Born at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The daughter of a career Army officer, Harding spent much of her youth moving around military bases through the US and Cuba. She dropped out of Bryn Mawr College after one year, and when the family moved to New York, she took a job as an insurance clerk, supplementing her income as a freelance script reader for the Famous Players-Lasky company. She made her stage acting debut in 1921 with the Provincetown Players of Greenwich Village and made her first Broadway appearance later that year. She soon became established as a highly regarded leading lady on Broadway and in stock and her growing reputation resulted in a movie contract with Pathé in 1929. Within a year she was a Hollywood star, typically playing gentle, refined, patrician heroines. Notable screen credits include CONDEMNED (1929), HOLIDAY and THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST (both 1930), EAST LYNNE and DEVOTION (both1931), WESTWARD PASSAGE, ANIMAL KINGDOM and THE CONQUERORS (all 1932), WHEN LADIES MEET and DOUBLE HARNESS (both 1933), THE FOUNTAIN (1934), PETER IBBETSON (1935), THE LADY CONSENTS (1936), LOVE FROM A STRANGER (1937), EYES IN THE NIGHT (1942), MISSION TO MOSCOW and THE NORTH STAR (both 1943), NINE GIRLS and JANIE (both 1944), THOSE ENDEARING YOUNG CHARMS (1945), JANIE GETS MARRIED (1946), IT HAPPENED ON 5TH AVENUE and CHRISTMAS EVE (both 1947), TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE and THE MAGNIFICENT YANKEE (both 1950), THE UNKNOWN MAN (1951), THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT, STRANGE INTRUDER and I'VE LIVED BEFORE (all 1956). She handled her roles with grace and assurance, but in the long run her career suffered from typecasting, as she was seen time and again in a long string of tearjerkers in the part of the noble lady sacrificing all with pride and magnanimity. Harding, who had been married to actor Harry Bannister from 1926 to 1932, retired from the screen in 1937 after marrying symphony conductor Werner Janssen but returned to films in 1942 and through the mid-50s played dignified ladies for various studios. Divorced from Janssen in 1962, she lived in retirement in Westport, Conn.  Nominated for Actress 1930-31: HOLIDAY 1 nomination