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alt title(s): Oyaji 
He's 143 years old, he carries a minor deity in his belly and that thing on his head? Molten gold poured into his skull while still conscious.
Anyway, I'm not a cliché, I hardly own any ties. I may be old but at least I'm not like all those other old guys. — Five Iron Frenzy, "At Least I'm Not Like All Those Other Old Guys"
The effectiveness of a cast member is often determined by his distance from the median age of the cast. Derivations up or down will always be coupled with a lack of effectiveness. The Cool Old Guy is an exception to this. At some point, if one character is much older he swings the meter back to 'totally awesome'. In a lot of anime and video games, this makes him somewhere around middle age and the only non- clean shaven guy. Expect him to be greying, a loud voice, but in peak physical condition and unafraid of anything. For reasons that should be clear enough, this trope frequently overlaps with Bald Of Awesome.
He usually won't have any special powers but that's only to marginally keep him from intruding on the other's limelight. He usually either has a dated and dramatic but lovable personality or is a complete no-nonsense hardass, depending on how the other characters act.
In Japan, this trope is called the Oyaji, written 親父 or オヤジ, which means "daddy". Can often stray into Even The Guys Want Him or Stupid Sexy Flanders territory. Oyaji Kid is a younger version (usually no younger than late 20s at minimum) that has many of the same characteristics.
See also: Old Master, Older Sidekick, Badass Grandpa, The Dumbledore, Oyaji on TheOtherWiki , Dirty Old Man, Evil Old Folks. See Cool Old Lady for the female version. Contrast Grumpy Old Man.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- The Claw from Gun X Sword.
- Jet from Cowboy Bebop (although almost all of the main characters are hardened ultra-cool characters).
"Let me point out that I'm not that old. If anything, I would be a boyfriend... No, wait, that would be bad. W-What am I saying? At least I can be an elder brother or something..."
- Dr. Reichwein from Monster.
- Bear from .hack//SIGN was an older man comfortably pals with a teenage girl, Mimiru, through their shared love of virtual reality online gaming.
- The protagonist's grandfather in Beyblade may be getting up there in age - but that's not gonna stop him from dancing on the tables in Vegas!
- Lt General Grumman of Full Metal Alchemist
- Old Man Fu and Dr Knox as well.
- Hiko Seijuuro from Rurouni Kenshin is in his forties when the main series takes place, but the man is easily in superhuman condition with strength light years beyond anyone.
- Subverted because Seijuuro looks significantly younger than his actual age; when Yahiko and Misao learn that he's 43, they're shocked and conclude that "Hiten Mitsurugi is the secret to eternal youth!!"
- Ditto for Kenshin, who also looks significantly younger than his thirty, despite quite a turbulent life.
- Played somewhat straighter with Okina, who is old and LOOKS it. Upbeat and always ready with a bad joke, he's not afraid of chasin' some young skirts. He's also quite powerful in combat, being nearly a match for Aoshi...
- Shunsui Kyōraku and to a lesser extent Urahara (Who is really more of a mentor) in Bleach
- Chief Daisuke Aramaki, the Mission Control of the Ghost In The Shell franchise.
- Axel Thurston, grandfather of Renton Thurston in Eureka Seven. Robot mechanic extraordinaire and full of determination, even if a bit grumpy. Not to mention that he does a near-suicidal stunt to make possible for Renton to get an indispensable device and lives through it.
- Early on in Dragonball Master Roshi filled this role, even defeating the main character Goku at the end of the series's first tournament arc, where he actually blew up the frickin' moon! Unfortunately, Roshi's powerlevel remained fairly constant throughout the series, while the younger characters became vastly stronger every arc, to the point where, by the start of Dragonball Z Roshi was relegated to being the comic relief.
- Andrew Waltfeld from Gundam Seed; the show's director specifically referred to him as a Cool Old Guy, and this fact, combined with the director's being friends with Andy's seiyuu, are often credited with his Never Found The Body return from the "dead" later in the series.
- The same can be said of Mu La Flaga from the same series.
- Mu La Flaga, while cool, wasn't old. In fact, he wasn't even out of his twenties.
- To quote the Msting of Endless Waltz: "He was way too old to be a Gundam pilot anyway. He was, what, at least 18?"
- Subverted in the first Story Arc of Naruto Shippuden. Though an old man and old woman are both present, only the old woman joins our heroes in battle.
- I'm appaulled that you left out The Third "I'll summon a bad ass talking ape and rip out your soul" Hokage. Come on people. He ripped out half of Orochimaru's soul.
- This troper was about to add the Third Hokage, but not for that. The Third Hokage was a very kind, very awesome old man who cared for the people in his village. Just watch the scene where he visits the Academy class to talk to them about the village and the people he cares about. Watch Naruto and his contemporaries' memories of him at the funeral. Everyone has a memory about something awesome he did for them.
- Yukiatsu in Ayakashi Ayashi, a special case, since he's also the protagonist.
- Watari, acting as L's assistant, proxy and Battle Butler in Death Note.
- Genkai from Yu Yu Hakusho, although she is female, follows this trope better than Cool Old Lady. Oh, and also discounting the fact some of the teenage-appearing cast is Really Seven Hundred Years Old.
- The highly skilled but aged and wearly bitter Shimada Kambei of Samurai 7. Quite possiblyf the reason Kirara surprisingly fell for him. Alas, his hardass nature solidifies when he coldly rejects her feelings before she can even get them out.
- Master Asia from G Gundam.
- Kanchou/Skipper from The Daughter Of Twenty Faces certainly fits this trope to a t; even his death is cool. An argument could also be made for Muta, even though he's more The Stoic.
- Max Jenius in Macross 7. He might be 52, but he can still pretty much wipe the floor with everybody in the show, both in cockpit and with his bare hands, and he's the heroine's dad. Ah, BTW, he's also the fleet military commander.
- Scary Black Man Dutch from Black Lagoon. Given that he's a Vietnam vet, and roughly contemporary setting of the show, he must be at least in his fifties.
- Master Tiellagory of Le Chevalier D Eon is one of the best fencers in France and possibly all of Europe, as well as having more experience with court parties and often wittier repartee than his younger companions.
- Walter C. Dornez, the butler of the Hellsing Family in the anime Hellsing is also a prime example of a Cool Old Guy.
- While about half of Nagi's group could potentially count, Takahata-sensei and Graf Wilhelm are likely two very good examples. Takahata counting as old mostly because almost 90% of the cast is between 9 and 17. While god knows how old Wilhelm actually is. Takahata's teacher Gatou likely is one too but we rarely see him do anything but smoke in flashbacks. Both from Mahou Sensei Negima.
- Hell, almost every old guy in the series could qualify, especially the (currently middle-aged) members of the Ala Rubra.
- The Prince Of Tennis has two: Ojii, the Rokkaku coach, and Banda Mikiya aka Banji from Yamabuki. Taro "Itte yosh" Sakaki of Hyoutei is still a bit young compared to them, but he's heading there.
- "Big" Ed Deline from Las Vegas is arguably cooler than the show's main character.
- Lief the Lucky might have only appeared during the flash back arc of Vinland Saga, but he still came off as a cool old sailor who liked to tell kids stories about his journeys amongst the skraelingar.
- Gil Graham of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. A kindly old English gent who also happens to be one of the most experienced and powerful mages under the Space-Time Administration Bureau's employ. Though he turned out to be a Treacherous Advisor who was very reluctantly planning to seal the Book of Darkness together with Hayate once the book turns Omnicidal Maniac, the cast didn't blame him too much for it considering the complicated circumstances.
- Twentieth Century Boys loves its Cool Old Guys.
- Full Metal Panic has Andrey Kalinin, who admittedly plays mostly a support role, but is still a tough old soldier who still has some fight in him, made especially obvious during the Behemoth arc.
- The old guy from Gantz.
- Zelretch from the Nasuverse (all of the works) is unanimously considered to be the trope incarnate by fans. When he was younger, he beat down and killed the "ultimate" being, Crimson Moon Brunestud (and in the process singlehandedly stopping the moon from falling into the Earth), only because of a minor dispute he had with it. He's also one of only five "True Magic" users — his magic? Operation of parallel worlds, which lets him do pretty much anything involving alternate universes.
- Tenchi Muyo: Katsuhito Masaki/Yosho is a mustached old man who can still kick ass. In the original OVA, he's actually physically younger than he appears, but in the Tenchi Universe and Tenchi in Tokyo series, he's genuinely old and a straighter example of the trope. Nobuyuki Masaki is this at times too.
- Legend Of The Galactic Heroes has Fleet Admirals Merkatz and Bucock from the Empire and Alliance respectively.
- Vash the Stampede from Trigun is technically a cool old guy, being approximately 140 years old (depending on whether you take it from the Anime or the Manga). However, being that he looks to be in either his 20's or 30's, and acts like he is 12, he may not count.
- This troper thinks Yugi's grandpa in the Yugioh anime totally qualifies. Seriously. In the Abridged version at least.
- In One Piece, Silvers Rayleigh would most definitely count. The dude fights an Admiral to a standstill!
- This Troper thinks Fuyutsuki in Neon Genesis Evangelion qualifies, perhaps because he's one of the few sane people in all of NERV.
Comic Books
- The Justice Society Of America is more or less built around this trope, along with that of the Legacy Character. Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, and Wildcat are pretty much the coolest old guys in the entire DC Universe.
- In fact, Jay Garrick is so cool that he's the guy Nightwing (the original Robin) wants to grow up to be.
- While not the Trope Namer, Garrick is referred to as "One cool old man." By Jack Knight in JSA #2.
- Alfred is also pretty darn cool, and dangerous when pushed.
- Marvel's short-lived Alpha Flight revival featured an elderly superhero called Centennial, a little old man in a sweater who came out of a coma thanks to extremely delayed Puberty Superpowers identical to Superman's. He was played mostly for laughs, but when the team needed someone to give them a good kick in the pants for motivation, he was always ready to provide.
- Marvel also has Roger Aubrey (the Destroyer) and the Thin Man, and they did have Iron Cross, who was still active as a hero in the present day despite being old enough to have seen service in World War I, until he sacrificed himself to save the world.
- Elf Quest has a few examples.
- Savah, mother of Memory, is a wise and practical grandmother-figure to the younger Sun Folk and Wolfriders. (Also very hot.)
- Likewise, after some initial misunderstandings have been cleared up, Lord Voll of the Gliders, who is even older, endears himself to the Wolfriders in much the same way. Unfortunately the trolls kill him.
- Then there's Ekuar, the wizened old rock-shaper, who retains his charm and wit despite having survived centuries of mistreatment by the trolls.
- Scrooge McDuck — pick anywhere in the world, and he's been there. Pick any type of adventure, and he's done it.
- Charles Francis Xavier.
- The Punisher, depending on the writer. Mainstream writers tend to downplay his age, but people who write the more hard-edged MAX stories acknowledge that he's in his late fifties. He is still a bigger badass than anyone else he faces.
- Douwe Dabbert.
Film
Literature
- Gandalf of Lord Of The Rings. His impressiveness isn't just because he's a wizard, but because most of the hobbits he's friends with usually describe him in grandfatherly terms.
- Also deserves a mention for The Movie, as he's played by Sir Ian Mckellen. Old guys don't come much cooler than him.
- Cohen and his Silver Horde, of Discworld fame. Not one cool old guy, but seven. (Eventually six, but in their most recent story they pick up a Cool Old Lady.)
- Commander Samuel Vimes fits this in his most recent stories. After all, he's over 50! (When Night Watch threw him thirty years into the past, the version of himself he met there seemed to be only in his late teens, and he describes a 51 year old vampire as 'not a lot younger than him' in "Thud".)
- Vetinari. About as old as Vimes (if not older). Not only a political mastermind skilled at manipulating people to act in his favour but a former assassin of incredible skill.
- Ridcully, especially when he has a crossbow in his hand.
- And, lest we forget, Lu Tze the living embodiment of (if not inspiration for) Rule 1: Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly smiling men. The one and only master of Deja fu, with a reputation that makes men who know of him wet their pants (literally in at least one case) if they learn they have crossed him, and he kicked the ass of the new anthropomorphic personification of Time itself.[1].
- Zedd in the Sword of Truth saga.
- Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter. Yes, THE Dumbledore.
- Shiro from The Dresden Files as a Japanese Knight of the Sword who, while looking like somebody's grandfather, manages to kick Denarian ass. Even Nicodemus, leader of the Denarians, is afraid of this guy.
- Harry's mentor Ebenezer McCoy fits also, although he's a wizard and not a Badass Normal.
- Sensei Ito at the Super Hero School Whateley Academy in the fictional Whateley Universe is a Crazy Prepared Badass Normal who is a tiny old Japanese martial artist capable of taking down virtually every single superpowered student at Whateley. As he demonstrates at the start of every term, in aikido classes. He also has a bit of Magnificent Bastard in him.
- Whateley Academy is rife with Cool Old Guy characters, from sixty-ish Gunny Bardue who runs the ranges, to Security Chief Franklin Delarose, to a number of older teachers who you just know used to be superheroes. Charles Xavier's school should be so lucky.
- Khlit of the Curved Sword (aka Khlit the Wolf) from the Cossack stories by Harold Lamb is already retirement age when he first appears in a story. He chooses not to accept mandatory retirement and goes on walkabout through Asia instead, having many exciting adventures. Along the way, Khlit becomes both Kha Khan of the Tatars and Koschevoi Ataman of the Cossacks (but not at the same time.) He's often underestimated by people who don't realize how tough a Cossack had to be to reach an advanced age. Even when Khlit relinquishes the protagonist role to his (adoptive) grandson Kirdy because he's no longer able to wield his famous sword effectively, Khlit remains a cunning fox, and quite capable of licking twice his weight in Mooks.
- Huang Zhong in Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, and Dynasty Warriors video game.
- Most of the disciples of Aldur in David Eddings' Belgariad universe, but especially Belgarath and Beldin.
- Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mocking Bird. He's obviously also a Magnificent Bastard, minus the Bastard part. Hell, one of his responses to an argument is something along the lines of stating "You think you're about to win?", which he only said when he knew he would win an argument, or had a back up plan for what they were about to say. He's the model of a father that every child wants.
- Brother Cadfael.
- Papa Jan from This Perfect Day.
- Giles Corey from The Crucible.
- And from real life. The part about his death was true.
- The short story They Live Forever has a subversion of this trope. The narrator becomes a cool old guy at 25 when he is stranded on a planet where the natives have a life cycle of two years. He is proportionally so old by the end of the story that he realizes his age would be meaningless to them and claims to have forgotten. This mirrors the original immortal of the story who made the same claim about himself when questioned by the narrator.
- Raptor Red brings us a Cool Old Dactyl in the form of... the white dactyl. Old even by dactyl standards, he has bowed out of the great play of reproduction and chick-rearing, choosing to instead spend his golden years dicking around with the other predators.
- Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz from 1632.
- Roland Deschain of The Dark Tower series. Not only is he several decades older than the rest of his ka-tet and the epitome of The Gunslinger, but he is also possibly several hundred millennia old, due to his having repeated his life over countless times after reaching the Tower. He's totally unaware of that last fact, though.
- Abraham van Helsing from Dracula.
- Great-uncle Ebbitt from The Seventh Tower combines this with Crazy Awesome.
- PG Wodehouse's novels have Uncle Fred and the Honourable Galahad, who regularly helping their younger acquaintences out of trouble, often with rather impressive Zany Schemes. Uncle Fred gets extra points for knocking the hat off the pompous barrister Sir Beefy Bastable with a slingshotted brazil nut.
- The Mariner from The Keys To The Kingdom. He has a magical harpoon so powerful it hurts others just to use it (he calls his 'friend'), and a ship that can sail through suns.
- About ninety percent of persons in the Honor Harrington. Honor herself is 65 is the most recent stories. Yes prolong makes everyone seem younger. But prolong has be around only about 2 generations so there are few people over 120 yet.
Live Action TV
- General Hammond from Stargate SG-1 could've been the trope namer. Col. Jack O'Neill aged into this trope during the 10 years of the series.
- Bra'tac, who's even older then those two. (Pictured above)
- The Doctor. Yeah, that Doctor. Especially his first incarnation, who was created precisely with this trope in mind. William Hartnell doesn't take lip from anyone, young man! Hmmm hmmm! But let's also remember the character is very very old, even when he doesn't show it physically.
- 903, as of Voyage of the Damned!
- He lies about his age. A lot. He's really into his twelfth century.
- Or maybe he's just forgotten his real age. But, yeah. Cool Old Guy.
- One of the best examples being in The Space Museum, when the First Doctor pretends to be unconscious after three Xerons grab him and then knocks out one of his captors when the other two leave the room ("It was like a whirlwind hit me!") and then hides in a Dalek casing in the museum.
- Also, the Third Doctor's frequent demonstrations of Venusian karate.
- Requisite Mutant Enemy reference: Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Rupert Giles.
- Albert (Robert Vaughn) in Hustle.
- Shepherd Book in Firefly. He's religious so he practices Thou Shalt Not Kill, but acknowledges that The Bible is "a mite fuzzier on kneecaps."
- Also Murphy from Firefly episode 1003 "Shindig." Calls that bitch a slut, then spends the entire evening talking about engines with Kaylee.
- Speaking of Shindig, sir Warwick Harrow.
- John Locke from Lost. Subverted when we discover just how pathetic and needy the guy is, though he's definitely starting to work back up to a traditional Cool Old Guy.
- Technically, Methos from Highlander The Series qualifies in this trope because of his age and general coolness factor. In fact, general fandom often refers to him as the Really Old Guy. A subversion of this trope exists in the fact that, as an immortal, he looks really young.
- Joe Dawson also qualifies.
- Bobby, in Supernatural, manages to be the only sane man (although not without his issues) and completely and utterly awesome at the same time.
- Even if he did have only one scene last season, the fandom reaction to Rufus was so overwhelmingly positive that they're bringing him back in Season Four. And then will probably kill him.
- He's only in Season Four as the unheard, unseen person on the other end of a phone call with Bobby. Crikes.
- But back in season 5, badass and all
- Doctor McCoy on Star Trek had elements of this trope, even though he didn't really get to interact with many kids.
- In many ways, he was Kirk's father-figure, with Spock as the competing "cool uncle". Thus, while Spock could shame Kirk, only McCoy could outright scold him to his face. In one or two episodes, for medical reasons, McCoy did the equivalent of sending Kirk to his room!
- He's not exactly a domesticated red junglefowl of the growing season in most temperate climates in Encounter at Farpoint, but has lost none of his coolness.
- Raiden, from Mortal Kombat Conquest. His characterization was based on that of the movie's Raiden, which explains a lot.
- Battlestar Galactica: Bill Adama, Saul Tigh (2000 years old, as a matter of fact), and Dr. Sherman Cottle
- Evil/Frakken' Sinister Old Guys: John Cavil a wangsty teen with mommy issues in an old man's body, which happens to be modeled on "mommy's" old man, and also slept with "mommy"; Tom Zarek who was probably pretty bad before the Caprica-shattering-kaboom and dared to pull a mutiny on Galactica
- In Professional Wrestling, any wrestler in his late 40s and beyond who can still kick ass and take a beating definitely counts.
- Abraham Bernstein from V is a Holocaust survivor who figures out exactly what the Visitors' real agenda is and does everything he can to fight them, including teaching some kids the proper way to deface a Vistor propaganda poster.
- Cowley from The Professionals.
- Tom Croydon of Blue Heelers has his moments, but special mention has to go to Superintendant Adamson. One episode has him on a raid to flush out a group of dangerous criminals. After the police hold their ground as their car speeds towards them as they are shot at with automatic handguns and rifles, one of the cops manages to disable the vehicle with a shotgun, before a number of police from both stations swarm in. What makes this cool is one of them resists and break away from the officers only to run into Adamson (and Inspector Fawlkner, also aged in his sixties). They both flatten him, making them not only Cool Old Guys but the scene their Crowning Momentof Awesome.
- Lennie Briscoe from Law And Order. When a 60-something year old man is the most popular character in a cast full of Fair Cops and Hello Attorneys, you know he's doing something right.
- Regent Correon from Spellbinder. The oldest and toughest of the Spellbinders, over the course of the series he manages to survive a trip through the Wasteland, takes command of the fanatically anti-Spellbinder Marauders, and trumps Ashka's plans for world domination with just a video camera and some very loyal decoys.
- Gibbs in NCIS
- Also Gibbs' father . Its In The Blood.
- Honorable mention goes to Eli David. Though he's something of a Denethor-like Fallen Hero he is a cool character.
- Ducky doesn't qualify? Come on now.
Video Games
- Suikoden has TONS of badass old guys (and women). Georg Prime grows to be a badass old man in Suikoden II. For Suikoden III, Geddoe's main party consists of mostly old badasses (himself, Joker and Ace). Suikoden IV has Elenor and Lino, while Suikoden V has Galleon and Raja. And these consist of the generally self-proclaimed old. This game has a fruitful bounty of badass adults.
- The first two Shadow Hearts games play this straight with Zhuzhen and Gepetto, who are eccentric but powerful mages, and provide invaluable information on the occult to Yuri and the Naive Newcomer female leads. From the New World plays with it, by making its Cool Old Guy character a quite possibly insane ninja/US Secret Agent who, despite technically fitting the trope, isn't cool in any imaginable sense of the word.
- Not to mention Roger Bacon and Albert Simon, though not playable, are still way cool.
- Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid 4 is depicted as a badass graying elder, capable of kicking as much ass as he did in earlier games. Although he isn't actually that old, he has supposedly aged prematurely because of the primitive cloning method used to create him.
- In a twist on the trope, he's still the main character, and the sort of new generation he'd be a supporting cast member to in a more normal execution are secondary characters.
- Then again, the games do have a very high concentration of cool old guys. Revolver Ocelot is in his sixties and the best gunslinger and Xanatos Gambler in the world. An extreme example is The End, 'the father of modern sniping', who's over a hundred and looks it.
- This troper played the second Metal Gear Solid first, and was introduced to Solid Snake as Raiden's ObiWan and an exceptionally cool old guy.
- In a parallel, Big Boss was Solid Snake's mentor, older and possibly even more badass... as was The Boss when she mentored Big Boss (then Naked Snake).
- Auron, of Final Fantasy X fame, fits this trope to a T. He is in near superhuman physical condition, unshaven, and a no-nonsense hardass. However, most of this is fairly unimportant compared to the fact that he's already dead in the first place.
- Saisyu Kusanagi in The King of Fighters '98. He has much of Kyo's overconfidence but greater knowledge of combat, so it's justified.
- General Luft from the Galaxy Angel Gameverse.
- Lt. Colonel Daitetsu Minase from Super Robot Wars Original Generation captain of the Hagane. Also Major Kai Kitamura.
- Kai isn't actually all that old, however, Rishu Togo definately counts, being an old swordsman who designed the Type 0's sword, and trained both Zengar and Bullet, and also on atleast one occasion CUT BULLETS OUT OF THE AIR. You even get to use him as a pilot in one of the PS 2 OG games.
- Heihachi from the Tekken games. By the fifth one, he's a grandpa who can punch Terminators in half and survive an explosion that hurls him several kilometers away. Without any medical attention, mind you.
- And he launches enemies into space on a ROCKET. Not only is the guy impossible to kill, he's got style
- Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VII have characters named Cid, both of him fall under this trope. The VII version is a complete Jerkass, though.
- More Final Fantasy, Two Words: Ga. Luf.
- Most badass Character in any FF. Oh, 0 HP? so what, I'm not going down until -10,000 HP
- VI had Cyan Garamonde (age 50) and Strago Magus (age 70).
- This troper thinks Cyan in particular can be so hot even at 50 years old, especially in the Yoshitaka Amano art.
- The most imbalanced playable character in the Final Fantasy history: Orlandu, the Thunder God Cid is pretty cool - and pretty old.
- Advance Wars: The old series had Sensei, who is rumored to be Yellow Comets former legendary commander. The new series have Forsythe, another war hero returned from retirement.
- Sensei's coolness is slightly reduced by the fact that he grows weaker in each game. In Super Famicom Wars, where he was still known as Yamamoto, his units were all nigh unbeatable by being a massive 40% more powerful than any normal unit. In Advance Wars 2, his debut as Sensei, only his infantry and battle copters retained his original abilities - and even then only in offensive power, with defense being reduced to average - though he also gained some cool super powers, that still couldn't match his original strength. In Advance Wars: Dual Strike, his infantry had also become total weaklings.
- On the other hand, his CO power in Dual Strike summons a hell of a lot of them, making him arguably a Game Breaker on some maps. He is going just a little senile though...
- Also, Javier, a Don Quixote wannabe who can still kick plenty of ass and has the best lines in the game (in This Troper's opinion).
- "Charge into the toothy maw! For now is the time for a glorious hindspanking!"
- "This day shall be the greatest of days, unless tomorrow is even greater!"
- Malcolm Corley in the Lucas Arts Adventure Game Full Throttle: Not only is he the owner of Corley Motors, the last remaining domestic motorcycle manifacturer, but he's spent a signifigant amount of his youth on the back of a motorcycle, and gets along particularly well with his customers, sharing anecdotes from the 'glory days'. It's a shame to see him die at the hands of his greedy second-in-command about a third of the way through the game.
- Jolee Bindo in ''Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic". He is a very Cool Old Guy, who feigns deafness and senility but who is still a competent fighter and dispenser of sage advice.
- And he's voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.
- Also, Masters Vrook and Vandar.
- Baldurs Gate's Keldorn. Probably in his 50s at least, greying, a bit creaky, yet goes out and smites evil arse with a 2 handed sword and plate mail (his default equipment).
- It is hard to be lawful good and cool at the same time, but he manages it perfectly. The fact that he is the only NPC that can use the uber-paladin sword Carsomyr is just gravy.
- His interactions with Anomen (lawful neutral, thinks he's lawful good) frequently take the form of a Take That at Knight-Templarism and/or Lawful Stupid, the basic message being "if you're not awesome, you're doing it wrong".
- Gorion, too. Admittedly he's dead for most of the time and as such mainly appears in various flashes of the past, and his big Dead Man Writing is ruined when he's apparently retconned to have lied about the PC's mother. But the picture gathered from other characters is that he used to be an active adventurer who probably saw a lot during his life, and had even faced a dragon and lived to tell the tale, leaving it with a few scars. And apparently he used to tell Imoen and the PC stories about everything between heaven and earth, and would hang out with canon über-characters like Khelben Arunsun and Elminster Aumar. When we actually see him for a moment at the very beginning, he defends his foster child against the Big Bad and his minions and ultimately sacrifices himself, unwaveringly telling them to step aside if they want to remain unhurt and then eliminating all the three minions in about one round each before facing off hopelessly against the Big Bad himself until he's cut down.
- Athos the Archsage from Fire Emblem 7. More than 1000 years old and still quite The Dumbledore, aside of being one extremely powerful magic user.
- Not sure he counts, buy Kahadgar from [[Warcraft]] II and World of Warcraft. Krause from the Novels and World Of Warcraft, Maraad Comic and World Of Warcraft, and Meryl Winterstorm The Comic. Also, eventually Ogram Doomhammer, Mediv, and Aegwynn (alright Cool old Lady).
- The Castlevania series has Julius Belmont, who is noticeably older than the cast of the rest of the cast of both Sorrow games. Technically, Arikado/Alucard is much older. He lampshades this by commenting to Soma that "Growing old is a terrible thing," when he is too winded to fight after breaking a dark barrier. This still doesn't stop him from kicking ass in the bonus Julius Mode of both games.
- Pokemon: Professor Oak. Wait, what? Well, in the Adventures/Special manga, at least - Oak actually competes in the Pokemon League, and beats Blue, and without his lab-coat, he looks surprisingly fit for someone his age. The games themselves note that Oak was a top-class trainer before switching professions, roughly around the level of the Elite Four, since he was friends with Agatha. But really, this troper finds Oak a lot more cooler after reading the manga.
- Also, several Gym leaders from the anime are cool old guys. Blaine/Katsura, Pryce/Yanagi (once he gets defrosted when his long-lost Piloswine returns), Juan/Adan and Spenser/Ukon come to mind...
- A playable 20-30 throwing the 15-18 Competence Zone out of balance is a staple of the Tales series.
- Klarth F. Lester, Phantasia
- Kongman Bruiser, Destiny
- Fog, Eternia
- Judas, Destiny 2
- Raine Sage, Symphonia
- There are so much more in Symphonia, as there is the 30-something Regal, the 22-ish Zelos, 28 year old Kratos who is actually over 4000, Presea, who's actually 26, and a crapload of other people who are really, really ooooollldd (and coooool).
- Eugene Gallardo, Rebirth
- Wil Raynard, Legendia
- Jade Curtiss, Abyss
- Ricardo Soldat, Innocence
- Raven, Vesperia
- Innes Lorenz, Hearts, as well as Really Seven Hundred Years Old Kunzite
- Bill from Left 4 Dead, an old Vietnam war vet that constantly has a cigarette hanging from his mouth and a witty remark ready for his younger, upstart fellow survivors. One of the lines you can hear him say as you mow down zombie after zombie is "I'll see peace back on Earth if I have to kill every single one of these monsters with my bare hands!"
- Most of the characters from TF2, with the exception of the Scout and possibly the Pyro, appear to be in the late 40's, early 50's range, making them an entire cast of Cool Old Guys
- Valkyrie Profile Covenant Of The Plume has enough Cool Old Guys to make them a subject of an amusing scene in Seraphic Gate.
- Gouken from Street Fighter 4.
- Soul Calibur's Edge Master.
- Both male teachers from the Rival Schools series, Hideo Shimazu and Hayato Nekketsu, qualify for this by simply being Badass Teachers.
Web Comics
- Thaco from Goblins. Though amazingly, Big Ears seems to be out-badassing him in recent strips.
- Huh? Why those two? Where is it said in the comic that they're especially old?
- Thaco is (literally) old enough to be the other characters' father. He IS the father of one of them. In his first introduction, he was sitting in the 'retirement hut' with two other goblins- one blind from cataracts and one who shakes so much he can't walk without two canes.
- Not to mention that his name is a reference to Advanced Dungeons Dragons Second Edition, which is apparently a good way in the past in the game world — at least one generation ago — and which he was apparently alive to see. As for Big Ears... he never was stated to be. Not even by the original example, if you're paying attention.
- Lord Shojo from the Order Of The Stick. Even Belkar thought he was cool.
- Yeah, but it was mostly because he ordered paladins to clean his cat's litterbox.
- So? Anybody who
orders gets paladins to clean a cat's litterbox has to be pretty cool.
- O-Chul is probably old enough to count, too. Bad-ass enough to resist torture for months while gathering useful information, then escape armed only with a metal bar, he's another example of successfully being Lawful Good and awesome.
- Dan McNinja, father of the titular character of The Adventures Of Doctor Mc Ninja.
- Dr. Disaster from Gunnerkrigg Court. How many teachers' dramatic entrances are greeted with cheers from the students?
- Rocky's 'Grampy' from Too Much Information. He's got a black belt in 3 different martial arts, has fought in 2 different wars, has traveled the world as an adventurer-archeologist, and taught english in inner-city schools. While the rest of the cast are stuck working their way out of a Love Dodecahedron, he hits it off with Cool Old Lady and borderline Manipulative Bastard Rosa Cartman - who, other than being RIDICULOUSLY good-looking for her age, owns a multimillion-dollar corporation. While the young 'uns are still trying to figure their way out of Dysfunction Junction, he hooks up with her, gets laid (on their first date, no less), and elopes with her within weeks.
- Mr. Bear from Achewood, a sharp-witted old pub owner with a broad range of knowledge, who in one story arc handily beat all the younger characters in a contest to see who was the most Badass.[http://achewood.com/index.php?date=06082006]
- Mrs. Primrose from The Inexplicable Adventures Of Bob! Seemingly a cute and chubby little old lady, she's an agent employed by an ancient civilization of dragons, and owns a suit of Bubblegum Crisis-style power armor with which she can fly into space.
- Donovan Deegan isn't as old as some of the other guys on this page, but he probably qualifies, considering he's the father of 3 full-grown men. And he's certainly cool, always upbeat and sociable. Plus he's an awesome swordsman who's pulled some pretty badass stunts (such as slicing his initials into one jerkass's pant seat). And he can play an electric guitar (which is actually a normal guitar powered by lightning magic, which is all sorts of badass).
- Tales Of The Questor has the Eldest. He's apparently the old Raccoonan in the region of Freedom Downs and is a fun loving chap who apparently is one of the few, until recently, there who respects Quentyn.
- Actually, he's the oldest living Racconan— period. As to whether he respects Quentyn or not, it's more a matter of being so old that he doesn't give a tinker's damn what anyone else thinks about anybody.
Web Original
- Tech Infantry has several, including Admiral Karl Von Shrakenberg, Dr. Icarus Hicks, and Colonel Arthur Clarke. Lwan Eddington also qualifies in the later stories.
- The aged
Buddhist Shinto priest and Badass Long Robe Kamimura from Broken Saints, who lost his family to the atomic bomb in World War II, making him at least twice as old as any of the other three protagonists.
Western Animation
- Iroh of Avatar The Last Airbender practically embodies this trope. (Though he's not a Badass Normal)
- And his group, the White Lotus Society, is a whole gang of cool old guys.
- "Welcome to Old People Camp!"
- Doc from Invasion America fits the bill nicely, though that series was less plagued by Competence Zone than most.
- Grandpa Max from Ben 10, especially after he's revealed to be a former MIB who remembers quite a bit from his old job and still has access to his old gear. Generally of the "Dated but loveable personality" type, but swings into "no nonsense" when the situation calls for it... In a nutshell, he's a textbook case.
- He's the same guy who bosses Snake around, making him even more awesome.
- Master Fung in Xiaolin Showdown started out a mentor-type, but with the introduction of Mala Mala Jeong, proved he still has plenty of awesome fighting skills in him.
- Ol' Skool from Get Ed, who uses actual old school gear, but can keep up with the kids he mentors, their enemies, and with Mr. Bedlam as well, much of the time.
- Bruce Wayne from Batman Beyond.
- Makes sense, considering he used to BE Batman.
- USED to be Batman? Tell that to his subconscious!
- Jerry in Totally Spies - on the rare occasion that he's personally called into action, he consistently outclasses the Spies themselves.
- Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures, not only is he the Old Master but he is seen kicking ass as it is needed and will bring pain to those who bring trouble, including the main protagonist.
- Let's not forget his totally awesome Catch Phrase, "One more thing!"
- Aunt Amy in Daria, a splitting older image of the titular character with a more laid back personality. Understandably, she is the most beloved of Daria's relatives and a fan favourite.
- Most "old" characters in Transformers tend to be cool old guys. Since they don't age like humans, the most common cause of death is war-related and anyone who survives to be really really old probably did so by being really really badass.
- Ratchet in Transformers Animated is definitely a badass, despite sporting a beer gut. He's also the team's medic, making comparisons to Bones McCoy even more impossible.
- Kup in Transformers Generation One is definitely a cool old guy, like Animated Ratchet but much less grumpy. Also, in "All Hail Megatron" he gets a bitchin' robot cigar to chew on.
- Even Ratchet's G1 incarnation, who's not really intended to represent any extreme of age the way Kup is, tends to get a lot of this trope. His canon appearances as a competent medic and go-to guy paved the way for his interpretation by the fans. Fandom is especially fond of causing him to bludgeon insubordinate/uncooperative patients with wrenches and other tools, go all Doc Mc Coy even on Optimus Prime's aft, and generally act in a lovably codger-y manner, even ascribing him Cool Old Guy traits such as extreme shrewdness and a wrathfully protective nature regarding his crewmates (the young twins Sunstreaker and Sideswipe tend to be at the receiving end of his lectures and fists, more often than not).
- Vector Prime in Transformers Cybertron is both cool and so old he's made of clockwork.
- Scavenger in Transformers Armada was mentor to Optimus freaking Prime.
- And don't forget Revenge of the Fallen Jetfire. When Scorponok erupts from the sand without warning, Jetfire simply stabs him in the head with his cane, just about as quickly.
- Detective Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov from Stuart M. Kaminsky's series set in Russia. Over fifty when the series started in the '80s, he is lame from a WWII injury involving a tank, but is a champion weightlifter. He once defeated a thug just by holding him in the air, despite all the thug's attempts to get down. (Most of what Rostnikov does isn't brawn but brain, though.)
- Scrooge McDuck in Duck Tales, serving as a faithful adaption to the comics' glory.
- Master Oogway in Kung Fu Panda was quite old when he beat one of the most dangerous known martial artists. Master Shifu probably could have replicated the success 20 years later if not for his sentimental attachment to said artist.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer40000: Logan Grimnar, Chapter Master of the Space Wolves.
- Any space marine, Chaos Space Marine, Necron, Eldar, or Titan princeps. A UNIVERSE of cool old guys.
- Aun'shi of the Tau. One of the few examples of this trope to be only about 38, due to the Tau getting shafted on life expectancy.
- Given the fact that human life expectancy, depending on planet, social status and wealth, can be hundreds of years, it would seem that in 40k, it's a little harder to qualify as cool old guy. Most players will come up with someone from their own army who is cool and old. Abaddon, Vect and so on. Still, there is one cool old guy who every 40k player can admit to being the coolest old guy who ever cooled. Yarrick.
- Elminster from the AD&D Forgotten Realms universe. He loves jokes and riddles. He's an accomplished dancer who loves ice cream and sliding down banisters. He's possibly the game's most powerful character, probably the most powerful wizard.
Theme Park
- Epcot has had two over the years: Dreamfinder from Journey Into Imagination, who flew around in a Cool Ship collecting thoughts and ideas to create all sorts of new things, and served as The Obi Wan to his creation Figment until the attraction was overhauled to remove him. Then there was the Sage of Time from the Tapestry of Nations parade, an aged immortal that tried promoting human unity through his Great Millennium Walk that involved lots of cool puppets and Crowning Music Of Awesome.
Real Life
- Almost any actor over fifty falls into this category by default, especially classically trained ones. This may be because the best and most experienced actors are definitely very charismatic people and can seem like they are cool, friendly, and approachable, even if they actually think young people should be caned (that'll teach 'em for being young). Some of the examples below have been teamed up with considerably younger actresses for their more recent films (curiously, most actresses over 50 don't carry the same cool cachet).
- Jack Nicholson.
- Sir Ian McKellan.
- Jim Broadbent.
- Patrick Stewart.
- Christopher Lee.
- Anthony Stewart Head.
- BRIAN BLESSED.
- Alan Rickman.
- Ron Perlman.
- Harrison Ford.
- Bill Nye (the Science Guy).
- Bill Nighy.
- Sean Connery.
- Morgan Freeman
- Samuel L. Jackson. As of this writing, he's 60, and this troper can still imagine him as a total Badass.
- The late Ricardo Montalban.
- The late Patrick McGoohan.
- Christopher Lloyd.
- Clint Eastwood.
- Peter Cullen hasn't been mentioned yet? Shame on you, fandom.
- Craig Ferguson. Not quite 50 and not classically trained, but dang if he isn't old and cool.
- Dustin Hoffman.
- Peter Cushing, at least according to Carrie Fisher.
- Sir Anthony Hopkins
- Billy Dee Williams
- Many older, respected musicians get this too, though they have an equally large chance of being completely lame (see Paul McCartney). For some reason, Country musicians and Folk Rock musicians tend to get this image more than most genres; it could be because the style and subject matter benefits from a seen-it-all soul writing and/or performing it.
- Johnny Cash
- Bob Dylan
- Merle Haggard
- Tom Waits (He will whittle you into kindlin'!)
- Nick Cave
- Elvis Costello
- Rod Stewart
- Jerry Lee Lewis
- John Paul Jones
- Lou Reed
- Hank Williams II
- Bo Diddley
- Iggy Pop
- Willie Nelson
- Robert Pollard
- Tom Petty
- Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (Though their aging has been frequently spoofed, too)
- Neil Young
- Ronnie James Dio
- Link Wray
- Muddy Waters
- BB King
- Bruce Springsteen
- David Bowie
- If John Lennon were still alive, he'd very possibly be one of these.
- As it stands George Harrison was a COG before he died.
- Everyone from Cream (Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce) They are all like 100 and they still rock all the way to heaven, hell, and back to earth.
- Gene Simmons from KISS
- Leonard Cohen
- Chuck Berry
- Ted Nugent
- The Toxic Twins of Aerosmith.
- Santa Claus, anyone?
- I was going to say something, but the historical Santa Clause or Saint Nicholas was actually a cool old guy. Died at age 73, though he counts as more of a chaotic good than neutral good, which is the alignment of most cool old guys.
- Pretty much anybody who was involved with the Apollo moon missions.
- While this is because anyone brave enough to be an astronaut has to be pretty awesome anyway, Buzz Aldrin in particular qualifies for, after being called a liar about landing on the moon by a conspiracy theorist and at the ripe old age of 72, punching him in the face!
- Brian "Le Petit" Dewhurst, the oldest member of Cirque du Soleil, makes being a clown cool. If that doesn't earn awesome points, nothing does.
- Stan Lee. You've got to have some respect for the man. Anyone could have come up with Spider Man, Iron Man, the X Men, The Fantastic Four, the Hulk...but how many people could have come up with all of them. And he may be Jewish, but he sure is hammy.
- One must also remember to give credit to the incredible Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, both of which played major roles in the creation of these heroes.
- In his later years, E. Gary Gygax.
- King Rama IX of Thailand.
- Mister Rogers.
- Anthony Bourdain. If he's not a COG already, he's definitely going there.
- George Carlin.
- Ask any student or ex-student about their favorite teachers, and chances are one or more of them will fall under this category.
- Um, Hugh Hefner anyone? In his 80s, bangin' woman 1/4 his age: either squicky or awesome. YMMV
- Kofi Annan, arguably. This troper looks back with favour on the days with, under his guidance, the UN actually did something.
- Chuck Norris is a tool.
- Robert Guillaume Even when he was young he seemed like a cool old guy.
- Don Rickles A.K.A., "Mr. Warmth" . Guy's 83 years old but still his mind is as sharp as ever. Very hilarious in interviews. Makes Regis Philbin, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, David Letterman Jimmy Kimmel and Craig Ferguson look like amateurs.
- Arguably Joe Paterno.
- George A. “Banana George” Blair. In case you are not aware of his shtick, he waterskis. Barefoot.
- Benjamin Franklin.
- WWII veterans.
- Roger Waters and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd are both cool old guys in their own way these days...just don't put them in the same room.
- The leadsinger of Fratto Metallo - a whitebearded Capuchin Monk.
- Does John Force count as a Cool Old Guy? Veteran NHRA Funny Car drag racer with 14 championships and counting, and also an all-around cool and friendly person; that has to count for something, right?
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