Age fabrication

Age fabrication, or more simply put, lying about one's age, is usually practised with the intent to garner privileges or status that would not otherwise be available to the individual. The phenomenon has achieved particular notoriety among actresses seeking to retain the marketability that comes with their association with youth.

Sourced

Organized alphabetically by author.

• I shaved two years off. But I couldn't keep track. Different magazines said I was 30, 35. Then I was asked to play at Gloria Steinem's 60th birthday party and I realized it was time to cut the bullshit and tell the truth.
  • Shawn Colvin as quoted by Gregg Quinn in "Starving in Oblivion" at Tinselnet (March 2006)

• Dr. Foreman: Ten year olds do not have heart attacks. It's gotta be a mistake.
  Dr. House: Right. The simplest explanation is she's a forty-year-old lying about her age. Maybe an actress trying to hang on.
  • House (season 1, episode 16)

• Howard Hughes, according to his own account, was born in Houston, Texas, on December 24, 1905. The vaguely biblical feel of the date was probably intentional, because it wasn't true. Baptismal records show he was actually born in September of that year in a small Texan town called, ironically, Humble.
  • David Thomson in "The High Flyer" in The Age (29 January 2006)

• It's a sad state of affairs in the music business when a 22-year-old feels compelled to pass herself off as 19.
  • David Yaffe on Nelly McKay in "The Young Singer Who Has Besotted All the Critics" in The New Republic (28 September 2004)

Unsourced

Organized alphabetically by author.

• Well, it was an awfully big earthquake
  • Gracie Allen, when asked how her birth certificate could have been destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake if her birthday was three months after the earthquake.

• The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
  • Lucille Ball

• My mother is going to have to stop lying about her age because pretty soon I'm going to be older than she is.
  • Tripp Evans

• I believe in loyalty. When a woman reaches a certain age she likes, she should stick with it.
  • Eva Gabor

• If time can provide the same benefits as experience, ability or maturity, then, by all means, I'll tell you when I was born. But until then, let's just say I'm old enough to rent a car.
  • David Kester, who implied his birth certificate contained false information