She Started Her TV Career at 61 and Did Her Own Stunts at 94 — See How This Lady Redefined Aging

She had spent years performing in regional theaters and national tours before finally stepping in front of a camera. By then, she was already in her sixties, with decades of experience behind her and no expectation of fame. But her screen presence, though late to arrive, is impossible to overlook.

Over time, she became known for portraying strong-willed women in small but striking roles. And then, well into her nineties, she took on an action-heavy lead role that didn’t just push boundaries, but rewrote them entirely. Her story is a rare blueprint of how talent, persistence, and timing can collide, regardless of age.

She was born in 1929 in the small town of Vandalia, Illinois, to JoyBelle and Lewis Squibb. Her mother, a talented pianist, once played live accompaniments for silent films, while her father sold insurance and served in the Navy during World War II.

Though her family didn’t fully understand her passion, performing felt natural from the start. Her earliest role was Goldilocks in a school production, but her real stage was far from a theater. Her paternal grandparents often brought her along to local taverns, where she’d tap dance across the wooden tops.

The entertainment earned her grandparents free beer and gave her an audience. After high school, she left Vandalia and headed to Chicago, and from there, joined the Cleveland Play House in the early 1950s. It was there that Jack Lee, a musical director who would later work on Broadway, urged her to sing.

She followed his advice and began landing comedienne roles in musicals, which laid the foundation for her decades-long stage career. It was during this time that she truly realized acting was her life’s calling.

By 1959, she had made it to Broadway, landing her first major role as a stripper in the original production of “Gypsy,” where she performed alongside Ethel Merman. That same year, she also appeared in an Off-Broadway revival of “Lend an Ear,” sharing the stage with Elizabeth Allen.

The momentum continued into the following decade. In 1968, she was cast in “The Happy Time,” a musical that would go on to be nominated for a Tony Award for Best Musical. She returned to Broadway in 1995 to perform in “Sacrilege,” opposite Ellen Burstyn.

In between, she appeared in national tours, regional productions, summer stock, and Off-Broadway performances. These roles helped her build a reputation for dependability and range. Her work wasn’t limited to the stage. She also taught acting at HB Studio after moving to New York City.

Even as roles evolved and opportunities changed, she remained a constant presence in theater, adapting to its demands and staying active well into her 50s. By the early 1990s, film production had started booming in New York, and she noticed many of her theater colleagues making the leap to screen.

At 61, she decided to do the same. “I think I should be doing this too,” she told her agent. Within a week, she was auditioning for Woody Allen’s film “Alice.” She landed the part, playing a maid in the 1990 romantic comedy.

That role opened the door to others almost immediately. Casting director Ellen Lewis, who had taken notice of her, recommended her to Martin Brest, who cast her in “Scent of a Woman” with Al Pacino. Lewis also introduced her to Martin Scorsese, who gave her a role in “The Age of Innocence,” again as a maid.

Suddenly, after decades of stage work, she found herself appearing in three major films back-to-back. It didn’t take long for her to be seen as a film actor in her own right. The late start didn’t slow her down. Instead, it marked the beginning of a new, prolific chapter.

Following her first few films, she quickly established herself as a reliable presence in television and film. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, she appeared in a variety of television shows, including “Law & Order,” “ER,” “House,” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

She also took on roles in films like the 1997 comedy “In & Out,” where her talent for sharp comedic timing stood out. A turning point came in 2002 when she was cast in Alexander Payne’s “About Schmidt,” playing Jack Nicholson’s wife.

The role brought her broader industry recognition and gave her “a legitimacy in the film industry.” It also marked the beginning of an important working relationship with Payne. More than a decade later, Payne cast her again in the 2013 film “Nebraska,” as the outspoken and unfiltered Kate, wife to Bruce Dern’s Woody and mother to Will Forte’s character.

She brought a biting humor to the role that critics and audiences embraced, and the performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Reflecting on it later, she said, “Everything Kate says is unfiltered… I channeled a little bit of my mom in that role.”

From the beginning, the actress, June Squibb, never accepted the narrow expectations that came with being a woman in show business. As early as her 30s, she was aware of how quickly women her age were being edged out of roles.

“Oh God, I fought it my whole life,” she later shared. “From the time I was a little girl and being told: ‘This is what a boy does, this is what a girl does,’ I never understood it.” Her early years in New York made the reality even clearer. “When I was a young, good-looking actor… people looked at me as an object.”

Like many of her contemporaries, she found ways to cope, but she also got angry. Decades later, when the #MeToo movement emerged, she and her peers in their 80s were struck by how familiar those experiences were. “We were, like, ‘Oh my God, we’ve lived this our whole lives,'” she recalled.

She credited her late husband, acting coach Charles Kakatsakis, for encouraging her to push past typecasting. They were together for 40 years, until he died in 1999. He saw something deeper in her work and believed she could take on more serious roles.

Studying in his classes was challenging. “I would be in class crying and saying, ‘I can’t do this,'” she recalled. “I was older than most of the other students… it was a conglomeration of feelings, I’ll tell you that.” But they were transformative.

In June 2024, Squibb took on something she had never done before — a leading role in a feature film. At 94, she starred in “Thelma,” a comedy-action film inspired by real-life events, written and directed by Josh Margolin. The story follows a grandmother who receives a phone call claiming her grandson has been in an accident and is in jail.

She’s told to wire $10,000 to get him released, and she does, only to find out it was a scam. The scam, known as the “grandparent scam,” has impacted many seniors, including members of Kelly Clarkson’s own family, as she noted during an interview with Squibb on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”

Margolin’s idea for the film came from his own grandmother, who was nearly tricked in the same way. “They found out that she was going to do this and stopped her before she actually sent the money,” Squibb revealed. From there, Margolin imagined what would have happened if his grandmother had followed through.

He concluded that she would have taken matters into her own hands. That version of events became the foundation for “Thelma.” Squibb’s character does exactly that. Furious at being duped, Thelma launches a full-blown mission to get her money back.

Drawing inspiration from Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible” franchise, the film places her in one over-the-top scenario after another. There’s a scooter race, a shootout, and a full-on stunt sequence. Remarkably, Squibb did almost all of the action herself.

“That was me,” she said during her appearance on Clarkson’s show. “The only thing I didn’t do was that wheelie thing, where she picks up the wheel. I couldn’t do that. But other than that, it was me driving the scooter—with Richard Roundtree sitting behind me.”

She also performed a bedroll while holding a gun, delivering the move with confidence. “Oh yeah, it was fun,” she added, laughing. Director Margolin confirmed her physicality was critical to the film’s tone and spirit.

“The movie really couldn’t exist without her,” he said. “She’s got such a unique mix of grit and vulnerability.” Though the film is packed with comedy, it deals with serious themes about aging and vulnerability. Squibb hoped that, alongside the film’s warning about scams targeting seniors, it would carry another message.

Life is to be lived,” she said. “OK, I’m 94. There are no rules when you stop and think about it. You make your own — forget rules. Everything should be forgotten, I think, except: go out and have a good time. Live the life you want to live. To hell with how old you are.”

Even in her tenth decade, Squibb maintains her independence. She lives in an apartment complex in the San Fernando Valley, where she moved from an upper-level unit to the ground floor. The change came at the urging of her son, filmmaker Harry Kakatsakis, who wanted to make it easier for her to avoid stairs.

“And I have a wonderful assistant without whom I couldn’t keep working,” she shared. Her daily routine is simple but structured. The first thing she does every morning is care for her two cats. After that, unless she’s on set, most of the day is hers.

“I have no trouble getting around,” she said, though she admits that tiredness is a real part of life at her age. Still, her energy and presence remain steady, and her schedule stays full. Inside her apartment, the walls offer a visual timeline of her seven-decade career.

One display features memorabilia from “Gorey Stories,” a Broadway show she performed in back in 1978. There’s also a photograph of her with her longtime friend, the late Sheila Smith, and a sketch titled “Peaches & Cream” — a nickname she and Amy Schumer gave themselves while filming “The Humans” in 2021.

Despite her age, Squibb continues to work. In addition to “Thelma,” she recently lent her voice to the character Nostalgia in “Inside Out 2,” appeared in an episode of “American Horror Stories,” and portrayed Gladys Sokolowski in “Lost & Found in Cleveland.”

She also wrapped filming on “Eleanor the Great,” the directorial debut of Scarlett Johansson. What’s notable about this phase of her career isn’t just her continued presence on screen, but the kind of roles she’s being offered. “It’s funny to me, after all these years, people now act like this is the first time I’ve done it,” she said.

And at 95, she’s not finished. When asked what kind of role she’d still like to try, she didn’t hesitate. “I would love to do a Western,” she said. “I’ve never done one. I rode really well when I was younger. I don’t know how well I would ride now! But it’s something I would love to do.”

“I started working at the Cleveland Playhouse in 1952, and I have just never stopped,” Squibb previously stated. When asked about ageism in show business, she answered plainly, “It’s like anything else. I always feel, rules are meant to be broken.”

Squib stayed in the industry long enough for it to catch up with her. In an age that still often sidelines women as they grow older, Squibb’s presence reclaims space. She didn’t just defy the limitations placed on her. She dismissed them altogether.