MovieChat Forums > Marathon Man (1976) Discussion > Wasn't Hoffman a bit old to be a student...

Wasn't Hoffman a bit old to be a student?

posted 13 years ago by rishi85
14 replies | jump to latest

It is the first time I am making one of these "age" threads because by my own philosophy "it's just a number so stop thinking" I find them offensive. However is it just me or was Dustin Hoffman-nearing 40 at the time- a tad bit overage to be a college student? Again he does look young(but not teenage young) and he was supposed to be a graduate working on a thesis or something but can someone clear it out for me here.

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[–] rnlol 13 years ago

He's a postgraduate working on a doctoral thesis.

He mentions at one point that his father has been dead for 20 years, and if I had to guess his age in the flashbacks to his father's death I'd say he seems to be about 10 or 11, which would put him in his early 30s working on his PhD, which is about right.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] rnlol 13 years ago

Yeah, Hoffman was in his late 30s, but the character was in his early 30s at the most.

[–] ancatdoh 13 years ago

I would be asking some serious questions about myself if at the age of 39 I was living in that untidy apartment.
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If you were working on a PhD at Columbia, you'd be congratulating yourself you had your own apartment near Columbia, didn't have to commute 45 minutes both ways on the subway and that didn't you share it with 4 or 5 roommates.

His place was typical upper west side near Columbia in the mid 1970s and about what you'd expect for a grad student who wasn't independently wealthy.

[–] movies789 11 years ago

As a boy, coming off the tree-swing when his father shot himself, young Babe looked to be about 8 years old, give or take a year or two. When Doc died in his apartment, Babe told the cops his father had been dead for 20 years. So, 38-year-old Dustin Hoffman was portraying a character who was about 28.

[–] buchan1965 10 years ago

Absolutely not too old.

He was a doctoral student, and not everyone goes to grad school right after earning their bachelors degree. Some people wait several years, then go back for a masters, then wait a few years more before going for a PhD. Sometimes, life gets in the way of doing it all in one shot.

I got my BA @21, went back for an MA @35, and now, @48 I'm headed back for the PhD, and there are several people older than me in the program…..and one of them is a grandmother! :-)

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Adversity does not build character. It reveals it.

Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt

[–] maxtshea 10 years ago

My father got his PhD in American history when he was in his early fifties. People go back to school and get degrees at all kinds of ages.

I also find it depressing how judgmental people are about what everybody SHOULD be doing and at what age. Too many conservatives.

[–] Noir-It-All 10 years ago

When I graduated from college in 1975 few students were going on to earn their masters degrees unless they had to to become a health professional, etc.

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[–] rrb 10 years ago

I agree a younger actor would've been more appropriate. But the film was set in the period in which it was released - the mid-70s - and Babe's father was a victim of McCarthyism. Babe is shown at about age 7 seeing his dead father. So he would've been born in the mid-40s. So having the character in his 30s isn't unrealistic.

[–] Jefbecco-1 9 years ago

In the DVD extras there is footage of Hoffman doing improve with Keller and Scheider to develop the characters. Part of Babe's backstory is that he was in Vietnam. So the age thing was obviously something that Hoffman was thinking about as well.

[–] shepardjessica-1 9 years ago

Actors usually play younger than their characters are in films. Hoffman was 30 in The Graduate.

[–] Tommen_Forever 8 years ago

Some people get PhDs as late as their 40s and 50s, so no, he isn't too old to be working on a doctoral degree.

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[–] ATG6 (3000) 2 years ago

He doesn't look like a marathon runner either.

[–] christomacin (4655) 5 months ago

Did he at least look like a Man?