Then & Now: What These Older Celebrities Looked Like When They Were Younger

Hollywood has this tendency to decide, sometimes cruelly and sometimes generously, what a face is worth once it stops being young. For some, the experience hasn't been so much a steady climb as a series of exits and comebacks, a relentless back-and-forth between obscurity and fame that leaves the rest of us struggling to keep track of who's up, who's back, and who's who. When Isabella Rossellini was cut loose as the face of Lancôme at 43, replaced by an actor a dozen years younger, she asked a senior executive what she was supposed to do, and the answer, as she told The Guardian, was "I am not your wet nurse." Two decades later, she got her first Academy Award nomination for appearing in "Conclave."

So, it's not just about before-and-after gawking, fun as that is. The premise here is that some of these people got more successful or made a comeback after the industry wrote them off. And we've resisted the low-hanging fruit whenever possible — like '80s heartthrobs you won't recognize today. But that doesn't mean we won't give a nod to the Antonio Banderases and Sharon Stones of showbiz. Here are 10 household names in the entertainment industry and what they looked like when they were younger.

Nobody in the 1980s was prettier or more punished for it. When New York Magazine published a cover story in 1985 accusing the stars of "St. Elmo's Fire" of coasting on youth and partying harder than they worked, it saddled the whole cohort with a reputation that would outlast the movie. Lowe never let it get to him, though. He spent the years from 1999 onward on an enviable television streak, appearing in "The West Wing," "Brothers & Sisters," and "Parks and Recreation." He credits curiosity, spirit, and decades of sobriety with what he looks like. "It's shocking to me that I'm 60, but I feel 30," he told People.

For a particular stretch of the 1990s, Sharon Stone was about as famous as a movie star gets. The 1992 thriller "Basic Instinct" made her a global icon almost immediately.Martin Scorsese's "Casino" three years later proved the looks came with real acting chops. Then in 2001, at 43, a ruptured artery bled into her brain for nine days, and doctors gave her a 1% chance of pulling through. The tragic truth about Stone's health issues is that recovery was painfully slow, and caused her to lose her savings, but worse, the industry stopped calling. Sharon Stone still looks phenomenal whenever we catch a glimpse of her, and with a role in "Euphoria" season 3, it's safe to say she's staying very much in view.

Blair Underwood portrayed Jonathan Rollins, an ambitious attorney, for seven seasons on NBC's "L.A. Law." The Thursday-night juggernaut repeatedly drew in millions of viewers, and it turned Underwood into one of TV's most magnetic leading men. The looks were also never in dispute. He made People's 50 Most Beautiful People list in 2000, and the publication later included him in its roundup of the Sexiest Men Alive. Underwood is now much older than his fans remember him, but he's aged with grace and looks as sharp as ever, and arguably even more charismatic.

The most fascinating thing about the time Kim Basinger spent in the zeitgeist is how little she believed in it herself. When offered Domino Petachi opposite Sean Connery in 1983's "Never Say Never Again," she tried to talk the producers out of casting her. "I didn't ever think of myself as a sexual Bond thing," she told Variety in 2025. The rest of the world clearly didn't agree with her, because that role, together with her work in "Batman" and "9½ Weeks," turned her into one of the defining screen sirens of the era. Basinger's last prominent role was in the "Fifty Shades" film series, but her Oscar-winning turn in "L.A. Confidential" is still iconic — having handed her the statuette for how closely she resembled a screen goddess.

Isabella Rossellini was the face of Lancôme for 14 years, which, admittedly, is an eternity in a business that swaps muses like handbags. Then, in 1996, weeks before her 44th birthday, the brand let her go. Rossellini was a once-in-a-generation beauty, and she can still stop you cold on screen. Even Lancôme realized its mistake and asked her back, allowing her to return as a global ambassador at 63. There's no stopping Rossellini, because she scored her first Academy Award nomination in 2025, for her role as a nun in "Conclave." Then again, who would expect any less from Ingrid Bergman's daughter?

Brad Pitt's rugged handsomeness at 62 is the ultimate proof that some faces improve with a little weathering. Though it's not like there was much improvement required or even possible for a man crowned People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive twice. Pitt was so good-looking that for a while there, especially around the time of earlier roles like "Legends of the Fall," the looks threatened to be the whole story. That didn't turn out to be the case, and Pitt proved to be more than capable of carrying a scene with the best of them. He might have outrun that "pretty boy" image with time, but middle-aged Brad Pitt is only managing to lend new heights to the well-worn phrase "aging like fine wine."

For years, Andie MacDowell's dark curls were her signature — backed by a L'Oréal partnership that has run since 1986. During the COVID-19 lockdown, her roots came in. MacDowell's daughters told her she looked terrific, and despite reservations from her managers, she debuted her silver waves on the Cannes red carpet in July 2021. "It was something I've always wanted," she told InStyle in 2025. At 67, MacDowell is the most visible argument that going silver can read as glamour rather than surrender. MacDowell thought she'd look powerful, while her managers thought it would backfire. Time settled that particular disagreement rather cleanly.

Pedro Almodóvar first spotted Antonio Banderas during a Madrid stage performance. Hollywood turned him into Zorro after he'd spent most of the 1990s with a reputation as showbiz's designated Latin heartthrob. Banderas ended up ditching Hollywood because of a major health scare after having a heart attack in 2017 that required an operation. According to what he told The Associated Press, the incident left him feeling "raw." Almodóvar recognized it and advised him to channel it into his work. That ended up bagging him the Best Actor trophy at Cannes for his turn in "Pain and Glory," not to mention his first Oscar nomination after forty years of work. Banderas is now as magnetic as he was years ago, if a bit more rugged.

Sela Ward was arguably one of the most luminous women on 1990s television, not to mention one of the most talented. She bagged Emmys for her lead roles in "Sisters" and "Once and Again." Then a Bond casting director passed on her in 1995 with the note that he wanted Sela as she'd looked ten years earlier. Rather than just let it slide, she turned the insult into a film. Ward helped produce "The Changing Face of Beauty" documentary, wherein she pushed to call out the double standard. Discussing the work, she told Long Island Woman (per writer David Lefkowitz's blog): "Why in this culture do we not honor age and wisdom like other cultures do? Why are we so youth obsessed?"

Winona Ryder was a sensation in the late '80s and throughout the '90s, with roles in "Beetlejuice," "Heathers," "Edward Scissorhands," and "Bram Stoker's Dracula." That ambitious run was cut short after a shoplifting arrest in December 2001, followed by a conviction and a retreat that lasted years. By the time she was ready to work again, she told Time, her reaction was, "Oh, where did everyone go?" Despite it all, Winona Ryder has undergone a stunning transformation, and thanks to Netflix's "Stranger Things," a whole new generation of people got to know her and appreciate her acting chops, not to mention her on-screen grace.