Simpsons: How Old Is Mr. Burns? Every Change To His Age Explained

The Simpsons is full of characters with a lot of secrets, among those Mr. Burns, the town’s richest and oldest citizen – but how old is he? Created by Matt Groening in the 1980s, The Simpsons had its start as a series of animated shorts for The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. After three seasons, it was developed into a half-hour prime time show and made its official debut on Fox in 1989. Since then, The Simpsons has become the longest-running American scripted primetime TV series, and has also expanded to other media, most notably comic books and film.

The Simpsons follows the many ups and downs of the title family as well as those of their close friends and a couple of enemies in the fictional town of Springfield. Although the series doesn’t have one definitive villain or antagonist, one that often plays the role is Homer’s boss, Charles Montgomery Burns, best known as Mr. Burns, who is also the most powerful man in town and owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

Related: The Simpsons: Ned Flanders' Real Age Explained (& How It Changes)

Mr. Burns is the stereotypical corporate boss who often forgets about his employees and lives for the money – the more, the better. Mr. Burn’s backstory has been explored a couple of times, but there’s one detail about him that remains a mystery due to its inconsistency: his age.

The Simpsons: Mr. Burns' Real Age Explained

Mr. Burns was supposedly born in 1886, which by the time the series debuted would have made him a 103 year-old man, and given that characters in The Simpsons aren’t supposed to age, that would be his age through the whole series, except it isn’t. In season 2’s episode “Simpson and Delilah”, it’s explicitly said that Mr. Burns is 81 years old, but in later episodes like “Who Shot Mr. Burns (Part One)”, “Homer the Smithers”, and “A Hunka Hunka Burns In Love”, he was mentioned to be 104 years old. Mr. Burns’ age changed again in “Fraudcast News”, where he claimed to have been 89 “for a while now”, and as the episode aired in 2004, that would place his year of birth as 1915.

Other allusions to his age go way beyond being 104 years old. He has said his age is four digits, confirmed when he enters his ATM password, which is his age, and it’s four digits long. Burns has been shown in 19th century images looking as old as he does now, and he claims to have survived 12 economic recessions, eight panics, and five years of McKinleynomics. In other episodes, specifically in flashbacks, he’s either the same age or younger than Abe Simpson, but back in the present day, he’s actually older. And then there’s Cornelius Chapman, Springfield’s oldest citizen at 108 years-old until he passed away right after being kissed by Britney Spears when receiving the Springfield Award for the oldest person, with Burns immediately taking his place.

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Mr. Burns’ age has been the writers’ way to make multiple jokes and references to historical events and other details, so it’s not possible to know what his exact age is. However, with all that has been said about it, and putting special attention to him being younger than Cornelius Chapman, Mr. Burns’ age can be placed between 81 and 107 – how he chooses to handle the question about his age, is up to him. Of course, this is one of those mysteries that The Simpsons will never explain, as it would put an end to many jokes, so in way, it’s up to every viewer to choose how old Mr. Burns really is.

Next: The Simpsons Future Timeline Explained (Properly)