the series began, there's nothing young about that. Wasn't Henning considering Bea Benaderet for the part, she was four years younger than Ryan! Early in the show's run there was an episode where Granny had a line that went something like this, in all my 71 years..... . So when the show started she was 71. But to be honest that doesn't matter, casting older people to play younger people, or younger people to play older people was done all the time. It happened on two of Henning's shows. Elly May was somewhere in her late teens, Donna Douglas was 30 years old when the series started. Eleanor Audley played Eunice Douglas, Oliver's mother on Green Acres, she was 5 months older than Eddie Albert in real life. Lorne Greene was 44 when Bonanza started, he was 13 years older than the actors who played his sons Adam and Hoss. Based on what the expectations for the Granny character, there is no way anyone would be looking for an actress in their 70's to play the part.