Appeared with husband Malcolm Williams frequently on Broadway, including "The Typhoon" (1912), "The Painted Woman" (1913), "The Master of the House" (1912), ""Roads of Destiny" (1918) and "Purity" (1930).
Began a long apprenticeship with New York's Fifth Avenue Theatre stock company in 1901, then toured as E.H. Sothern's leading lady, playing Katherine de Vaucelles in "If I Were King", Dulcinea in "Don Quixote" and Ophelia in "Hamlet".
Daughter of an actor-manager, Roland [Lewis] Reed (1852-1901).
Elected to the Actors Equity council board in 1918.
Her grandfather, John "Pop" Reed, was for many decades the gas man at the Walnut Street Theatre and gained a small foothold in American theatrical legend by bequeathing the theatre his skull to be used in performances of "Hamlet".
On January 29, 1939, for President Roosevelt's Birthday Celebration, she and Laurette Taylor did a command performance from their Broadway success "Outward Bound".
One of the grandest of the grande dames of the American Broadway theatre, she appeared in a handful of melodramatic silent movie vehicles and graced a couple of talking pictures (including Miss Haversham in Great Expectations (1934)) as well as 1950s TV, but preferred the stage.