Debra Jo Rupp of 'That 70's Show' Looks Age-Defying at 69 — inside the Actress’ Life Now

Actress Debra Jo Rupp, best known as Kitty Forman in "That '70s Show," is 69 years old nowadays and looks beautiful. She is one of the artists who has helped restaurants amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Born in February 1951, Debra Jo Rupp has been involved in the entertainment industry for decades! She got it quite hard, though, as her parents didn't like the idea of her being an actress.

[Rupp] and Kurtwood Smith will work together as a married couple again.

DEBRA JO RUPP'S EARLY CAREER

After graduating from high school, her parents sent her off to the University of Rochester mainly because it didn't offer a theater class. Fortunately for Rupp, the school opened a Drama department in her freshman year.

Rupp graduated from college in 1974, but only landed her first acting gig on TV in 1987, in one episode of "Spenser: For Hire."

From that point on, she kept working in different shows and films like "The Equalizer," "Davis Rules," and "Death Becomes Her."

DEBRA JO RUPP IN "FRIENDS"

In 1997, Rupp portrayed Alice Knight in "Friends," where she was one of the stars of a six-episode arc quite memorable. Talking to EW, she confessed that she was "horrified" during the first episode of the arc, mainly because all she did was "make out."

Her on-screen love interest was Phoebe's half-brother, Frank (played by Giovanni Ribisi). Their relationship was quite unconventional because Alice was Frank's high school teacher in the past, so their age-gap was significant.

Debra Jo Rupp was also quite older than Giovanni Ribisi, so every time they had to kiss each other (and they did it a lot), she would just close her eyes and go for it.

The actress reprised her role in "Friends" after writers had to include Lisa Kudrow's pregnancy (Phoebe) in the story. They came up with the idea that Frank and Alice wanted to have a child, but since Alice was too old, she couldn't get pregnant.

AFTER "FRIENDS" CAME "THAT ‘70S SHOW"

For that reason, Alice and Frank asked Phoebe to be their surrogate, and she accepted it. The fact that Rupp could work in more than one episode in "Friends" helped "save" her home because, at the time, she was going through a "really bad dry spell."

If making enough money to pay for the rest wasn't good enough, the visibility that came with appearing in such a famous sitcom was quite helpful, as well. In fact, she got three pilots right after that, and one of them was "That '70s Show," where her career skyrocketed.

Debra Jo Rupp portrayed Kitty Forman, Eric Forman's mom, in the show for eight seasons. Her performance as a doting mom and wife of Red Forman (Kurtwood Smith) was a fan-favorite, which is probably why she appeared in 200 episodes.

While the actress has had a lot of TV credits, she has admitted that her preferred medium is the stage because she considers herself a storyteller. Apart from that, Rupp pointed out that she likes the stories in theater, working in front of a live audience, and portraying different roles every now and then better.

DEBRA JO RUPP NOW

After her time in "That '70s Show" ended, Rupp focused most of her time in theaters, as expected. However, she is still very much active on TV. Most recently, she portrayed Janice in "The Ranch," and also had a minor role in "Grey's Anatomy."

In August last year, Rupp made headlines after it was reported that she and Kurtwood Smith would work together as a married couple again in an upcoming comedy.

As EW reported, the comedy pilot follows Nate and Laura (Nate Bargatze and Katie Aselton), a couple from California who choose to move to Tennessee, where Nate's parents (Rupp and Smith) are living. So far, it is unclear when that project will be released.

Rupp also made headlines in May this year, shortly after the coronavirus pandemic started affecting businesses in the US and all over the world, by joining Cameo.com – a website where people can get personalized messages from celebrities.

In a short video shared on her Instagram account, the beautiful 69-year-old actress revealed that all the money raised through Cameo.com would be used to help her local restaurants.

Debra Jo Rupp proved that, apart from being a gorgeous and talented actress, she is also a kind-hearted person.