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The Wilford Brimley Meme That Helps Measure Tom Cruise’s Agelessness

Tom Cruise was about to turn thirty-one when “The Firm,” the film adaptation of John Grisham’s best-selling novel , hit theatres. In the movie, Cruise plays a hotshot boy wonder just out of Harvard Law, who takes a job as an associate attorney at a law firm that turns out to be washing money for the Mob. In a pivotal scene, he has a meeting with the firm’s fixer, played by Wilford Brimley, during which he is blackmailed with a series of incriminating photographs showing his character having an affair. The meaning of the scene is made clear by the disparities between the two men: Cruise, a young man, being let in on the slimy truths of the real world by Brimley, an old man. Later in the movie, Cruise beats Brimley up with a leather briefcase .

When “The Firm” came out, Brimley was fifty-eight years old—plodding, portly, with a gray walrus mustache, his grandfatherly mien in this case turned sinister. He was just two years older than Cruise is now, appearing boundlessly vigorous as the super-agent Ethan Hunt in the latest “Mission: Impossible” movie . Cruise has been very, very famous for the past thirty-five years, and in that time it’s been difficult to reconcile his unchanging appearance with the flipping pages on the calendar. It’s easier to track his movements through the six “Mission: Impossible” movies by his haircuts—short in No. 1, long in No. 2, short again in No. 3, etc.—or the size of his cell phone, than by changes to, let alone diminishments in, his face or body. He fixed his teeth years ago; he’s in better shape than ever. And so we are left to search for other ways to keep track of Cruise’s allegedly advancing years. Thankfully, the release of his latest summer blockbuster has resurfaced one of the surest methods: comparing him to his old scenemate Wilford Brimley.

This meme seems to have had its beginnings in 2011, when Cruise turned forty-nine, the same age that Brimley was when he began filming his role in Ron Howard’s movie “ Cocoon ,” from 1985, a kind of “E.T.” for the olds about a group of seniors living in a retirement community who are given the chance to live forever by leaving Earth on an alien spaceship. In the years since Cruise blasted through what I’ll call the Brimley Barrier, people online have continued to make the comparison between the two men, citing the fact that Cruise was a year, or two, or three years older than Brimley when he starred in “Cocoon.” Last month, a new tweet on the subject drew the attention of Brimley himself, who retweeted it and said, “This is still hard for me to believe.” Brimley, who is eighty-three, has settled into a late-life role as a meme machine , known among a younger generation less for his years of acting than for his role as the Quaker Oats pitchman, or for his pronunciation of the word “ diabetes ” as the television spokesman for Liberty Medical.

It’s hard to imagine Cruise ever talking about Medicare eligibility. On his way to sixty, he is literally still kicking (and punching and jumping and hanging and remembering his long-ago co-stars’ birthdays ), and doing so in a way that seems to go beyond the commonplace celebrity cosmetic trickery of the moment. He seems, in ways both inspiring and unsettling , to have figured something out. The comparison of Brimley and Cruise in middle age doesn’t just make light of the former’s premature fogeydom and the latter’s eternal youthfulness; it also highlights how the mores, signifiers, and very science of aging have changed—that sixty is the new fifty, which is the new forty, and so on. That Cruise is the new Brimley.

But in “ Mission: Impossible—Fallout ” there are a few fleeting signs that Cruise may be somewhat aware of the concept of aging. Even with the help of Henry Cavill, who, at thirty-five, is a year older than Cruise was in the first “Mission: Impossible” movie, Ethan Hunt cannot subdue a foe in an elaborate bathroom brawl. Later, Hunt pauses, a bit daunted and out of breath, before tossing an office chair through a window and then jumping out of it. And Hunt is succumbing to at least one unfortunate aging-man foible. As he grows older, his love interests are getting younger. Hunt’s ex-wife is played by Michelle Monaghan, who is forty-two; his new partner in love and mayhem is played by Rebecca Ferguson, who is thirty-four; and a likely contender for his affections going forward is played by Vanessa Kirby, who is just thirty.

Yet one needs merely to watch the latest movie’s stunning dénouement—a helicopter chase in Kashmir—to be reassured of Hunt’s still sure chokehold on father time, and to be reminded of the uncanny distances that Cruise is travelling beyond Brimley. In “Cocoon,” despite being reinvigorated by extraterrestrial intervention, the only athletic feat Brimley could manage was a boisterous cannonball off a diving board. Later in the movie, weighing the opportunity to leave with the aliens, Brimley’s character explains to his grandson, “We’ll never be sick. We won’t get any older. And we won’t ever die.” He decides, in the end, to go. Cruise, meanwhile, seems to have achieved the first two parts of that trifecta right here on Earth. And as for the last one, who’d be willing to bet against him?

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Wilford brimley, mustachioed star of meme and screen, dies at 85.

August 3rd, 2020 - 11:53 AM EDT by Matt Schimkowitz

2 comments | Contact Newsroom

Wilford Brimley, the star of Cocoon , commercials for Quaker Oats, and, of course, the thrust behind pronouncing diabetes "diabeetus," passed away in a hospital bed on Saturday at the age of 85.

According to his agent, Brimely suffered from a kidney ailment for the last two months.

With his thick mustache, round glasses and cantankerous, yet dulcet, droll, Wilford Brimley became a star in the 1980s, following a spate of guest spots on the 70s staple The Waltons . After a breakout performance in the 1979 nuclear cover-up thriller The China Syndrome , Brimley appeared in John Carpenter's snow-covered sci-fi masterpiece The Thing as the ax-wielding madman Dr. Blair.

Three years later, Brimley starred opposite Steve Guttenberg in Ron Howard's geriatric love alien fable Cocoon . The role would cement Brimley in the American consciousness as the cranky, bespectacled, and, yes, mustachioed grandfather of the cinema.

In a tweet, Howard paid tribute to the late actor, honoring Brimley's sternness and instincts.

RIP #WilfordBrimley We didn’t always see eye 2 eye but I owe this Cocoon scene to Wilfred who asked me to throw out the script & let him improvise while fishing w/the boy. I agreed & shot a few 3-camera set-ups & he was brilliant & honest in every take https://t.co/yADBwFxvdR … — Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) August 2, 2020

Brimley continued to work as an actor in films, such as the 1993 Tom Cruise vehicle The Firm , but he became equally notable for his commercial work. As the spokesman for Quaker Oats, he sold oatmeal with a taste of nostalgia and warmth. However, it was his Liberty Medical spots in the late 90s, warning customers about the dangers of "diabeetus," that made him a star online. The meme became an essential clip of early YouTube , YMTND and meme culture.

His bizarre pronunciation of the ailment gave him a second life online that he was all-too-eager to play into, with his final tweet, posted just hours before his death, referencing the meme.

Popular choices included: Under Quaker Brim-stone Killford Brimley The DIE-A-BEASTUS #WWE #WilfordWrestlingEntertainment https://t.co/IGWisnEKOx — Wilford Brimley (@RealWilfordB) July 31, 2020

Online, people mourned the loss of Brimley, the actor, the spokesman and the meme, a consummate entertainer of warmth, talent and good humor.

RIP Wilford Brimley. You go on home now. The diabeetus can't hurt you anymore. pic.twitter.com/5abkDx10g7 — eli (@_mrsoto518) August 2, 2020

Make the diabeetus jokes all you want but just know Wilford Brimley was a god damn MENACE in The Firm. Such an underrated actor pic.twitter.com/ZbFHQuAE5S — Paul Ehrsam (@PaulEhrsam) August 2, 2020

RIP Wilford Brimley. 💐 Sorry… I just looked at a cat and he said "Diabeetus". pic.twitter.com/Co0GfLkgEf — Ery De Jong 🐳 (@erydejong) August 2, 2020

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Rip to wilford "diabeetus" brimley - the world's first meme.

RIP to an entertainment legend, Wilford Brimley. Dead at the age of 85. Personally, I would have guessed he was about 185. I feel like hes been 85 since 1992, when I would see him on just about every commercial during daytime television. The older generation will know him from his actual roles in movies, but for anyone my age, you know him as the King of Commercials. Every time you stayed home from school sick, you'd watch the Price is Right and the People's Court and all that trash TV for old people and you'd see him doing 1 of 2 things: 

1) hawking oatmeal:

or, most importantly, 

2) Warning against Diabeetus

The man was so memorable and captivating, he was still able to leave his mark on the world while talking about the two most boring things ever - oatmeal and insulin. We didnt realize it at the time, but about 30-something years ago, Wilford Brimley was establishing himself as one of the world's first memes. The perfect level of fame, the perfect level of recognition, and the perfect level of unintentional humor to make sure that he would forever be joked about and remembered. He had a mustache that looked like a walrus while being named Wilford. Thats a little something I like to call "Serendipity," folks. And in perhaps the most unintentionally brilliant stroke of luck, the man just happened to say "diabetes" funny. Wilford Brimley's legend is about 10% Walrus Mustache, 80% Diabeetus. While everyone else on the goddam planet said "die-uh-bee-teez," Wilford sat down in a sweater vest and said "Diabeetus." And the rest, as they say, was history.

What ensued after that run of Diabeetus commercials could be truly be argued as the world's first meme. It was a quirky, unintentionally funny, relatable observation that you could reference and everyone would get it. The phonetic spelling "Diabeetus" was all over the original memes in the big white block letters:

There were remixes to his commercials:

There were Family Guy appearances, which for this generation was the universal symbol you had made it into the pop culture zeitgeist:

Wilford Brimley was just a gentle man, with a kind soul, an unusual name, a kickass mustache, and a funny way of pronouncing words. And when you add that all together, you get an absolute legend. A man that multiple generations would regard as an icon, all for different reasons. Goodnight, sweet prince. May you rest in peace.

PS - I'm sure you're thinking, "KFC you said 10% was Quaker Oats and 80% was Diabeetus…whats the other 10%?" Well I'll tell you what it is, you IDIOTS. You buffoons.You uneducated pigs. Obviously the other 10% was his role as Uncle Douvee in the sensational Jean Cluade Van Damme smash hit "Hard Target." Its an American classic based on the timeless novel "The Most Dangerous Game," about a group of men who hunt humans for sport. Wilford played JCVD's uncle, and helped him in the final showdown with the hunters which gave birth to this moment:

Wilford Brimley, on horseback, carrying a bow and arrow, with hellfire and brimstone raining down behind him. Absolutely fantastic. Its a phenomenal movie, and he plays a phenomenal character. All those action movies involving a "Man On Fire" type atmosphere where its one man who's burning it down and killing tons of fucking people out of principal or revenge always includes one wily old timer. One crafty veteran. He does things old school and honorably and lives by a code by also tears it down and fucks a LOT of people up. That was Wilford as Uncle Douvee down in the bayou. 

So yea, he was oatmeal and he was diabeetus. In the 80s he was in The Natural and The Thing and an alien movie called Cocoon. But lest we forget his contributions to Hard Target. It was the cherry on top of his iconic career. 

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The Tom Cruise/Wilford Brimley Conundrum

"That's right, Tom Cruise is the same age that Wilford Brimley was when Brimley starred as a grandfather in Cocoon " — as are George Clooney, Eddie Murphy and eight others featured in this new, head-exploding context. "[... I]t's not really a statement on the age of Cruise or the other people on this list — it's the fact that Wilford Brimley was only 49 years old when he starred as an elderly man who leaves Earth with a group of aliens in an effort to escape the specter of death. (His friends were played by the more age-appropriate 76-year-old Don Ameche, 75-year-old Jessica Tandy, 73-year-old Hume Cronyn, 76-year-old Jack Gilford; today, Brimley is still only 77 years old.)" [ Huffington Post ]

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Paul Rudd is Officially as Old as Wilford Brimley Was in ‘Cocoon’

The Brimley/Cocoon Line is 18,530 days, the exact age Wilford Brimley was when the movie Cocoon opened in theaters. If you don’t understand why this is significant, Cocoon is a movie about really old people in a retirement home. Brimley was not a retiree in the film, but let’s just say he was no spring chicken, either.

A Twitter account, @BrimleyLine, keeps track of when celebrities pass this line and yesterday, December 30th, was Paul Rudd’s day.

Born April 6, 1969, actor Paul Rudd ('Clueless,' 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin,' 'Anchorman,' 'Ant-Man,' 'Living with Yourself' & many more) is 18,530 days old today, matching Wilford Brimley's age the day 'Cocoon' was released. Congrats, Paul — you've reached the Brimley/Cocoon Line. pic.twitter.com/Dkt25Cxi5K — Brimley/Cocoon Line (@BrimleyLine) December 30, 2019

Here’s a picture of Brimley at age 50 for comparison.

How could this – be younger than I am RIGHT NOW?? Thank God this isn't what 40's-50's looks like anymore,, Bc 😱😬😳🤢 pic.twitter.com/I3mZs78B4j — Akauwela 🌺 (@AKauwela) December 31, 2019

Celebrities take way better care of themselves today.

Brimley even sent out a congratulatory tweet.

Brimley was 50 in Cocoon , if you’re wondering.

Salma Hayek crossed the line three years ago, and Jennifer Lopez is a few months away.

Also, Arnold Schwarzenegger crosses the line over 20 years ago, around the time he was in Jingle All The Way .

People love to joke about all the reasons why celebrities today look younger, like Paul Rudd being a vampire, but the answer is pretty unexciting: Botox was first used cosmetically in 1996 and approved by the FDA for this usage in 2002. They’re just getting more work done and doctors are better at it now because of all the practice they had on Joan Rivers.

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All of the Weird Things Tom Cruise Does in 'The Firm'

Backflips sweating weird eating ol' tom goes for it all in this exceedingly entertaining 1993 legal thriller..

The Tom Cruise that fascinated us in the early '90s is not the Tom Cruise that fascinates us today. Back then, Cruise was fresh off the critical and commercial success of A Few Good Men and married to Nicole Kidman, on his way (if not there already) to becoming the biggest movie star in the world. This was all before  the Oprah incident , " Matt, you're glib ," and the Scientology exposé,  Going Clear . In many ways, 1993's The Firm , a  legal thriller based on the best-selling novel by John Grisham, is the most snackable Tom Cruise film of all: aggressively familiar, momentarily enjoyable, and quickly forgotten.

But it's also weird. Really weird.

What exactly is so weird about Tom Cruise in The Firm ? The movie's plot doesn't waver too much from the nine essential Cruise plot elements, as defined by Roger Ebert:  The Firm has a Mentor (played here by a game Gene Hackman), a Superior Woman (Jeanne Tripplehorn), a Craft (tax law), a Proto-Enemy (Ed Harris), and an Eventual Enemy ( the firm itself! ), all arriving at various points during the movie's leisurely 154 minutes. But after multiple viewings, Cruise’s eccentricities as a performer rise to the surface. Some are small. Some are big. Some will cause you to question the nature of reality itself. Let's take a closer look.

He sweats too much

Everybody sweats -- even Tom Cruise. But isn’t it weird that a film about a law student opens with him drenched in Kevin Garnett levels of sweat out on the basketball court? This is the first image we get of Mitch McDeere, Cruise’s hot-shot lawyer character with an alliteration-happy Grisham name. The dialogue in this scene indicates he’s playing pick-up with an older professor, so again I ask: Why so much sweat? Chill, Maverick -- this isn’t beach volleyball. 

After the opening basketball scene, things go swimmingly for Mitch. Yes, he has to tend bar to bay Harvard Law bills, but he's also interviewing with all the top law firms, including the mysterious Memphis firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke, which will soon make him an offer he can't refuse, and dining on Chinese with his beautiful wife (there's no better shorthand for showing that someone is overworked than some white cartons of mu shu chicken). For the first nine minutes, this is a pretty normal movie about a sweaty lawyer.

And then this happens:

He does backflips with a kid on the street

WHAT WAS THAT? When I first saw this scene, I felt like the movie had just ripped off one of those Mission: Impossible face masks and revealed its true backflip-loving self. Seriously, what the hell? After the shock wore off, I felt betrayed: How come no one ever told me The Firm was a sick movie in which Tom Cruise does backflips on the streets with the youth of Memphis? What kind of garbage friends do I have who made me think this movie was some sub-par Pelican Brief knock-off? I took the DVD out and checked to see if I had rented the "extra backflips" special edition. Nope, just the plain old movie. 

Let's pause and think about how a scene like this ends up in a big Hollywood studio film based on a best-selling John Grisham novel. Is it in the book? Don’t think so. Do you think the director of the film, Oscar-winner Sydney Pollack, was like, "We need to get to know Mitch better as a character here -- how about a couple of backflips?" Unlikely. Was co-writer Robert Towne perched over his typewriter smoking a cigarette, wiping sweat from his brow and musing to himself, " Chinatown was pretty dope, but it would've been a lot better if Jack Nicholson had done some backflips after he got his nose cut!" Probably not.

The scene smells of Cruise tampering. It’s so easy to picture him pitching that scene in some point in the production. And speaking of smells, are those ribs?

He eats ribs

Maybe I’m in the minority on this, but I think it’s unnerving to see Tom Cruise eat ribs. He seems like he’d be more into vegetables, like his spiritual guide  L. Ron Hubbard . Following the ribs shot, the movie has an almost meta-moment where Mitch's wife voices some of her concerns about the firm employees’ odd behavior and southern-fried BBQ manners. "I don't mind square," she says. "I like square. Weird, I mind." Mitch, in all his shaggy dog Tom Cruise earnestness, looks up at her and says, "Weird? What do you mean weird?"

Note: That is an actual line of dialogue in the movie. I did not make it up for this piece.

He laughs like a crazy person

He's driving in car with his wife after a lawyer from the firm has died in a mysterious accident and he makes a joke about horses that is so lame I can't bear to type it all out for you here. It's a dad joke most dads would dismiss as hack. But, hey, we've all made lame jokes to break the tension. Not weird. You know what is weird? Laughing like an evil demon. 

He wears a sexy pirate shirt

Sartorially, The Firm isn’t peak Cruise fashion. It can’t touch the brilliant '80s excess of Cocktail or the shirt-with-your-name-on-it perfection of The Color Of Money . But it does have this billowy white number which makes it look like Mitch wandered off the set of Captain Ron .

He has sex on a beach with a woman with a sprained ankle

Given the cringe-worthy conceit of this scene, the writers actually do a decent job of justifying why Cruise’s character would cheat on his beautiful, kind, school-teacher wife with a prostitute who just sprained her ankle after fighting off her boyfriend. (In one of the movie’s more outlandish twists, she ends up being a plant put there by the firm to seduce Cruise.)

He shakes hands with Gary Busey

For a couple brief, glorious scenes, The Firm turns into a Coen Brothers film. You've got Gary Busey as a private investigator named Eddie Lomax who used to share a prison cell with Mitch’s convict brother (played by character actor extraordinaire David Strathairn). You’ve got Holly Hunter as Busey’s flirtatious secretary. You’ve got Tobin Bell from Saw playing a mulleted hitman right out of The Big Lebowski . You’ve got all the ingredients for an excellent hillbilly crime noir. Too bad Busey gets shot in the next couple scenes. RIP, Eddie Lomax. In my mind, you are the star of this movie.

He attacks his wife with whispers

We all know Tom Cruise can YELL A LOT. But did you know he can whisper? Shhhh… He can.

He fights a copy machine

The Firm is a tremendous movie about how tedious making copies can be. Like the paranoid 1970s thrillers it occasionally emulates, the movie has an uneasy and inscrutable relationship with technology. Characters are constantly worried that they are being recorded or photographed, but the good guys in the film use these methods just as much as the bad guys do, perhaps more so. At one point, Cruise records an explicit threat from Ed Harris’s FBI agent character and threatens to blackmail him with the recording. In fact, the movie’s convoluted climax is centered around mail fraud and making copies, suggesting that controlling the tools of bureaucracy may be the key to acquiring power. But, yeah, in this scene, Tom Cruise punches a copy machine because he’s trying to put his plan in motion.

He becomes too sad to do backflips

What’s Chekhov’s rule about the gun? If there’s a rifle hanging on the wall in the first act, it must go off in the second act. It’s the same thing with Tom Cruise movies and backflips. If Tom Cruise does a happy backflip with a child in the first act, there must come a point in the second act where he sees the same child doing backflips but is now too sad to take part in the fun. That’s just storytelling 101.

He runs past flowers

Now we’re talking. You know things are about to get weird in a Tom Cruise movie when he starts running through ornately decorated law firm offices. Look at him go! He’s powered by Xenu!

He almost knocks over an old lady

Watch out you old bag! TC is on the move! He can’t be stopped! Praise Xenu.

He jumps out a window onto a truck full of cotton

Nothing better than the old cotton truck trick. The bad guys never see it coming.

He kicks Hank from Breaking Bad in the knee

Speaking of bad guys, Dean Norris has small part in the film as "the Squat Man," one of the hitmen sent to track down Cruise. He doesn’t get to do as much talking as Hank used to do on Breaking Bad , but he does get beat up and then shot at the end in a standoff, so there are some Hank-like moments here. I don’t know why Tom Cruise chooses to kick him here when he could’ve just him with his briefcase. It’s almost like they were saving the briefcase for something...

He beats up Wilford Brimley with a briefcase

Oh, damn. That’s not only weird -- it’s cold. But to Mitch McDeere, it's the right thing to do . Here we find out that Mitch is capable of annihilating the dude from Cocoon with a briefcase. The movie goes on for about another 20 minutes after this scene and Paul Sorvino shows up as a mobster, maybe just so this movie could reach some sort of “that guy” actor quota. But the briefcase scene is the real climax of the movie. Briefcases play a special role in Tom Cruise’s filmography as anyone who has seen Michael Mann’s Collateral can attest. In that 2004 neo-noir, Cruise utters the iconic line, “Yo homie, is that my briefcase?” He then shoots the man who took said briefcase in head. Back in 1993, Cruise wasn’t that ruthless yet. He wasn’t going to let his freak flag fly quite so high, but, if you look at him beating up Wilford Brimley, you can see it fluttering in the wind.

He looks like a zombie by the end

Even after taking on the FBI, the Chicago mob and a firm of creepy Southern lawyers, Mitch McDeere still wants to practice law. He still believes in what’s right. And, honestly, I understand his perseverance. Even after all the bizarre things Tom Cruise has done, I still believe in him. 

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Wilford Brimley, "Cocoon" star and Quaker Oats pitchman, has died at age 85

Updated on: August 3, 2020 / 12:11 PM EDT / AP

Wilford Brimley, who worked his way up from movie stunt rider to an indelible character actor who brought gruff charm, and sometimes menace, to a range of films that included "Cocoon," "The Natural" and "The Firm," has died. He was 85.

Brimley's manager Lynda Bensky said the actor died Saturday morning in a Utah hospital. He was on dialysis and had several medical ailments, she said.

The mustached Brimley was a familiar face for a number of roles, often playing characters like his grizzled baseball manager in "The Natural" opposite Robert Redford's bad-luck phenomenon. He also worked with Redford in "Brubaker" and "The Electric Horseman."

Brimley's best-known work was in "Cocoon," in which he was part of a group of seniors who discover an alien pod that rejuvenates them. The 1985 Ron Howard film won two Oscars, including a supporting actor honor for Don Ameche.

Brimley also starred in "Cocoon: The Return," a 1988 sequel.

For years he was pitchman for Quaker Oats and in recent years appeared in a series of diabetes spots that turned him at one point into a social media sensation.

"Wilford Brimley was a man you could trust," Bensky said in a statement. "He said what he meant and he meant what he said. He had a tough exterior and a tender heart. I'm sad that I will no longer get to hear my friend's wonderful stories. He was one of a kind."

Barbara Hershey, who met Brimley on 1995′s "Last of the Dogmen," called him "a wonderful man and actor. ... He always made me laugh."

Though never nominated for an Oscar or Emmy Award, Brimley amassed an impressive list of credits. In 1993's John Grisham adaptation "The Firm," Brimley starred opposite Tom Cruise as a tough-nosed investigator who deployed ruthless tactics to keep his law firm's secrets safe.

John Woo, who directed Brimley as Uncle Douvee in 1993′s "Hard Target," told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 that the part was "the main great thing from the film. I was overjoyed making those scenes and especially working with Wilford Brimley."

A Utah native who grew up around horses, Brimley spent two decades traveling around the West and working at ranches and race tracks. He drifted into movie work during the 1960s, riding in such films as "True Grit," and appearing in TV series such as "Gunsmoke."

He forged a friendship with Robert Duvall, who encouraged him to seek more prominent acting roles, according to a biography prepared by Turner Classic Movies.

Brimley, who never trained as an actor, saw his career take off after he won an important role as a nuclear power plant engineer in "The China Syndrome."

"Training? I've never been to acting classes, but I've had 50 years of training," he said in a 1984 Associated Press interview. "My years as an extra were good background for learning about camera techniques and so forth. I was lucky to have had that experience; a lot of newcomers don't."

"Basically my method is to be honest," Brimley said told AP. "The camera photographs the truth — not what I want it to see, but what it sees. The truth."

Brimley had a recurring role as a blacksmith on "The Waltons" and the 1980s prime-time series "Our House."

Another side of the actor was his love of jazz. As a vocalist, he made albums including "This Time the Dream's On Me" and "Wilford Brimley with the Jeff Hamilton Trio."

In 1998, he opposed an Arizona referendum to ban cockfighting, saying that he was "trying to protect a lifestyle of freedom and choice for my grandchildren."

In recent years, Brimley's pitchwork for Liberty Medical had turned him into an internet sensation for his drawn out pronunciation of diabetes as "diabeetus." He owned the pronunciation in a  tweet that drew hundreds of thousands of likes earlier this year .

Brimley is survived by his wife Beverly and three sons.

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Tom Cruise And 9 Other Celebrities Old Enough To Star In 'Cocoon' (PHOTOS)

Senior Entertainment Writer, The Huffington Post

In the upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway hit "Rock of Ages," Tom Cruise plays rock icon Stacee Jaxx, a hard livin' rocker who enjoys booze and sex.

Juxtapose that with this favorite piece of trivia: at 49 years old, Tom Cruise is now also old enough to play the character of Ben Luckett in "Cocoon" -- a role Wilford Brimley made famous in the 1985 film.

That's right: Tom Cruise is the same age that Wilford Brimley was when Brimley starred as a grandfather in "Cocoon."

Yes, we've played this little game before , but it's still quite fascinating. And it's not really a statement on the age of Cruise or the other people on this list -- it's the fact that Wilford Brimley was only 49 years old when he starred as an elderly man who leaves Earth with a group of aliens in an effort to escape the specter of death. (His friends were played by the more age-appropriate 76-year-old Don Ameche, 75-year-old Jessica Tandy, 73-year-old Hume Cronyn, 76-year-old Jack Gilford; today, Brimley is still only 77 years old.)

So, in honor of Cruise's eternal youth (and Brimley's eternal grandfatherly looks), here are 10 people as old -- or older -- than Wilford Brimley was on the set of "Cocoon."

Mike Ryan is senior entertainment writer for The Huffington Post. He likes Star Wars a lot. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

[Brimley photo via Fox; Cruise photo via Warner Bros.; Carrey photo via AP; all others via Getty]

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Age Stereotypes in Advertising and Popular Culture

Last month, this meme juxtaposing Tom Cruise and Wilford Brimley’s ages made the internet rounds, leaving innumerable blown minds in its wake. For those who followed up with Wikipedia, it proved true: When he filmed “Cocoon” in 1984, Brimley was 50 years old; Tom Cruise filmed “Mission: Impossible—Fallout” at 55. The age comparison between the two men has been circulating for the past few years, updating essentially with every new “Mission: Impossible” release. But this time it rocketed around social media faster, perhaps because Cruise is now in his mid-50s yet still pulling off his own stunts. In “Cocoon,” Brimley’s character demonstrated renewed vitality by performing an impressive cannonball. Cruise’s Ethan Hunt spent his most recent mission engaging in sky dive chases and clinging to the side of an Airbus.

Let’s explore age stereotypes in advertising and popular culture and how we can do things differently.

Representation in Popular Culture vs. Advertising

Addressing age stereotypes in advertising and popular culture, strategies for change.

• Learning From the Meme: Bridging the Gap and Avoiding Age Stereotypes

Get Expert Help Avoiding Age Stereotypes in Advertising

This meme matters because of the disbelief it provokes—disbelief over how the face (and body, and actions) of “50-something” have changed in just a few decades. But that’s not because 55-year-olds today feel like Wilford Brimley. Studies show that, while not performing stunts, older adults resemble the active depictions of stars like Cruise, challenging age stereotypes in media. The disbelief, instead, is in large part due to representation.

However, “Mission: Impossible” and many other pop culture products feature celebrities 55+ in active roles. It’s advertising where the outdated representation hasn’t yet aged out, so to speak. Formal studies and casual observation of mainstream advertising still situate older adults firmly within a “Cocoon” paradigm of aging and deterioration. So is our industry a primary driver of the disbelief that fueled this meme? How can we close the gap between lived age and represented age for our audience members of Tom Cruise’s vintage and above? How can we avoid age stereotypes in advertising?

A note about terminology

(Two quick notes: I’ll use “older adults” to refer to individuals aged 55 and older. This is the age cut-off employed by a number of studies of this demographic. Plus, the two celebrities in the aforementioned meme were both in their early to mid-50s when filmed. Additionally, this article still commits the sin of lumping “older people” together in one cohort. This shouldn’t be the case considering the vast differences in a group that spans approximately 40 years. Further studies into differences between Baby Boomers and their preceding generations in advertising exist and are very valuable, but not addressed here.)

Age featured prominently in the press surrounding this summer’s release of “Mission: Impossible—Fallout,” notably in relation to Cruise doing his own stunts. He raced over cobblestones on motorcycles, jumped from airplanes, and held his breath underwater for a seemingly miraculous number of minutes. When he broke his ankle during filming, members of the media went berserk. Despite that stumble, the movie opened to mostly rave reviews and audiences awestruck by his energy. The New York Times ‘ review hailed the film for that quality even in its title, calling out the “Hyper-Human Tom Cruise.”

Changing narratives and consumer perception

Much emphasis was placed on Cruise’s apparent cheating of old age Yet, numerous other film stars and celebrities in recent years have demonstrated their vitality over 55 in the public sphere. Denzel Washington and Liam Neeson are helming big-budget action films past 60. Madonna and Janet Jackson both headlined major tours in their 50s. Major primetime staples like “NCIS,” “Chicago PD,” and “Law & Order: SVU” all feature casts led by 50+ actors who don’t just sit behind desks at the station but get out and kick ass.

These portrayals of men and women of advanced age keeping up with their younger counterparts exist throughout contemporary popular culture. Except, that is, most advertising. “In their portrayal of older adults,” explain Shyon Baumann and Kim de Laat, “advertising relies on characters that almost never deviate from a narrow range of age-specific behaviors in a straightforward way” (23). These aren’t often explicitly insulting, but are far from liberating. The narrow range exists mostly within the antiquated “Cocoon” universe that contemporary older adults (and certainly older celebrities) never wrapped themselves in.

This is important because advertising, unlike narrative fiction such as cinema and television or celebrity coverage, claims to relate to and serve the real world. These forms of media exist at a distance from “everyday” people. However, advertising aims to connect directly with them. If the portrayals of populations in ads are limited and outdated, they cannot change perceptions or cultural schemas about those populations. Limited depictions of entire generations hobble understanding of those demographic groups for those outside them. Additionally, even people within the demographic being represented then potentially struggle to relate their own wants, needs and abilities to perceived hegemonic, “proper” places and positions in society.

The source of these limited and troubling depictions is the inherently antithetical relationship between aging and American advertising. The industry traditionally plays on aspirational prompts to purchase, yet old age is most often devalued by our culture. “Advertisers manage the devaluation of old age through overall underrepresentation of older adults and by omitting older adults from straightforwardly aspirational advertising,” explain Baumann and Laat (14). The industry’s attitude toward older adults is demonstrated by its two main means of addressing them: denigration or disavowal.

Numerous recent studies analyzing portrayals of older adults in advertising found that individuals in this demographic are seen far less frequently than younger consumers (older women are notably absent), and that those who do appear fall within strict parameters. Aging adults, Baumann and Laat explain, are often framed as having “old” as a condition. “Old” makes them comic or wise, or burdens them with something to fix via medication, supplements, retirement communities, or some other commodified solution. These schemas are far from new. However, that very absence of change is precisely why the industry needs to take a new approach to portraying the 55+ demographic. As put by Lauren Crichton in a recent Ad Week call, “It’s time for advertising to stop perpetuating negative stereotypes about aging.”

Embracing age in advertising

Beyond the general underrepresentation of older adults in advertising, even when ads feature Baby Boomers and older generations (or products for them), there is a pervasive avoidance of aging. Again, this relates to American culture’s general discomfort with and disavowal of aging. Avoidance takes two notable forms: younger representation and agelessness.

The “mask of aging” hypothesis —that older people think of themselves as younger than they are—explains why marketers use relatively young models to sell self-image-related products to older consumers, with an “underlying assumption being that the bait of youth will lure the older generation” (Crichton). Even for products marketed to explicitly combat the ramifications of aging, the models and actors are often demonstrably younger than the target consumer.

“Agelessness” in advertising is an outgrowth of that mask of aging theory, representing older adults as younger than realistic or not calling attention to age at all. Anne L. Balazs sees this as a potentially empowering transition in advertising, serving the desire of the aging population to make the process invisible. Agelessness could then be seen to be self-affirming. However, it runs the risk of disempowering older adults as their own identity category when represented by models and actors a decade or more younger. This then circles back to erasure as ageism.

Learning from the Meme: Bridging the Gap and Avoiding Age Stereotypes

So what can our industry learn from the Tom Cruise/Wilford Brimley meme and avoid age stereotypes in advertising? For one, note the disparity between popular culture and advertising representations of older adults and keep in mind the buying power of this demographic. Baby Boomers have driven innovation and profits in advertising for decades—just because they’re retiring doesn’t mean their impact can be disregarded. Older adults hold the majority of U.S. disposable income. Beyond spending power, the population will continue to resemble Cruise more than Brimley, as “a new paradigm of healthy aging” advances. Misrepresenting this valuable demographic, then, is a bottom-line concern.

Times have changed since “Cocoon,” and much of popular culture has caught on. Advertising’s lack of counterhegemonic portrayals of older adults will be even more glaring as consumers take media production into their own hands. For example, Crichton hails Instagram’s Instagrannies . These are women over 60 positioning themselves as influencers on social media. They document their stylish and active lives and generally “100 percent slaying it.” Advertising needs to catch up.

A call for inclusive research and representation

Finally, we need to stop avoiding aging and instead investigate it. Push beyond preconceived notions about what life over 55 is if you aren’t in that demographic. So many people in the trenches of planning and creative advertising work are (disclaimer: myself included). Hiring older employees is often easier to say than to do. However, consider consultants from diverse demographics, and at minimum ensure qualitative research speaks with the target audience itself. There’s constant buzz about entire agencies devoted to studying and accurately depicting Millennials and Gen Z. Why not spend some of that energy on their grandparents?

Like it or not, we’re all aging. We need to ensure our ads aren’t dated. If you want to avoid age stereotypes in advertising for your brand, give us a call . We’d love to work with you on a strategy that embraces age in a positive and forward-thinking way.

• Balazs, Anne L. “Forever Young: The New Aging Consumer in the Marketplace.” In Aging, Media and Culture , edited by C. Lee Harrington, Denise Bielby, Anthony R. Bardo, 25-36. Lexington: Lexington Books, 2014..
• Baumann, Shyon and Kim de Laat. “Aspiration and Compromise: Portrayals of Older Adults in Television Advertising.” In Aging, Media and Culture , edited by C. Lee Harrington, Denise Bielby, Anthony R. Bardo, 13-24. Lexington: Lexington Books, 2014..
• Crichton, Lauren. “It’s time for advertising to stop perpetuating negative stereotypes about aging.” AdWeek , August 3, 2018.

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Wilford Brimley | 1934-2020: 'Cocoon' star began as stuntman

LOS ANGELES – Wilford Brimley, who worked his way up from stunt performer to star of film such as "Cocoon" and "The Natural," has died. He was 85.

Brimley's manager Lynda Bensky said the actor died Saturday morning in a Utah hospital. He was on dialysis and had several medical ailments, she said.

The mustached Brimley was a familiar face for a number of roles, often playing gruff characters like his grizzled baseball manager in "The Natural."

Brimley's best-known work was in "Cocoon," in which he was part of a group of seniors who discover an alien pod that rejuvenates them. The 1985 Ron Howard film won two Oscars, including a supporting actor honor for Don Ameche.

Brimley also starred in "Cocoon: The Return," a 1988 sequel.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Wilford Brimley and Maureen Stapleton starred in the 1985 movie "Cocoon."

For years he was pitchman for Quaker Oats and in recent years appeared in a series of diabetes spots that turned him at one point into a social media sensation.

"Wilford Brimley was a man you could trust," Bensky said in a statement. "He said what he meant and he meant what he said. He had a tough exterior and a tender heart. I'm sad that I will no longer get to hear my friend's wonderful stories. He was one of a kind."

Though never nominated for an Oscar or Emmy Award, Brimley amassed an impressive list of credits. In 1993’s John Grisham adaptation "The Firm," Brimley starred opposite Tom Cruise as a tough-nosed investigator who deployed ruthless tactics to keep his law firm's secrets safe.

A Utah native, Brimley’s Hollywood career started in the late 1960s as a stuntman, where he forged a friendship with Robert Duvall. Duvall’s encouragement led Brimley to seek more prominent acting roles and his career took off after his appearance in 1979’s "The China Syndrome," according to a biography prepared by Turner Classic Movies.

Brimley had a recurring role as a blacksmith on "The Waltons" and the 1980s prime-time series “Our House.”

In recent years, Brimley’s pitchwork for Liberty Mutual had turned him into an internet sensation for his drawn out pronunciation of diabetes as "diabeetus." He owned the pronunciation in a tweet that drew hundreds of thousands of likes earlier this year.

Brimley is survived by is wife Beverly and three sons.

10 Facts About Wilford Brimley

Hollywood lost one of its longtime icons on August 1, 2020, with the passing of Wilford Brimley . Some knew the 85-year-old from a storied big-screen career in films like 1993’s The Firm and 1985’s Cocoon . Others knew him as the spokesperson for Quaker Oats or as an advocate for diabetes monitoring on late-night television.

However you came to be aware of Wilford Brimley, you were probably charmed by his genial nature and hirsute facial appearance. But Brimley had a career that went beyond the screen; read on for more facts about the actor’s life, his time as a bodyguard for one of the world’s most famous men, and why he was not friendly with the man who portrayed Yoda.

1. Wilford was Wilford Brimley's middle name.

Born in Salt Lake City in 1934, Anthony Wilford Brimley moved to California with his parents when he was 6 years old. He elected to drop out of high school so that he could join the Marines. He served on the Aleutian Islands for three years before returning to civilian life as a ranch hand and horse wrangler. Those skills eventually came in handy when Westerns became a popular television genre, and Brimley often found work as an extra or background player. When he got screen billing, Brimley initially used his real first name—Anthony, or Tony—instead of his middle name, Wilford.

2. Robert Duvall got Wilford Brimley into acting.

While working as a horse-riding extra, Brimley became friendly with actor Robert Duvall ( The Godfather ) and was encouraged by Duvall to try his hand at more substantial parts. "He’s always been really encouraging," Brimley said of the Oscar-winning actor in 2014. “He’s always been a marvelous example of honesty and integrity.” The two appeared onscreen together in 1982’s Tender Mercies , about a country singer (Duvall) trying to reconnect with his daughter. Brimley played his agent and also met his future wife during production.

3. Wilford Brimley was a bodyguard for Howard Hughes.

Before getting work as a stuntman and actor, Brimley worked as a bodyguard for aviator-turned-recluse Howard Hughes. But the actor was always reluctant to discuss Hughes, a famously reclusive man in his later years. “He was a good guy,” Brimley once said of his former employer. The job came in part through Brimley’s membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: Hughes reportedly preferred to employ Mormons, as he liked that they didn't smoke or drink and they rarely talked.

4. Wilford Brimley didn't train to be an actor.

Brimley’s genuine demeanor didn’t come to him through any kind of Method approach. He was never formally trained as an actor, choosing instead to draw upon his decades and self-professed lean years working various jobs (bartender, horseman) before getting a break in 1979’s The China Syndrome . “Training?” he asked a reporter rhetorically in 1984. “I’ve never been to acting classes, but I’ve had 50 years of training. My years as an extra were good background for learning about camera techniques and so forth ... basically, my method is to be honest.”

5. Wilford Brimley enjoyed mooning people.

While Brimley’s onscreen presence was normally one of sedate wisdom, the actor was not averse to showing his buttocks if the timing was right. Speaking with the Chicago Tribune in 1988, actor Steve Guttenberg, Brimley’s co-star in the Cocoon movies, mentioned that Brimley sometimes mooned people on set. “The biggest fun I had on the Cocoon shoot came when Wilford Brimley would moon the audience, or the camera,” Guttenberg said . “He has a running contest with Robert Duvall to see who can moon the most people at one time. Duvall has the record [as] he drove through a town when it was having a parade and mooned 2000.”

6. Wilford Brimley surprised an elementary school class.

While shooting a film in Louisiana in 1990, Brimley struck up a friendship with Elizabeth Landman, the then-9-year-old daughter of the set’s food caterer. When Landman returned to school to tell her friends at St. Joseph’s Catholic School that she had met the man from Cocoon , no one believed her. Brimley decided to boost her credibility by visiting the school unannounced one day to sign autographs and answer questions about his career.

7. Wilford Brimley was not opposed to a cockfight.

In 1998, Brimley attended a rally in Phoenix, Arizona to oppose a statewide ban on cockfighting—an often-illegal practice that sees bettors wager on the outcome of a fight to the death between roosters equipped with razors on their feet. The actor argued that the law would be a slippery slope, one eventually leading to a ban on hunting dogs. He also said that while he lived in Utah, he visited Arizona to attend the competitions. “I’m trying to protect the lifestyle of freedom and choice for my grandchildren,” he said . The activity was eventually outlawed in Arizona in 2007.

8. Wilford Brimley was also a singer.

Though he “never made a thing about it” and proclaimed he was “not a great singer,” Brimley had a passion for covering popular music. In the 1990s, the actor performed at Los Angeles-area clubs after rehearsing with pianist Bob Smale and bassist Don Bagley for two years. He performed “My Funny Valentine,” “It Had to Be You,” and “All the Things You Are,” among other hits, and later made appearances on the Jerry Lewis telethon and the ill-fated Pat Sajak Show . He also recorded a number of albums. When Brimley agreed to hit the stage at Cal State Northridge for a jazz endowment benefit fund in 1993, Joel Leach, the school’s jazz band director, said that Brimley had a warm, rich voice. Brimley offered to do the benefit for free and even left filming of The Firm in order to appear.

9. Wilford Brimley got into a feud with Yoda.

While shooting the 1997 feature In and Out , Brimley was said to have gotten upset with director Frank Oz. Oz—a performer who operated and voiced Yoda in several Star Wars movies— told an interviewer that Brimley was one of three actors who “hate my guts.” (The other two were Marlon Brando and Cher.) Neither Oz nor Brimley ever elaborated on what transpired between the two to cause the rift.

10. Wilford Brimley was active on Twitter.

While he took only sporadic acting roles in recent years, Brimley wasn’t completely unplugged from the public. He had a verified Twitter account on which he—or an authorized representative—tweeted inspirational quotes and occasionally took note of his contemporary status as a meme source. Brimley once responded to an observation that action star Tom Cruise, who was 56 at the time, was five years older than Brimley was when he played a geriatric in Cocoon . “This is still hard for me to believe,” Brimley wrote.

Wilford Brimley, ‘Cocoon’ and ‘The Natural’ Actor, Dead at 85

By Daniel Kreps

Daniel Kreps

Wilford Brimley, the unlikely character actor who brought both curmudgeonry and geniality to films like Cocoon , The China Syndrome , The Natural and Tender Mercies , has died at the age of 85.

Brimley’s agent Lynda Bensky confirmed to the New York Times that the actor had been sick for two months with kidney ailments; the actor — a longtime spokesperson for Liberty Medical — had been diabetic since the Seventies. Brimley died Saturday at a hospital near St. George, Utah, where the actor resided.

“Wilford Brimley was a man you could trust. He said what he meant and he meant what he said,” Bensky told CNN . “He had a tough exterior and a tender heart. I’m sad that I will no longer get to hear my friend’s wonderful stories. He was one of a kind.”

With his walrus mustache and stocky build, Brimley was not a traditional actor, and he held a variety of jobs — blacksmith, cowboy, ranch hand and reportedly Howard Hughes’ bodyguard — before his friend, actor Robert Duvall, persuaded him to try acting. Brimley first worked as a stuntman and extra before making his credited debut in 1974 with a guest-starring role in The Waltons .

Brimley’s first big-screen credit, at the age of 45, was a small but memorable role in 1979’s The China Syndrome , playing the friend of Jack Lemmon’s nuclear power plant whistleblower. Over the next few decades, Brimley would continue his trend of supporting but scene-stealing roles, including his memorable one scene of work as an assistant U.S. district attorney in 1981’s Absence of Malice ; Brimley would later parody that scene while playing a Postmaster General on a 1997 episode of Seinfeld :

While Brimley was most often cast as affable yet crotchety types in films like The Natural , Tender Mercies , My Fellow Americans and In & Out , he sometimes lent his gruff characteristics to villain roles, including the squirrelly, paranoid biologist in John Carpenter’s The Thing and the duplicitous chief of security in the Tom Cruise-starring adaptation of The Firm .

In addition to his big screen work, Brimley became known to a generation of TV watchers for his near-constant presence in Quaker Oats ads, as well as his efforts to promote diabetes education in Liberty Mutual commercials, which later took on a second life thanks to YouTube and memes . The American Diabetes Association honored Brimley in 2008 for decades spent imploring viewers to check their blood sugar.

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“He was a wonderful man, a joy to be around, and his dry sense of humor and iconic voice left an everlasting impression on every person he met,” Brimley’s talent agent Dominic Mancini, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter .

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“To know Wilford was to love Wilford. He had an amazing career and sliced through the screen with his dry wit, stoic stature and powerful conveyance. His unique blend of unexpected comedy and indelible storytelling will always remain unmatched.”

RIP Wilford Brimley – so many great performances, but I’ll never forget seeing him sing this surprisingly tender "It's Not Easy Being Green" https://t.co/xdvh9qGhMj — Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) August 2, 2020

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