A popular social media post in February 2026 claimed to show photos of two actors taken 60 years apart as stunning evidence of how the two generations aged.
A post on Reddit alleged that Sean Connery, the original on-screen James Bond, and former child actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster, best known for his roles in "Game of Thrones" and "Love Actually," were the same age — 34 — when the photos were taken.
Commenters on the Reddit thread mostly focused on how much younger Brodie-Sangster appeared in comparison to Connery, even though both actors were allegedly the same age.
There was something in the milk in the 60s. Sean Connery and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, both photographed at age 34.
by u/Pure-Contact7322 in midlyinteresting
The post claiming that Connery and Brodie-Sangster were each 34 years old in the photos were technically miscaptioned, but we rated this claim as mostly true because the men were very close in age. Connery was actually just a month shy of 34 — slightly younger than Brodie-Sangster — in the image.
The Connery photograph is credited to Comet Photo AG (Zürich). It was taken in Andermatt, Switzerland, according to the image database ETH Library Zurich. The image shared in the claims is actually a cropped version of the full photo, which features Connery alongside Tania Mallet, his co-star in the 1964 James Bond film "Goldfinger."
The caption for the photo read, "Sean Connery as James Bond and Tania Mallet as Tilly Masterson during '007 - Goldfinger' shooting at the gas station 'Aurora' in Andermatt."
Keen-eyed viewers will note the clothing Connery and Mallet wear in the photo matches the wardrobe of the characters in the film during a chase sequence on a mountain road in Switzerland. A clip of the scene appears on the official James Bond YouTube page.
The date provided on the photo was rendered as "11.7.1964," which according to the common European date convention of putting the day before the month would be July 11, 1964. We've reached out to ETH Library Zurich to confirm that their rendering of the date puts the day first, and will update this article if they say otherwise.
July 11 fell during principal photography for the film. According to "Kiss Kiss Bang! Bang!: The Unofficial James Bond Film Companion," filming for "Goldfinger" "ended with location shooting at Andermatt in Switzerland between 7 and 11 July."
Connery was born on Aug. 25, 1930, which would technically make him 33 years old at the time of principal photography for "Goldfinger." Therefore, he was actually slightly younger than Brodie-Sangster at the time of their respective photographs.
By comparison, the photograph of Brodie-Sangster can be found in full on Getty Images. The photograph was taken during a red carpet event for "Wolf Hall: The Mirror Mirror and the Light," a BBC One television series the actor appeared in. According to Getty Images, the photo was taken Nov. 4, 2024, at BFI Southbank in London.
Brodie-Sangster was born May 16, 1990, meaning he had been 34 years old for around five months at the time of the photograph.
There are many different reasons why people of similar ages may age differently, including "environmental or lifestyle factors," according to Cleveland Clinic. One major factor is smoking, which was far more pervasive in the 20th century than it is today and may be a contributing factor to why people in older photos often seem to have aged faster.
Previously, we investigated whether a photo authentically showed an 18-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger posing with a classmate who was also 18.