He was only 50 in 1985 when Cocoon came out, but played a senior citizen — and he achieved meme status as the comparison for aging in Hollywood.
Wilford Brimley’s career started in the late 1960s and early ’70s from The Waltons TV show to The China Syndrome, Absence of Malice, The Natural, In & Out, and Cocoon.
He was diagnosed with diabetes in 1979 and spent decades raising awareness on the disease.
Now an account notes when a star has crossed the “Brimley/Cocoon Line.”