Actress. She is best remembered for her portrayal of the headstrong Hulda Swenson in "The Scarlet Clue" (1945). Born into a prominent religious family, the third of five children of a minister and a housewife, following her public education in Queens, New York, she attained her degree in communications from Hunter College and began her career as a leading lady in stock companies. While attending a war bond rally at Radio City Music Hall, she was discovered by William A. Wellman. Impressed by her dark good looks, hourglass figure, and soft-spoken voice, he took notice of her potential and arranged for her to begin a career in the film industry beginning with her appearing in a major role in "Lady of Burlesque" (1943). From there, she would go on to flourish as a notable character actress in motion pictures and on stage appearing in over 50 features; often typecast as wives, mothers, relatives, love interests, secretaries, historical of literary figures, detectives, columnists, white-collared workers, southern belles, hard-boiled dames, eccentrics, curmudgeons, nurses, clergywomen, femme fatales, women with a past, playgirls, aristocrats, and matriarchs. She appeared in a prominent supporting role in "Johnny O'Clock" (1947). On the stage, she appeared in such productions as "Street Scene," "The Glass Menageire," "Our Town," "Winesburg, Ohio," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Kiss Me, Kate," "Blithe Spirit," "Dinner at Eight," "The Philadelphia Story," "Jezebel," "A Bill of Divorcement," "The Country Girl," "Thunder Rock," "Margin for Error," "Morning's at Seven," "Leave Her to Heaven," "Old Acquaintance," "Johnny Belinda," "Everybody Comes to Rick's," "There Shall Be No Night," "My Sister Eileen," "Claudia," "Clash by Night," "Desire Caught by the Tail," "The Skin of Our Teeth," "The Land is Bright," "Quiet Weekend," "Private Lives," "The Little Foxes," "Without Love," "No Orchids for Miss Blandish," "The Damask Cheek," "Peaches and Plums in the Spring Wind," "The Voice of the Turtle," "Sorry, Wrong Number," "Your Obedient Servant," "Les Misérables," "A Doll's House," "Anna Lucasta," "Catherine Was Great," "Harvey," "Dear Ruth," "State of the Union," "A Masque of Reason," "Born Yesterday," "Another Part of the Forest," "Happy Birthday," "Vanity Fair," "Over 21," "The Winslow Boy," "The Heiress," "The Old Maid," "Goodbye, Mr. Fancy," "Mister Roberts," "Summer and Smoke," "Detective Story," "Black Chiffon," "Bell, Book, and Candle," "Buy Me Blue Ribbons," "I Am a Camera," "The Seventh Veil," "The Mousetrap," "The Time of the Cuckoo," "Camino Real," "The Rainmaker," "Picnic," "Witness for the Prosecution," "Sabrina Fair," "Tea and Sympathy," "The Crucible," "Separate Tables," "Bus Stop," "The Desperate Hours," "A View from the Bridge," "A Memory of Two Mondays," "Towards Zero," "Holiday for Lovers," "Orpheus Descending," "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," "The Gazebo," "Suddenly Last Summer," "Two for the Seesaw," "Goodbye Charlie," "Sweet Bird of Youth," and "A Hatful of Rain". During her career, she was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, was an honorary member of Actors Equity, had been a regular parishioner of the Methodist Episcopal church, was supportive of the Democratic party, had been a glamour model for photographer Paul Hesse, was accoladed as a 1949 Max Factor Star of the Year, had been described as "The Girl with the Zep of Pozas" per gossip syndicator Louella Parsons, presided as a chairwoman for her local charters of the American Red Cross and the Boys & Girls Clubs, had been the celebrity spokeswoman for Revlon Cosmetics and Tampax, sat on the board of directors for the fashion division of Bloomingdale's, had been a vocalist with the Tommy Dorsey and Harry James Orchestras, had been a theatrical instructor for the Neighborhood Playhouse, and she was married to actor Rick Vallin from 1948 to 1958 (their union ended in divorce and produced one child). Upon her retirement from acting in the mid-1970s, she spent the final years of her life dividing time between her homes in New York and California, and was involved in charitable and religious ventures until her death.