A BROADWAY STAR IS BORN. HER NAME IS JUNE SQUIBB

AT 96, THE ACTOR LANDS THE LEAD ROLE IN THE NEW YORK PREMIERE OF 'MARJORIE PRIME.' DESPITE HER RELATIVELY RECENT RISE TO SUPERSTARDOM, HER SUCCESS IS NO LARK.

- CHARLES McNULTY

JUNE SQUIBB, an old pro when it comes to dealing with the theatrical press, was in place for her interview at the kitchen table. The Upper West Side apartment, where she's staying while starring in the Broadway play "Marjorie Prime," was overrun with birthday flowers. Three days earlier, Squibb turned 96. She spent the day rehearsing and celebrated with the company, an arrangement that suited this proud working actor just fine.

Our meeting took place on a Sunday morning when many New Yorkers are setting out for brunch. Squibb had the day off but was still hard at work, answering yet another journalist who wanted to know: How does it feel after such a long career to finally play the lead on Broadway? Squibb made her Broadway debut in the Ethel Merman-led production of “Gypsy” as a replacement for one of the strippers whose bawdy gimmick is electric lights. What would she have said if someone had told her back then that she'd eventually get a starring role on Broadway, but that it wouldn’t happen for another 65 years? “I would probably laugh a lot,” she said. “How insane!” But would she have considered it a happy prophecy? “Oh, yeah,” she answered straight away. “The idea that I’m still working at that age!”

Since receiving an Oscar nomination for her performance in Alexander Payne’s 2013 film “Nebraska,” Squibb has become a senior citizen superstar. She had a starring role in Josh Margolin’s 2024 movie “Thelma,” an action comedy about an unlikely 93-year-old vigilante who jumps on a motorized scooter to reclaim the money she lost in a scam. Squibb plays the title character in “Eleanor the Great,” Scarlett Johansson’s film that came out this fall about a 94-year-old whose accidental lie grows to epic proportions after the media get hold of the story.