Jo Farkas, Whose Second Act Was Acting, Dies at 96
Jo Farkas appeared in nearly 50 films and television series, as well as a Super Bowl ad and a Pharrell Williams music video.
Jo Farkas, Whose Second Act Was Acting, Dies at 96
Alum followed her dream after retiring as a school counselor
JOSANNE “JO” FARKAS, a retired school psychologist who, in her sixties, fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming an actor, died May 28, 2023. She was 96.
Farkas (Wheelock’49,’60) was born on May 1, 1927, in Boston and was raised in Newton Center, Mass. She earned a bachelor’s degree and later a master’s in school counseling at BU. She was a clinical psychologist in the Baltimore City Schools—she’d done theater on the side—before retiring.
“I decided I wasn’t going to grow old watching the whales go by, so to speak,” she said in a 2018 BU Today profile.
She moved to California and costarred in a San Francisco stage production of Kudzu, which seemed to launch a second career for her. She went on to land roles in nearly 50 films and television series, including the daytime soap The Young and the Restless, her TV debut. She appeared in a variety of dramas and comedies, including Shameless, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Southland, and American Horror Story.
In 2008, she played Bubbie, a sickly Jewish grandmother, on the show Weeds. “I had no words except one burst of Yiddish,” she told BU Today. “It was incredibly boring—I laid in a bed all day. Whenever I was on camera I was in the bed. And I was on camera a lot. But the food was great—they had great craft services.”
She also appeared in films such as Boxing Day, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Forget Paris, and Tank Girl, as well as a Super Bowl ad and the Pharrell Williams music video for “Freedom.”
Farkas was 91 and starting to slow down when BU Today caught up with her in 2018. “I was always a compulsive worker,” she said at the time, “but I’m starting to be happy doing my crossword puzzles, hanging out, watering my plants. I’m amazed I’ve finally gotten to that point.”
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