The Case for Older Heroes...

Older heroes? First it’s Bruce Willis who at 55 plans to take out the bad guys in his next Die Hard movie. Yes, number 5 is in the making. Hmm. Maybe Willis is trying to prove that old guys actually do die harder? Then there’s Sylvester Stallone, 64, and some other …uh, shall we say, more mature, compadres who seem to have heard the call. The Expendables recently hit the screen, featuring none other than Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Stratham, Jet Li, Willis and the Arnold himself--all a bit older than the usual action star. Willis and Schwartzenager only had cameo parts, but it’s still a well-rounded cast of aging action heroes. As a writer longing to feature heroes who are a tad older than my sons, I have to ask, are readers willing to get involved in stories with older men as the heroes? If the box office is any gauge, then the answer looks like a big “yes.”

And the guys above are not alone. Red, another movie with “older” action heroes will soon be released. The movie also stars Bruce Willis...along with several other mature actors. Now, I can suspend my disbelief long enough for a laugh as an aging Willis takes out a helicopter with a car (Die Hard IV), but I don’t know if I’m ready for a barrage of geriatric action heroes. Maybe it’s a case of denial…or the fact that all the older heroes seem to be presented as funny. I don’t know. Anyway, I had to check it out.

The movie Red is a parody of over-the-hill- action heroes based on the cult DC comic’s graphic novels about a team of geriatric ex-CIA Agents. Red stars not only Willis, 55, but also Helen Mirren, 65, Morgan Freeman, 73, John Malkovich, 56, Richard Dryfus, 62, and Ernest Borgnine, 93. Really? I mean…really? Okay—the success of the novels alone is enough to make me curious...and after seeing the movie trailer, I have to say, I can’t wait to see it!

And that’s what brings me to ask...are readers ready for older heroes in a traditional romance novel? I say, given a good story, anything goes. But because of the type of books I write, my heroes are almost always in their early 30s, meaning 31 or 32. The only truly “older” hero I’ve written was in my first book--one of my most successful, btw. The hero turned out to be the little girl’s grandfather. Granted, he was a young grandfather, but he was over 40. I’d like to do a little more of that.

That’s not to say I haven’t read some romance novels with older heroes here and there. I have. But it's not the case in “most” of the romance novels I’ve been reading. And, fact is...I like my heroes well-seasoned. I like them to know what the world is all about. While I don’t see older heroes, say in their 40s and, gasp, 50s, becoming the norm for the traditional romance genre, I like them, and it would be nice to see a few more here and there.

What do you think? Do you like your heroes well-seasoned? In a well written novel, will die- hard readers of traditional romance embrace older heroes? This inquiring mind wants to know.