Modern Life: What is the Wilford Brimley line?
The Wilford Brimley line is a staging post in midlife. A person crosses the Wilford Brimley line when they reach the age of 50 years, nine months and six days – or 18,530 days. Celebrities who have recently crested the Wilford Brimley line include Liam Gallagher, Idris Elba, Eminem, Geri Halliwell, Zinedine Zidane and Cameron Diaz. Congratulations, one and all. Brimley was an American actor, who served as a Marine in the 1950s before working his way into the movies as a stuntman, extra, and eventually, character actor, specialising in ‘grumpy old man’ roles. The high point of his career was playing the lead in Ron Howard’s sci-fi caper Cocoon (1985), about a group of elderly people who find an alien elixir in a swimming pool next to their retirement home. Cocoon was released when Brimley was, yes, 50 years, nine months and six days – though he looks so...
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