Born: 14 July 1960, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
“I was 40 by the time I started making money at this … and I was happy before that,” Jane Lynch told CNBC in 2017.
Best known for her role as the villainous cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on Glee from 2009 to 2015, Lynch, who was born in 1960, was a working comedy performer long before that. She toured with the Second City comedy troupe and performed in productions with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and others before moving to commercials and television shows like Married…with Children, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and Frasier in the 1990s. A chance meeting with a director led to her being cast in more significant roles in the 2000 comedy film Best in Show, followed by A Mighty Wind (2003), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), For Your Consideration (2006), and Julie & Julia (2009). But it was her continuing work in television that brought her to the attention of Ryan Murphy, who would cast her as the love-to-hate character on Glee. Her performance on the show earned her an Emmy in 2010 and a Golden Globe in 2011. In addition to making her Broadway debut as another infamous comedy villain—Annie’s Miss Hannigan—she continued appearing in films and other television shows during the run of Glee. Her guest role on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel landed her another Emmy in 2019, while her work hosting Hollywood Game Night earned her two more.
Lynch’s memoir, Happy Accidents, was published in 2011 and detailed her struggles with her sexuality as a lesbian and maintaining relationships as well as alcoholism (she’s been sober since she was 30). As she advised in the 2017 CNBC interview, “if you’ve got some goal that you think you need to be somewhere by the time you’re some age, that’s so stupid. Don’t do it. I never had that goal.”