Here’s What 40 Celebrities Looked Like in the 1970s vs. Today

The Rolling Stones frontman told The Irish Times in late 2023 that while he occasionally does wonder how long the band, which continues to sell out stadiums, will be able to keep performing, he tries not to dwell on it. “I do think about it. But I write all the time. You’ve just got to keep writing,” he said. In October 2023, The Stones released their first album with new music since 2005.

The EGOT winner recently divulged 900+ pages worth of details about her decades-long career in her 2023 memoir, My Name Is Barbra. Ahead of the book’s release, she told the BBC that she was looking forward to settling down. “I haven’t had much fun in my life, to tell you the truth,” she said. “And I want to have more fun.”

Ross got her start as a member of The Supremes, which became Motown’s bestselling girl group, before breaking out on her own in the 1970s. To what has she credited her decades-long career? “The love and joy of performing. The harmony of life. The love of family,” she once told the LA Times.

After spending his early career working in theater, Walken broke through in the early 1970s with his first major movie roles, before nabbing his first Oscar in 1978. Although Walken has had a decorated film career, he’s still up for trying new things: The 2020s marked his first time helming a TV series, with leading roles in both The Outlaws and Severance. “I don’t play golf or tennis. I don’t have children. I don’t like to travel. So I go to work,” he told Newsweek.

The legendary songstress has remained a constant fixture on the tour circuit since her debut in 1965. In 2023, she said she refuses to let age define her. “I just can’t believe I will be 80 at some point, sooner than I wish,” she told Good Morning Britain. “And I will still be wearing my jeans and I will still be wearing long hair and and I will still be doing the same stuff I’ve always done.”

In an interview with the The Hollywood Reporter, Keaton said the role that sticks out to her most from her lengthy career—which includes classics like The Godfather, Annie Hall, and Something’s Gotta Give—was Woody Allen’s 1972’s Play It Again, Sam. “I was in it, I had lines. I was just totally surprised by that,” she said.

Freeman, who got his acting start in theater and children’s programming in the 1960s and 1970s—before making the leap to film in the 1980s—recently opened up to The Times about the way racism affected his early career, before acknowledging that he believes Black actors are now “moving ahead in leaps and bounds.”

In an interview with Forbes, the fashion designer famous for creating the wrap dress silhouette in 1974, said that while she once wanted to be remembered as an icon, she now prefers the term oracle. “I am now at the philosophy part of my life. I want to pass on what I’ve learned.”

Although the “Rocket Man” singer retired from touring in 2023, the recently minted EGOT winner told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023 that he has no plans to stop releasing new music, sharing that he’s eager to get back into the studio because he hasn’t recorded “a proper record” in quite some time.

Dylan, widely regarded as one of the best songwriters of all time, has been on what fans have lovingly dubbed “The Never Ending Tour” since 1988. In addition to touring and releasing new music, Dylan won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016.

After releasing a slew of country standards to moderate success, Nelson turned to outlaw country in the 1970s, following his move to Austin, Texas. Nelson, who has continued to tour and release music into his 90s, told E! in 2023 that he doesn’t have anything “major” left that he wants to accomplish and instead is taking life “one day at a time.”

In his 2023 Netflix documentary Sly, Stallone reflected on his “mind-blowing” career longevity. “I consider myself like the last of the dinosaurs,” he said of his nearly 50-year-long career. “And I’m very proud of that.”

In 1978, the songstress dropped out of the University of Michigan to pursue a musical career in New York City. After becoming one of the world’s biggest solo acts through the 1980s and 1990s, Guinness World Records certified Madonna as the biggest-selling female recording artist of all time, with over 400 million units sold.

Martin, who spent the 1970s garnering laughs on the stand-up circuit, said that he was contemplating retirement until he created The Only Murders In The Building with longtime friend and collaborator Martin Short in 2021. “When this television show is done, I’m not going to seek others,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m not going to seek other movies. I don’t want to do cameos. This is, weirdly, it.”

In 1978, Streep was nominated for her first Academy Award (she now holds the record for the most Oscar nominations at 21). Despite this, Streep once told the Wall Street Journal that she worried that her acting gigs would dry up long ago. “As I was hovering around 40, I thought each movie would be my last,” she said. “And all the evidence of other 40-year-old women at that time would lead you to believe it was over.”

By the time the 1970s rolled around, Hoffman was already a lauded performer with lead roles in The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy. He took home an Academy Award for his portrayal of a father amid divorce in the 1979 classic Kramer vs. Kramer and has continued to grace the big screen since, with roles in both acclaimed films and family-friendly fare, like the Kung Fu Panda franchise.

After signing with Motown Records at just 11 years old, Stevie Wonder has become an indelible part of the music landscape over the past 60 years. He is a fixture at the Grammys, winning 25 of his 74 nominations.

In a 2022 interview on The Howard Stern Show, the Boss said that he has no plans to step away from music anytime soon. “I look at [Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger] and go, ‘Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll [always] be doing three-hour shows, but I have so many different kinds of music that I can play and do,'” he said. “I can’t imagine retirement.”

Parton, who left The Porter Wagoner Show in 1974 to launch her solo career, told Insider in 2023 that she’s not stopping anytime soon: “I may live to be 100 or I may die tomorrow, but whenever that is, I will know I died trying, and I will know I’ve done everything I could to make the most of everything.”

After the Beatles disbanded in 1970, McCartney said he wasn’t sure if he could keep performing because the group’s success was “a tough act to follow.” He said he felt like he was starting all over again when he formed the band Wings, but the risk certainly paid off: Wings became one of the most successful acts of the 1970s and paved the way for McCartney’s indomitable solo career.