15 Female Stars Who Were Broads Back In The Day

Being the millennials that we are, sometimes we just can't appreciate how gorgeous some female celebrities were when they were in their prime, especially if it was before we were born! Just like our daughters might not grasp just how flawless Gigi Hadid's face is, how Beyoncé's body is fit for worship or even the entire concept of the Kardashian family, we never realized that some of the older singers and actresses we see today were once just as dazzling! That's not to say that with age inevitably comes ugliness because these women are still beautiful today! But we know them from the roles they play as crazy nannies, wise professors, strict moms, psychologists, and bitter mothers-in-law, and before looking into it, we just couldn't picture any of them posing in bikinis or being the it-girl on the front of a magazine. Here are 15 female stars who were gorgeous back in the day.

15 Emma Thompson

There's one thing we have to get straight about the fabulous Emma Thompson. Her acting talent is so immense that we had to watch her ten times before we could even begin to take in what she looks like! This is the lady who plays the mysterious Nanny McPhee, the stubborn author P.L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks, and Professor Sybil Trelawney in the Harry Potter films. Some of the characters she's played have been pretty eccentric, and like we said, we first and foremost think of her as an amazing actress with some serious talent before we process how she looks now or how she might have looked in the early 1980s when she made her TV debut. It turns out that she was absolutely beautiful! It doesn't look like she was the type of bikini-wearing, hair-blowing-in-the-wind kind of girl, but just a younger version of her elegant and poised self!

14 Sally Field

We'll personally always think of Sally Field as Miranda Hillard from Mrs. Doubtfire, no matter how many photos we see of her from back in the day, in which she's wearing bathing suits and frolicking carelessly in the sun! Sally Field is another impeccable actress who not only totally nailed the serious, control-freak sort of personality that Miranda had but also perfectly pulled off her other roles. It's also hard not to think of her as Mrs. Gump from Forrest Gump, and we totally can't forget the remarkable performance she gave in Not Without My Daughter, where she had to smuggle her daughter out of the Middle East illegally. Sally first appeared on film in 1962 and has pretty much been rocking it ever since. It's not that we've ever thought of her as unattractive, but we've just thought of her as the standard mom, so seeing pictures of young, carefree Sally is definitely interesting!

13 Jessica Lange

It's pretty obvious that Jessica Lange is still gorgeous today, but just like with the other ladies on the list, in the movies of our time she plays older roles, so we can't appreciate the extent of her allure! First appearing in the coveted role of Dwan in King Kong in 1976, Jessica Lange was established as a symbol of desire from then on. In many of her other roles since then, she similarly played beautiful leading ladies with her flawless face plastered on nearly every cover! It's easy to understand that Jessica was really the J-Law or Margot Robbie of her day. She did an amazing job of troubled wife and mother Leigh Bowden in Cape Fear and has also brought to life Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire and Sandra Bloom in Big Fish. Plus, we love her all the more for appearing in American Horror Story!

12 Diane Keaton

Diane Keaton has always been on our radar for being a fine actress, but again she's a mother in our eyes! We loved her performance as Sybil Stone in The Family Stone, and the way she dealt with having the uptight Meredith Morton (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) as a potential daughter-in-law. We'll also never forget her from The First Wives Club, where she played sweet Annie who finally got back at her manipulative husband. Seeing footage of Diane from back in the day does open the eyes a little bit. We'd have the same reaction looking at old photos of our moms when they were young and doe-eyed! Diane landed her first movie role in 1970 in Lovers and Other Strangers, but her performance as Kay in The Godfather was really what caught the world's attention! Seeing Diane as a young girl getting slapped by Al Pacino was definitely a shock to the system!

11 Maggie Smith

First and foremost, bless Dame Maggie Smith! She brought to life one of our favorite characters of all time, Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter series, and we'll forever be grateful. In so many of the roles we've seen her in, she plays the pretentious older lady who commands respect from the entire room, like Lady Gresham in Becoming Jane, Violet Crawley in Downtown Abbey and Lady Hester Random in Tea with Mussolini. So yes, photos of young Maggie in strapless dresses is quite a sight! She looks absolutely gorgeous, but we bet she was just as feisty back then! She's also played sweet older ladies, like Granny Wendy post-Peter Pan phase in Hook, and Muriel Donnelly in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. She first made her debut on BBC Sunday-Night Theatre back in 1955 and has since then appeared in no less than 82 films and television series. You go, girl!

10 Priscilla Presley

Her face may look a little different today, but there's no denying that Priscilla Presley is a natural beauty! She was the envy of every English-speaking girl when she became Mrs. Elvis Presley in 1967, and though the marriage only lasted until 1973, Priscilla still had a whole life of great achievements ahead of her! She became a mother in 1968 when she gave birth to her first child, Lisa Marie Presley, and opened a clothing store in Los Angeles in 1973. After Elvis's death, Priscilla became the chairwoman of Elvis Presley Enterprises, and helped the trust grow to be worth more than $100 million! Those are some serious business skills! Priscilla also has her own successful fragrance line, has produced a number of films, and has also starred on TV show Dallas and in the movie series The Naked Gun. She's even dipped her toe in the world of pantomime!

9 Cher

To be fair, Cher really doesn't look that much different today to how she used to look. She's 70 now and still looks fabulous! Cher's had a career that's extended over five decades, and while Madonna may be the Queen of Pop and Britney may be the Princess of Pop, most people think of Cher as the Goddess of Pop. She first rose to prominence as one-half of the pop duo Sonny & Cher, and then had several rises and falls as a solo act. She's experimented with more musical styles than we can count and has made twice as many comebacks, so we know that on top of being naturally beautiful, Cher is persistent and creative! She's also starred in a number of films, including The Witches of Eastwick, Moonstruck, and Tea with Mussolini. And we really want to know how she's maintained her looks for all these years!

8 Tina Turner

Tina Turner is now only a few years away from turning 80, but it doesn't shock us at all that she was once a symbol of desire! Although Tina's looks are obviously attractive, her allure came from the energy she had on stage and that soul that you just can't fake. Remind you of anybody? Yep, we're pretty sure that Tina was the Queen B of her time! Heck, Beyoncé and Tina performed together at the 2008 Grammys and watching it you'd think there was no age difference between the two performers! Like B, Tina has also had a film career alongside her singing success, starring in the musical Tommy and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. She's been dubbed the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll and is still showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, she's currently working on bringing out a musical about her life story. Can't wait to see it!

7 Goldie Hawn

Goldie Hawn is another celeb who doesn't surprise us at all with her beauty in old pictures! In our time she's played older roles, but she definitely doesn't have that standard-mom vibe that some of the other actresses on this list have! She's always had more of the young-at-heart thing going on. We think of her as Elise from The First Wives Club, a role which was totally different in personality to that of Diane Keaton's. She also starred as Suzette in The Banger Sisters, and she's one of those actresses that no matter her age, always seems youthful and playful, and she always looks good! Not a bad way to be! Plus, we weren't shocked to see that Goldie was even more beautiful as a young girl because we can already see her daughter, Kate Hudson-one of the hottest actresses of our time. Those are some damn good genes!

6 Jamie Lee Curtis

To us, Jamie Lee Curtis is another great actress who has the ability to be so diverse that we don't really picture her as any personality in particular! Lately, we've seen her in more mature roles, such as Nora Krank in Christmas with the Kranks, Dr. Samantha Ryan in NCIS, Aunt Viv in Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and of course, strict mom and psychologist Tess Coleman in Freaky Friday. But we also remember her as the seductive Wanda Gershwitz in A Fish Called Wanda or as Helen Tasker in True Lies, and we can totally see that Jamie Lee was definitely gorgeous! We love how she's always had the confidence to rock the pixie cut, and ever since her acting debut in the late 1970s, she's always been able to pull off a variety of roles. Although it was nearly 30 years ago that she played Wanda, Jamie Lee doesn't actually look that different!

5 Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon's acting talent also speaks for itself, and while we do have a particular image in mind when we think of her, it isn't impossible to picture her as the young girl she once was! She's another actress who has an extremely commanding presence, as we've seen in roles such as Louise Sawyer in Thelma & Louise, Grandma Lynn in The Lovely Bones, and Jackie Harrison in Stepmom. She can also play softer characters, like the forgiving Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking, and we've seen her play the insecure wife in Shall We Dance. Susan first made her TV debut in 1972 and has since then built an iconic career. You can tell from the pictures of her when she was younger that she definitely is naturally beautiful and full of charisma, and it's also cool to see her play Janet Weiss in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

4 Julie Andrews

Most of us instantly think of her as either Mary Poppins or Sister Maria from The Sound of Music, so we already know that Julie Andrews was gorgeous back then. But still, she's one of our favorite actresses ever so we have to put her on the list! Like Emma Thompson, Julie was never really the leading lady that would have men lusting over her, but she was always sophisticated and elegant and instead demanded respect for her acting and musical talents. We also know her as Queen Clarisse Renaldi from The Princess Diaries, and even though she might look different to how she looked when she played Mary Poppins or Sister Maria, her authoritative presence hasn't changed one bit! There's always been something a touch royal about her, and her debut role was as a princess in 1949. She's also played Cinderella in a TV special, and the performer Gertrude Lawrence in Star.

3 Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda will always be Jennifer Lopez's crazy mother-in-law Viola Fields from Monster-in-Law to us, so it's actually eye-opening to see pictures of her in her youth! She clearly always had dazzling blue eyes, clear skin, and enviable blonde hair, plus a smoking-hot figure, but it's more the personality that gets us. We just associate her with evil in-laws and strong grandmothers who manage to save the whole family, like her role of Georgia in Georgia Rule. To see her play the leading lady is a little different! She first got her start in 1960 when she played June Ryder in Tall Story and continued to ace all the roles she was given until 1990 when she took a hiatus after starring as Iris King in Stanley & Iris. Jane didn't come back to the big screen for 15 years after that, eventually returning to do Monster-in-Law in 2005. She definitely didn't lose her touch!

2 Diana Ross

With rumors swirling that she was Michael Jackson's real mother, it's no news to us that Diana Ross was one of the most striking women of her time! Beginning her career as the lead singer of the Primettes in 1955 at the age of 15, it was clear to industry execs that Diana Ross definitely had something special to offer. The group evolved into the Supremes and shot Diana to international fame with a string of number-one hits throughout the 1960s. Diana is another lady whose charm comes from her talent and stage presence, but you can't deny that she was also a looker! Diana also worked on her film career during the 1970s and starred in productions like Mahogany and Lady Sings The Blues. Even though she's over 70, Diana still performs in sequin-laced dresses with all the sass of her younger self. She is also the inspiration for Beyoncé's Dreamgirls character, Deena Jones!

1 Martha Stewart

That's right! The top lady on our list is Martha Stewart, simply because we know everybody thinks of her as the ultimate chef and businesswoman, and nobody has any idea that she was a stunner! Martha has always been ambitious and began modeling at the age of 15. She took modeling jobs all the way through college to help her pay her expenses and was earning around $50 an hour. She also worked for clients like Chanel, just casually! But Martha is perhaps the ultimate example that a girl can be more than just a pretty face, and along with her modeling success, Martha also earned herself a double major in History and Architectural History and gained top cooking, sewing, and gardening skills from her parents. She worked as a stockbroker before starting a catering business and was eventually contacted to write a cookbook. You know the rest. What a superstar!