Born in Covington, KY. A Lillian Gish lookalike, she began her career as a stand-in for the silent star in such D.W. Griffith films as WAY DOWN EAST (1920) and THE WHITE ROSE (1923), then played the feminine lead in an obscure small-budget production, THE FIFTH HORSEMAN (1924). After several roles on Broadway, she returned to the screen in 1930, playing the key role of Ann Rutledge in Griffith's ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1930). She played leads in a couple of other films, including the thriller THE BAT WHISPERS (1930), then found her niche in comic supporting roles, typically playing a wisecracking friend of the heroine who delivers her biting lines deadpan with a disarming southern drawl. Occasionally she was cast in comic leads, opposite such leading men as Harold Lloyd and Charles Butterworth. Her most productive period was in the 1930s, when she appeared in dozens of films, including DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939), in which she engaged in a memorable saloon brawl with Marlene Dietrich, but she continued appearing in films in a variety of character roles through the late 1960s, and gave one of her finest performances as Geraldine Page's mother in the screen version of Tennessee Williams's SUMMER AND SMOKE (1961). On Broadway she won a Tony® Award for her performance in The Ponder Heart (1956) and was one of the stars of the musical Take Me Along.  Nominated for Supporting Acress 1961: SUMMER AND SMOKE 1 nomination