
*Sheryl Lee Ralph is set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 29, marking a milestone in her decades-long career.
In a PEOPLE cover story, the “Abbott Elementary” star reflects on how her career began to flourish in her 60s, and how she embraces the idea that life improves with age. The mother of two adult children is enjoying the rewards of her hard work, with no plans of slowing down.
“If you don’t make it at 20 or 30, so what? Hold on to your dreams, because you can make it at 40 or 50, and it ain’t over when you’re 60,” the 69-year-old actress shared.
“One day I was on a plane, and Cicely Tyson said, ‘Many great things are going to happen to you. Many, many, many,’ ” Ralph told the publication. “The elders have been good to me, and they would not be surprised.”
The Emmy winner is filming the fourth season of the acclaimed “Abbott Elementary” series, a show she describes as “lightning in a bottle.”

“But it was not given to me,” Ralph said. “I worked towards this moment, and it took a young person to see and value the work and offer me this way forward,” she said of the series creator Quinta Brunson, a woman 34 years her junior. “That doesn’t happen a lot, but it happened to me.”
After four decades in the entertainment industry, Ralph is busier than ever and isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
“I love a full plate,” she told PEOPLE. “My team says I’m always on the go, but that’s what I’ve known. There was a time where if you didn’t strike while the iron was hot, it wasn’t happening for you. You had to go and get it.”
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