Appeared on 1950s and '60s stage in such venues as the Arena Stage Theatre and made her Broadway debut as a maid in "Major Barbara" (1956).
Careworn-looking American character actress prominently on the 1950s stage who made an auspicious film debut in mid-career as Tippi Hedren's neurotic, secretive mother in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964). She went on to appear in hundreds of showy, dressed-down film and TV roles often playing small-town wife, drab landlady or opinionated townsperson.
Was actually only 8 years older than Tippi Hedren when she played Tippi's mother in "Marnie" (1964).