Born in Los Angeles, she and older sister Margaret (born in 1908) moved when she was quite young to Cincinnati, then to Washington D.C., before finally settling in the Hyde Park area of Chicago where the sisters attended Shakespeare Grammar School.
First grew interested in acting when she was cast as the lead in a senior play at Hyde Park High School.
Had three sons by Joel McCrea: Jody McCrea (born 1934), David McCrea (born 1935) and Peter McCrea (born 1955). Son Peter married Jack Lemmon's daughter Courtney Lemmon on March 24, 2001. Both Jody, David and their families live in New Mexico. Frances passed away in Connecticut where she was staying with son Peter.
In 1935, she and her husband Joel McCrea separated, but soon reconciled. In 1966, McCrea filed for divorce, charging Frances with cruelty, however, the couple stayed married until McCrea's death.
In 1995 she donated 220 acres of her Thousand Oaks, California ranch to the Conejo Recreation and Park District to be preserved as parkland. Earlier, in 1981, she and Joel had given 75 acres to the District.
Initially had a screen test for the role of "Scarlett O'Hara" and was actually George Cukor's first choice for the role of "Melanie" in Gone with the Wind (1939), but was deemed by David O. Selznick as being too similar in beauty to Vivien Leigh to play the role. Olivia de Havilland was then given the part.
Met future husband Joel McCrea on the set of The Silver Cord (1933). He had been smitten after seeing her in the movie An American Tragedy (1931) and requested that she be cast in his movie. During the filming, however, she was seeing off-screen co-star Eric Linden. Joel and Frances began dating after the movie was completed, after her romance with Linden was over. It was her relationship with McCrea that compelled her to sign with RKO.
She accepted the role in I Walked with a Zombie (1943) so that she could use her salary to purchase a new automobile for her mother.
The nonagenarian actress was a huge hit at the 1998 Memphis Film Festival in Tunica, Mississippi. Dee's biographer Andrew Wentink said she gained new fame in the 1990s for her role in films that forced the adoption of a Hollywood code on morality in the 1930s.