While many actors tend to hide their age as they get older, Barbara Stanwyck wore it like a badge of honor. A veteran of both film and television, Stanwyck explained that aging was inevitable during an interview with the Associated Press. She truly had no desire to run from it.

"You can't turn off the years, and I'm not sure you'd want to," she said. "I never wanted to get mixed up with coloring my hair - it does something to a woman. For one thing, I started to get gray in the back of my head, and I couldn't see it so it didn't bother me. Then when I turned white in front, I discovered dying it meant devoting about six hours at a clip to the hairdressers - and there just isn't that kind of time in my life."

While Stanwyck was more than willing to play her age, she wanted to ensure that strong and confident women were still being depicted on television. "I just didn't want to play the part of a darling old lady with a lavender blanket over my knees, who needs that?" she said.

It made perfect sense; Stanwyck wasn't some frail old woman, so why should her characters be? Stanwyck was known for tough-as-nails characters like Victoria Barkley of The Big Valley. Through and through, the actor was hardworking and determined, a rarity in the entertainment industry, regardless of age.

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The Big ValleyBarbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck got her big break when she refused to perform a screen test for Frank Capra

"I guess that I really just like to work," she said. "And the way I keep working as well as I can is to make believe it's motion picture we're making every week."

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