Morgan Freeman Was Older Than You Thought When He Filmed The Shawshank Redemption

Morgan Freeman became a movie star later in life than many others. He was born on June 1, 1937 and caught the acting bug early, while in junior high school. However, after graduating high school in 1955 he joined the Air Force, only to discover that being a fighter pilot wasn't truly what he wanted, as he told AARP Magazine (via Biography). 

He began his acting career in the 1960s, but didn't become a movie star until he was 50 years old. In 1971, in his mid-30s, he starred on the children's show The Electric Company, and continued to work in television, movies, and theater until he received his big break in 1987's Street Smart, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Then, in 1989, he starred in Driving Miss Daisy with Jessica Tandy. He received an Oscar nomination for each of the two films (he finally won the award itself in 2005, for Million Dollar Baby).

As for The Shawshank Redemption, it was filmed between June and September in 1993, before being released the following year. At the time of filming, Freeman was 56 years old. 

For Freeman, though, his mid-50s would prove to be a relatively early stage of his career, as he would go on to film Amistad, Invictus, the aforementioned Million Dollar Baby, the Dark Knight trilogy, and more than 80 other projects. He remains active today, five decades after he started, at age 83. Hopefully, he'll stay that way for another few decades.