Inspector Morse : Why was Morse depicted so much older than Thaw was?

During the series Morse is depicted as being sixty-ish, for instance in Death is now my neighbour,Strange is talking about his pension and a little later Morse says to Lewis he and Strange are about the same age. When in reality Thaw is only 55 at the time. This is even more so in the earlier seasons when Thaw is only 50 and is then also depicted as almost ten years older. Any idea why?

Thanks. I now read at the quotes of Thaw "I was born looking fifty". Hahaha.

Why did Dick Clark and Michael J. Fox look so youthful? Some people just don't look their age!!

Thaw is one of those people, like me that look older than they truly are. I made a fair amount of money buying beer for others in school - even though I was younger than they were, just on the fact that I looked older. Sad thing about America, they have firmer ideas about what age people are allowed to drink alcohol at, I think it actually hurts more new drinkers than it saves. People should be allowed to drink alcohol long before they are allowed to drive. I think doing so would give people a better chance to learn their limits, before they are able to kill themselves trying to drive drunk. In America, many states legal age for drinking is also the point of unrestricted driving privileges, which leads to many drunken drivers driving on their 'coming of age' day.

Good point, DraculX. My grandmother took me to the UK for my high school graduation gift. My family, whose background was British, had allowed us to have a taste of whatever wine, beer or mixed drink they were having after we were about ten. I was never interested in guzzling cheap booze as a teen because I could have a reasonable portion of the good stuff at home. Consequently, when people offered me beer, wine, G&Ts, etc. during our trip, I could accept them without making a fool of myself. I felt no need to overindulge because I felt no desperation that I saw in some of my friends. Some of my friends' parents disapproved of my family's policy (which only applied to us), but I thought we were wiser about drinking as a result. One of my siblings did do stupid things with alcohol in college, but that one had always been a sheep.

As for Thaw, he really was someone who showed his age more; I blame his heavy smoking, as well as his heavy drinking for that (though he reportedly stopped drinking in 1995). People in our family tend to age well, but when they smoke, there seems to be a year (between 50-60) when the wrinkles just proliferate. At least Thaw survived a couple years longer than Richard Burton, who suffered ill health for the last fourteen years of his life before dying at 58.

Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops!

It's a matter of how old actors appear to be.
I knew an actor who was up for the part of a university contemporary of Morse but ultimately didn't get the part because he looked much more youthful than John Thaw, despite being a few months older, and it wouldn't have been believable.
You can't run a subtitle reading "These actors are the same age, honest!".

I would also suggest that most UK coppers retire or think of retirement from the force by their early / mid 50s. Their pensions are quite good and it's a tough job with little time for a decent private life, except for DCI Barnaby.

Morse looks old but I doubt he would have been playing older than 55/56 ish. Strange is the Strange one, he would have been booted on full pension years before the final episodes. 55 or not they wouldn't have kept him on health grounds..lovely though Strange and Max were they are not great adverts for the species.

"'tler"

I wonder whether Mrs Barnaby would agree with that. Haven't seen too many episodes yet, but one of the main impressions from the show is that she is being stood up by her husband because of a case time and again.

When I was at school in the late 90s, ITV did a drama that John Thaw was starring in, they needed a load of school kids as extras in one of the scenes, and as a result I spent a morning on set with him and my "teacher" co star Nick Dunning) along with a load of others from my school.

JT was a chain smoker and I suspect he was easily 60-100 a dayt fag man - plenty of hanging about on set waiting for this that and the other.
JT died not that many years later and I was less than surprised to discover the cancer he very sadly got.
He also I suspect his hit hard on the drinks in his drama school years and beyond, but the smoking wow

Maybe one of the things that aged him badly.

I'm curious, what actor was up for that part?

he was also only his his mid 30s during the sweeney but easily looked like he was in his 50s

he aged rapidly as a man in real life, simple as that

There is no suggestion that Morse is in his sixties - 55 is exactly the age at which the UK Police can start considering drawing his or her pension.

Not really - Morse would indeed be 70 in Remorseful Day if Dexter had stuck to the original birthdate of the character in his first novels, but the TV show brought this forward when they adapted to the novels to the "present day" (ie 1987), rather than the early 70s when they were written and originally set.

Morse, as written, was in his mid 40s, and an actor in his mid 40s was cast.

(If Dexter had stuck to his original chronology, Sgt Lewis would have been in his 80s by the time of his promotion to Inspector!)

The American detective Spenser is a Korean War veteran in the books. By the time they made the TV series he would have been too old, so they made him a Vietnam veteran. If they make new ones he'd be an Iraq veteran.

Beside which, under the arrangements in place in 2000, Chief Inspectors would have been forced to retire at 65.

Morse and Thaw were almost exactly the same age. British policemen can retire after 25 years' service on half pay and after 30 years' service on 2/3 pay. Joining the service at 20, retirement at 50 is not uncommon. Many officers take the half pay route at 45 or so and take their experience on to new careers in security-related areas.

The age of the actor has little to do with the CHARACTER. You need to learn how to separate the two.