Born in London, England; trained at RADA. The daughter of a poet and a journalist who divorced when she was four, she was raised partly in Paris, where she decided to devote her life to the theater after seeing Sarah Bernhardt perform. She made her London stage debut in 1914 and the following year went to the US, where she soon became one of Broadway's leading stars. She founded the famed Civic Repertory Theatre in New York in 1926 and directed and starred in many of its productions through 1932 when it folded as a result of the Depression. She later directed or appeared in numerous other plays on Broadway and in stock, but she only appeared in three films: PRINCE OF PLAYERS (1955 - Gertrude in Hamlet), THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE (1959 - Mrs. Dudgeon), and RESURRECTION (1980 - Grandma Pearl). She was nominated for an Academy Award® as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in RESURRECTION. She also received a special Tony® Award in 1964 and numerous other prizes. In 1961 she was honored with the Norwegian Grand Cross of the Royal Order of St. Olav for her work in furthering the presentation of plays by Ibsen, and in 1968 she received the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan. In addition to doing several play translations and stage adaptations, she wrote two volumes of memoirs, At 33 (1934) and With a Quiet Heart (1953), a children's book, Flossie and Bossie, and a study of Eleonora Duse, The Mystic in the Theatre (1966).  Nominated for Supporting Actress 1980: RESURRECTION 1 nomination