Celebrity
June Squibb Waited More Than 65 Years for This Career Milestone
At 96, June Squibb became the oldest Tony Award nominee in history for ‘Marjorie Prime,’ and she’s not necessarily done pursuing new achievements yet.
At 96 years old, June Squibb is still accomplishing new things. More than six decades after making her Broadway debut in Gypsy, the beloved actress has become the oldest Tony Award nominee in history. It’s her first-ever Tony nomination, received for her work in the Broadway production of Marjorie Prime.
To hear Squibb reflect on her career, she admits she never envisioned doing anything else. Squibb told CBS Mornings that she knew from a very young age, before she had even seen anything in the theater, that she wanted to act. “I always knew that I was an actress. It never occurred to me that I was anything else,” she shared confidently.
As extensive as Squibb’s career has been, it wasn’t until the 2024 comedy Thelma that she landed her first leading film role. Despite that, she never considered her career to be one that was filled with missed opportunities. She told The Guardian in July 2024 that she never wished she’d landed more big roles. “Not ever. I was doing exactly the jobs I wanted to do.”
For the 2026 Tony Awards, Squibb is nominated in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play. She is nominated alongside Betsy Aidem for Liberation, Marylouise Burke for The Balusters, Aya Cash for Giant, and Laurie Metcalf for Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
While Squibb is beloved by Broadway fans for her theater work, she has done dozens of television and film roles, as well. In 1985, she had her first television role, playing a lunchlady in a CBS Schoolbreak Special. She has appeared on soap operas, on iconic TV shows, and lent her voice to animated projects. In Zootopia 2, Squibb could be heard as the voice of Gram Gram.
Squibb hasn’t had to audition for roles in years, and she loves that “I don’t feel I have to prove myself anymore — I’ve grown out of that.”
While she is now 96 years old, Squibb isn’t necessarily planning her retirement quite yet. She told the Guardian, “I’m not saying I don’t want to retire, but people keep asking me to do things, and so I do them.”
Many performers spend their later years reflecting on past achievements. Squibb, meanwhile, is still creating new ones. More than 65 years after making her Broadway debut, she is earning career-first honors, taking on new roles, and proving that some dreams can come true at any age.
