imam abu is'haq ibrahim ibn ahmad ibn muhammad ibn raja'a al-warraq al-nisaburi al-abzari [d. 364 AH] imam hakim has said that he began his hadith studies at an older age.
most sahabah started late. and age did not deter them from learning the deen which they passed on to us.
there are many examples of ulama who started late. sultan al-ulama izzuddin ibn abd al-salam is one. shaykh khalid al-az'hari is another. abu bakr al-qaffal al-shafiyi is another famous name. yisa ibn musa ghunjaar al-bukhari is a hadith imam about whom hakim has said: "he was the imam of his age and began to study at an advanced age.."
A few scholars have opined that youth ends at the age of 40. Would be good to see a list of ulama who started their journey in seeking knowledge at this age and later.
not a scholar but my friend was telling me about a person he knows who memorized the Quran at 65. never too late to start.
I think Ibn Hazm started studying in his early 30's- wouldn't be considered a sunni scholar from what I understand though I'm sure there would have been others.
There are many examples of scholars who started at extremely young ages, from Ala Hazrat to Imam Muslim and many more. Are there any examples of scholars and seniors of the dīn who started later in life? Of course this is relative and later could refer to even those who started in their 20s or 30s.