June Squibb was born November 6, 1929, to Lewis and JoyBelle Squibb in Vandalia, Illinois. Her mother was in show business since before Squibb, an only child, was born. In addition to golfing, JoyBelle was an expert piano player, playing for silent movies starting in the 1920s. Squibb’s father was in insurance and served in the Navy during WWII.

June Squibb Biography

From the time she was young, Squibb knew that she would be an actress. “It’s funny, cause I never thought in terms of ‘well, I would like to be,’ or ‘I want to be,’ it was always ‘I am’ and I just grew up thinking ‘I am an actress,’” Squibb told Uinterview exclusively. “Any chance I had in school or anything, to act — I learned how to dance, I was a tap dancer – and so any chance I had to perform, either as an actress or as a dancer I did, and then I started singing later, when I was an adult. But [laugh] it just never occurred to me that I would ever do anything different than that.”

June Squibb Theater Work

Before acting on film and television, Squibb was a hit in the theater world. In 1958, Squibb had her first theatrical role in the Off-Broadway play The Boyfriend. A year later she acted in the Off-Broadway revival of Lend an Ear. Squibb’s Broadway debut came in the original 1960 production of Gypsy as stripper Electra. In 1968 Squibb appeared in the Tony-nominated play The Happy Time. During the interim periods Squibb did romance novel modeling and commercials.

In 1995 Squibb appeared in Sacrilege, and in 2012 she played Stella Gordon in Dividing The Estate at the Dallas Theater Center. Squibb appeared in several national tours, summer stock, and Off-Broadway performances throughout the years.

June Squibb Filmography, Television

Squibb’s first film role was Alice, directed by Woody Allen. She went on to appear in dozens of acclaimed films, including Scent Of A Woman, The Age Of Innocence, Meet Joe Black, About Schmidt, Atlas Shrugged Part I and Nebraska. In 2016, Squibb starred in the drama film The Visit, in which she plays the aging mother of Sean Maher. In 2019, Squibb lent her voice to Toy Story 4, and in 2020 did so in Disney Pixar’s Soul.

Squibb made appearances in many television programs over the years, such as ER, House, The Bill Engvall Show, The Young And The Restless, Cold Case, The Ghost Whisperer, Two And A Half Men, Shameless and Law & Order.

June Squibb ‘Nebraska,’ Interview

In 2013 Squibb worked with director Alexander Payne for a second time — the first time was for the film About Schmidt — in the Academy Award-nominated film Nebraska, which stars Bruce Dern and Will Forte. Squibb was happy to hear that her work got her nominated for an Academy Award for Actress In A Supporting Role. “The film had done really well at the Golden Globes and SAG and Critics but I think we all feel that the Oscars is the big one,” Squibb told Uinterview exclusively. “I was just thrilled to be included in that.”

Squibb enjoys working with Payne because of how he relates to the actors. “He’s a director that understands actors and that’s always great,” Squibb told Uinterview exclusively. “I would be coming on the set and bringing what I feel this should be, and I know the scene where I told the family off and that wonderful word was yelled out, he didn’t know how he wanted it, so we did it over and over and over. We did it softer, we did it louder, we did it very strong, we did it a little like she might be intimidated by saying it. We went everywhere you could go with that, but that’s the kind of director he is, and he will just say ‘louder,’ ‘softer,’ ‘faster,’ and then he’ll get into what he wants emotionally from the scene.

Squibb came to understand her character, Kate Grant, well, and admired her. “She has no filter. She probably never had a filter; I can see her being like that at 15,” Squibb told Uinterview exclusively. “I think she’s very faithful, she’s loyal to that husband and I don’t think she would ever leave him, and she will protect those two boys to her dying breath, this is the kind of mother she is. And I think she’s had a lot to contend with — his alcoholism and now the beginning of a dementia setting in, but she’s very strong lady.”

June Squibb Personal Life

Squibb has been married three times. She was married to and divorced Edward Sostek, then was married to her acting teacher Charles Kakatsakis until his death in 1999. She had one child, director Harry Kakatsakis, by her second husband. She is not known to be involved with anybody at the moment.

June Squibb, Age News