Was Stephanie Beacham so young for her role?

[Mister Frank]

I mean, she looked like Charlton Heston's granddaughter. She looked the sister of Tracy Sconggins, Claire Yarlet and Maxwell Caulfield. She was even almost 15 years younger than Joan Collins. And her character, Sable, was supposed to be older than Katherine Ross', but she was really 7 years younger than Katherine. Even she was younger than Michael Nader or Gordon Thompsom and hardly older than John James.
I mean, it was a casting mistake to pass Stephanie as an older woman when she was in her 30s when she did the series.

 

[Mister Frank]

They should have got somebody older. It was hard to believe in Stephanie as an older woman or a woman a little bit younger than Alexis. Even Linda Evans was older than her.

 

[GillesDenver]

She was 38 in season 1 but with some make up and thanks to her husky voice, she looked like 45. It was very easy to believe she was much older.

 

[Mister Frank]

She was 38 in season 1 but with some make up and thanks to her husky voice, she looked like 45. It was very easy to believe she was much older.

I didnt believe that for any moment. Despite her voice, she looked her real age. A very young woman trying to pass for somebody older.

 

[GillesDenver]

Well, it's the first time I read that about Stephanie Beacham on "The Colbys". Barbara Bel Geddes and Joan Collins were also too young to be Larry Hagman and Gordon Thomson's mothers and yet nobody complained because it worked.

 

[tommie]

Beacham worked perfectly well for me in the role, so no.

 

[Mister Frank]

She worked well in the role in terms of personality. Not in terms of age.
I could believe in Barbara Bel Gedes larry hagman's mother. I couldnt belive in Joan Collins being Gordon Thomson's mother neither. And I couldnt believe On Stephanie Beacham being an older woman. I could belive in her behaving and personality, because she is a very good actress. But not in her look. It was a young woman playing to be older, and it didnt work for me in all terms.
And it was even worse or more unbelievle than Joan and Gordon case. Barbara and larry case not problem for me.

 

[GillesDenver]

Barbara and larry case not problem for me.

And yet Barbara Bel Geddes was only 9 years older than Larry Hagman...

 

[Sarah]

Was there not talk of Francesca and Jeff back in the day? It was the least believable from the small amount I’d seen of the show.

Should this title be ‘too’ young?

 

[Tony]

Stephanie recounts that it was the first thing that Aaron Spelling said to her when she walked across his shag carpet - "You're a lot younger than I expected".

To which she replied, "Yes, but I can be very old." She got the part and like Joan, it was perfect casting.

 

[Alexis]

She was perfectly cast and what she looked like was a very well kept and glamourous millionaire's wife who had access to all the finer things in life. She looks very different and much younger and a different kind of fashionable in Connie which she had just done in the UK before The Colbys. In Connie she looks more edgy and youthful her hair is a little wilder but she still has great '80s outfits, it's about the rag trade in England. I think the reason she works so well on The Colbys is how they styled her. Her hair is very quaffed, the make up and nails were very done. She wore jewellery that a woman in her early 30s wouldn't wear. It was all very put together. Then her characterisation of Sable was pitch perfect. She didn't act or behave like a woman in her 30s. It was all played much older. Her voice and diction and how she carried herself. Beacham was one of the finest casting coups in the Dynasty universe.

 

[Alexis]

Also I need to add that look at how Blake looked opposite Krystle, and even Alexis. Much older, and that is just a convention that these shows used and often still do. A rich and powerful older man and his somewhat younger beautiful wife. It just worked and it is often the case in the real world too when you look at rich older men and who they are married to. Even at that, in the 1950s and 1960s it wasn't unusual for a woman to marry a much older man. My grandfather was almost 20 years older than my grandmother!

 

[GillesDenver]

I forgot the smoky eyes she has in EVERY scene, even when she wakes up !

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

What year was she supposed to be born?

Even at that, in the 1950s and 1960s it wasn't unusual for a woman to marry a much older man.

And marrying at 17 was common. Today, I guess that's a form of marital rape?

 

[Alexis]

What year was she supposed to be born?

I have no idea but in my head canon she's about the same age as Alexis, maybe a couple of years younger. Going by the fact that Miles and Monica are seemingly Fallon's age or very close to it. My head canon also has Alexis and Sable studying art together and possibly having a little flit around Europe where they both did some painting and of course Alexis became an artists model.

And marrying at 17 was common.

When I inquired about the age gap between my fathers parents I was told that my grandfather wanted to have a house and a car and be earning enough money to support a wife and children. My grandmother didn't work officially until the 1970s when her children were older and then she did some bookkeeping. It was just so different then. I think she was around 17 when she met him and he was in his early 30s. Horribly she died very young in 1987 and he lived well into his 90s and died around 2006.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Alexis would have to have been born circa 1937.

I tend to view Monica and as younger than Fallon and Jeff -- could the Colby twins have been born as late as 1961?

 

[Alexis]

Alexis would have to have been born circa 1937.

I tend to view Monica and as younger than Fallon and Jeff -- could the Colby twins have been born as late as 1961?

Why not? Say that Fallon and Jeff are a year or two older. If Miles and Monica were born in 1961 then they are about 25 on The Colbys. Meaning Monica is late 20s in season 9 which would sit well with me thinking Jeff/Fallon are around 30 at that time.
I think rough ideas on age are ok in a soap as a year isn't really a TV season.

 

[tommie]

I've always ended up putting Monica and Miles as 25 when The Colbys started, so I think they were born circa 1960.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

So if Sable ("I wasn't even 20!") married at 17 to Jason, she could have been born ~1942 or '43?

 

[tommie]

So if Sable ("I wasn't even 20!") married at 17 to Jason, she could have been born ~1942 or '43?

I kind of end up putting Sable as being born circa 1941 - for whatever reason I feel as if she was 47 when season 9 started. I have no real reasons for believing that.