Iconic Actor, Who Got His Big Break In His 60s, Turns 83 originally appeared on Parade.
Anyone who says it’s too late to shoot for the moon has likely never met Tobin Bell.
The actor, perhaps best known for his chilling performance as Jigsaw in the Saw film franchise, recently turned 83, but if you watch any of his recent work, he’s still in his prime.
Unlike a lot of Hollywood stars, who are cast in their breakout roles in their twenties or thirties, Bell had to wait a few decades longer to earn household recognition. In fact, Bell was in his sixties when he landed the role of a lifetime. But, playing one of the most legendary villains in horror cinema history was never exactly what he had in mind.
“I always thought I was going to be a romantic leading man,” Tobin told the LA Times in 2024. While Bell certainly had the chops— he studied with Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn at the Actors Studio in New York City throughout the 1970s— he never quite made the cut. He landed bit parts and small roles, but it wasn’t enough to be an actor full-time.
“I worked at 53 part-time jobs to keep myself going for more than 20 years in New York,” he said. “I loaded trucks, parked cars at the Hilton garage, bused tables, waited tables, tended bar. I worked as background and a stand-in in 35 films before I ever spoke.”
To date, Bell has over 100 films and shows under his belt, and he is a living, breathing example that the age-old saying, “there are no small parts, only small actors,” is completely true.
“I’ve learned more doing crap than I’ve learned doing good stuff,” he said. “Because you have to try to make it better, more interesting.”
By the early aughts, Bell had been cast as the dark and mysterious father of Patrick Dempsey’s character on Once and Again. Amy Lippens, the same casting director that cast the ABC series, was working on assembling the cast for the first Saw film, and Bell’s sharp, one-of-a-kind voice immediately came to mind for the role of Jigsaw. At the time, Bell was in his early sixties, but he knew he was about to embark on something big.
“The attractiveness of the film, for me, was: I had never worked with Danny Glover, and I wanted to work with him,” he said in a 2017 interview. “I thought that three guys locked in a room was, like… no one was making films about three guys locked in a room. And it threw to Waiting For Godot, for me, on some level.”
From there, the rest is nothing short of film history. Bell has reprised his iconic role in seven subsequent films, sending chills down spines around the world. And, the octogenarian has no intention of slowing down or retiring his iconic character.
“I’m really excited about continuing to develop him,” he told the LA Times. “John Kramer is not done. There’s more to learn.”
Iconic Actor, Who Got His Big Break In His 60s, Turns 83 first appeared on Parade on Aug 8, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 8, 2025, where it first appeared.
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