June Squibb is a renowned American actress, having received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Born in 1929 in Vandalia, Illinois, this city was once the state capital from 1819 to 1839, but has since remained a small city. Internationally, Vandalia is notable for being the setting for Jules Verne's novel "An Antarctic Mystery" (1897),in which the protagonist is from Vandalia.
Squibb's parents, Lewis and JoyBelle Force Squibb, played significant roles in her early life. Lewis was an insurance agent and served in the United States Navy during World War II, while JoyBelle was a talented pianist who won the World Championship Old Time Piano Playing Contest twice, in 1975 and 1976.
Squibb began her acting career with the Cleveland Play House, a professional regional theater company in Ohio. She received additional training from the HB Studio in New York City, led by Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen.
By 1958, Squibb regularly performed at Off-Broadway theaters in Manhattan, and made her Broadway debut in 1960 in the musical play "Gypsy" by Arthur Laurents. She was cast as Electra, a fellow striptease artist.
Throughout the 1960s, Squibb continued her acting career, also working as a model for romance novels and a character actor for commercials.
In 1990, at the age of 61, Squibb made her film debut in the romantic fantasy "Alice". She went on to appear in various films throughout the 1990s, including "Scent of a Woman", "The Age of Innocence", "In & Out", and "Meet Joe Black".
In 2002, Squibb had a more notable role in the comedy-drama film "About Schmidt", playing Helen Schmidt, the wife of protagonist Warren Schmidt.
