Equally Discarded?: The Influence of Age and Gender on the Popularity of Screen Actors

Gendered aging effects have been documented in television and film, such that older female characters are more underrepresented and stereotypically portrayed than their male counterparts. This trend has an adverse impact on the careers of female screen actors. This study examines whether the popularity of female screen actors among general audiences is impacted by age as well. Specifically, we expected that the popularity of female screen actors would decline more sharply with age than that of male screen actors. Biographical and filmographical information was collected for 347 actors (153 males, 194 females) from the IMDbpro website. Data were analyzed using growth modeling and hierarchical multiple regression. Results showed no gendered aging effects, but did demonstrate that male screen actors are more popular at all age groups than female screen actors and both groups' popularity declined with age. Implications are discussed.