Johnny Dollar left this comment on my blog yesterday:

i don’t care what the haters say, i’m looking forward to the new indiana jones movie.

i saw raiders in the theaters and haven’t missed one since.

I am also very much looking forward to the forthcoming Indiana Jones flick, and intend to see it on the opening day. I was three or so when Raiders of the Lost Ark came out, and I think the first — and only — Indy flick I’ve seen on the big screen was The Last Crusade. (My favorite, if you’re wondering, is actually the one that takes place the earliest: The Temple of Doom.)

But I thought I’d take this opportunity — with the help of YouTube — to talk about Indiana Jones and all the ages we’ve seen him. Because, the truth is, five actors have portrayed the man with the hat: Corey Carrier, River Phoenix, Sean Patrick Flannery, Harrison Ford, and George Hall.

We’ll start here:

Yeah, you know River Phoenix portrayed Young Indy in the opening of The Last Crusade, but you might not know about The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, which aired on ABC, and featured Corey as child Indy …

… and Sean Patrick as Indy in his late teens and early twenties:

When these episodes originally aired, they were “bookended” with segments featuring George Hall as Old Indiana, a ninety-year old man wandering around museums and sliding down bannisters. Unfortunatly, when these 45-minute episodes were edited for VHS release (they’re now available on DVD), these bookend sequences were cut, and this was one of the few George Hall as Indy clips I could find:

Which of course begs the questions: Where the eff is his fedora? (He does wear it in some episodes!) And, WTF happened to his eye? Maybe we’ll find out in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull …

Meanwhile, however, the bookends didn’t always feature George Hall as Old Indy. In one episode, a Not-Quite-So-Old Indy was portrayed by …

… Harrison Ford! This was one of the few times The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles played The Raider’s March in the score. This was filmed during a break on “The Fugitive”, which is why Indiana has a beard. According to a quick google search, the bookend of this episode was set in 1950 and Indiana is 50 (although filmed 5 years after “The Last Crusade” which was set in 1939, Indy has aged 11 years to Harrison’s five) — in “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, Indy will be a measely 57 (so, do the math: Harrison will now have aged fifteen years to Indy’s seven…)

I think he’s still capable of wielding his bullwhip …

… and, last but not least, let us not forget Mr. Potato Head’s turn as Indiana.