Rare photos of young June Squibb resurface as 96-year-old makes Tony Awards history

With the nomination, June surpassed the previous record holder, Lois Smith, who was nominated in 2020 at the age of 89 for The Inheritance. 

The veteran star was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role or Play alongside Betsy Aidem (Liberation), Marylouise Burke (The Balusters), Aya Cash (Giant) and Laurie Metcalfe (Death of a Salesman). 

June portrays an elderly woman with dementia who uses an AI hologram of her late husband to preserve her memories in Marjorie Prime.  

She is a legend of the stage, having gotten her start at the Cleveland Play House and in Off-Broadway roles before making her Broadway debut back in 1959 as Electra in the original production of Gypsy. 

She also starred in productions like The Happy Times, Waitress, Sacrilege and Gorey Stories. 

It wasn’t until her later years that she began to light up the screen in TV shows and films like Meet Joe Black, Nebraska, Thelma, All My Children and more recently, in Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor the Great.

While June didn’t become a household name until her twilight years, rare photos of her as a young woman have been circulating on social media amid the news of her nomination. 

June has shared throwbacks from her earlier years on Instagram, including a snap taken from her time performing at the Cleveland Play House in the ’50s. It was here that she performed shows like Marseilles, The Play’s the Thing, The Heiress, Detective Story and Ladies in Retirement. 

“One from my days at the Cleveland Playhouse #tbt,” she wrote on Instagram, alongside a black-and-white photo of her mid-performance. “Another #tbt,” she shared next to a picture of her holding up a mirror so her co-star could shave. 

“#TBT to Silk Stockings Musical in Upstate NY. Circa 1960’s. If I had a guess, I would call this my ‘Chic in Crow’ look. I don’t know where I was flying, but I had to look fabulous doing it,” she later posted, with a snap of her in a black dress with a large black feathered headpiece on. 

The actress shared that her career has blossomed in recent years as there was a “greater interest in the aging process”, and more roles for older women being created. 

“There’s more work for people my age than ever before. We now have leading ladies in their 50s and 60s, and we never had that before in film,” she told The Guardian. 

As for whether she will retire from the stage and screen, June isn’t ready to throw in the towel just yet. 

“I do keep wondering: ‘Well, gosh, how much longer will I keep doing this?’ I have no answer for that,” she said. “I’m not saying I don’t want to retire, but people keep asking me to do things, and so I do them.”