While most men of their age are ready for their bus pass, some Hollywood veterans are still ready for action.

Steve Pratt discovers why screen heroes don't act their age

WHEN I reached 60, I grabbed a bus pass, not a bullwhip. Most people at this age grow paunches, not throw punches, they fight wrinkles, not screen villains. In short, they act their age. Not Hollywood veteran Harrison Ford. He wants to play the action hero. With familiar hat on his head, battered leather jacket on his back and bullwhip in hand, he returns as the archaeologist adventurer in a fourth Indiana Jones movie.

In a few months Ford will be able to have a double celebration - his 66th birthday and the box-office grosses of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, set to be one of the year's biggest hits.

He's not alone in revisiting an iconic character.

Sylvester Stallone, 62 in July, did it twice with Rocky and Rambo. Bruce Willis, a mere youngster of 53, revived his vest-wearing cop John McLane in a fourth Die Hard.

Steven Seagal continues to knock out villains and straight-to-DVD movies (a staggering two dozen films in a decade) when others his age - 57 - have put their feet up to play kindly grandpas.

Younger action men are being left standing by these elder screen statesmen. They're failing to keep up with the Indiana Joneses. Actors like Matt Damon, who reinvigorated the thriller genre with the Bourne trilogy. He and Daniel Craig, who made the ladies swoon by emerging from the sea in brief trunks in his James Bond debut film, Casino Royale, lag behind when the votes are counted.

Ford has received backing from the public. A Pearl & Dean poll to find the greatest screen action hero saw Ford and Willis tie for top place. Third place was filled by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who swapped acting for politics after one last outing at the Terminator at 55. Damon and Craig were way down the list.

IT seems I'm not alone in preferring the older breed of action hero. Film fans agree that the new leading men can't hold a candle to the old school," says Pearl & Dean chief executive Kathryn Jacob. But why are all the old heroes coming back?

"It's jobs for older actors. It keeps them off the street," says Ford.

He gets away with looking like an action hero in Indy 4. Others who refuse to abandon roles that made them famous, or simply can't get any other work, tend to look increasingly silly. Steven Seagal has been unkindly described as "fat and puffyfaced"

in recent appearances.

Stallone, accepting that audiences prefer seeing him without his shirt, resurrected his two most famous franchises - along with his career - in the past year. At 60, he climbed back into the ring as boxing champion Rocky and managed to pull it off.

He was less successful with Rambo as his Vietnam veteran seemed out of place in today's war-onterror climate.

Ford's a better actor who doesn't rely on solely flexing his muscles to create a role. "Indy's a fallible character," says producer Frank Marshall. "He makes mistakes and gets hurt. He has a few aches and pains now. That's what people like. He's a real character, not a character with superpowers."

The price paid by mature actors was illustrated by Stallone's arrest at Sydney Airport last year when muscle growth serum was found in his baggage. Some ageing action men will go to any length to keep up appearances.

Ford didn't want to resort to trickery in his Indy return. "That's one of the things I was most keen about. Just acknowledge the years without reservation. What's the big deal? The guy's 18, 20 years older. So what?," he says, protesting just a little too much perhaps.

He's had to put up with jokes about grey hair and aching joints while his looks have been closely scrutinised in a manner usually reserved for female celebrities in gossip magazine photo spreads, where any sign of cellulite or wrinkles is pointed out.

If Ford needed it - and his lawyers should note I'm not suggesting for a moment that he does - he could have had help in keeping young and beautiful. New technology can take care of sagging skin, creaking bones, thinning hair, paunches and back problems.

A spot of haemorrhoid cream round the eyes has a tightening effect and irons out the wrinkles.

Actresses have long used this trick, along with a spot of vaseline on the camera lens to give them a glowing look. Don't bother with cosmetic surgery, try digital enhancement to remove those telltale signs of ageing and enable you to echo fading actress Norma Desmond's words in Sunset Boulevard: "Ready for my close-up, Mr De Mille".

Okay, so you look younger. Coping with all the running, jumping and fighting demands another way of faking it, although nothing beats experience. An older actor has the benefit of doing stunt work in the past, so he knows what he's capable of as well as the pitfalls.

They're still able to ride horses, duel and do their own fights because those sort of skills never desert them, but might need longer in the gym than a younger man to get fit.

They don't have to worry too much because the health and safety people or the insurers won't let them do anything too dangerous.

Ford and younger co-star Shia LaBeouf were able to call on assistance making Indy 4, resulting in Ford doing more stunts than he did in the third film, thanks to wires that could be removed digitally.

Ford wanted to do the action in the old-fashioned way, at the same time acknowledging new methods.

"Shia and I had a flying suit, a custom-built harness we could attach to a wire, so if something went wrong we would have a safety net," he says. "For the warehouse leap, my hands are holding on, but I am safetied by a wire they took out digitally."

If Ford comes across as a grumpy old action man that has to do with his liking for privacy. He wouldn't have reprised Indy unless he wanted to and anticipated enjoying himself.

"There's something about the character that I guess is a good fit for me because the minute I put the costume on I recognise the tone that we need and I feel confident about the character," he says.

It's not like he needs the money. He could retire and have a quiet life but obviously gets a kick out of proving he's still capable of keeping up with younger Hollywood actors.

He does admit to liking the sense of family that making the movie with old collaborators brought.

Perhaps that comes with age too. With director Steven Spielberg, 61, and Indy creator and producer George Lucas, 63, around it must have been more like an old boys club than a movie set.

* Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (12A) is now showing in cinemas.