Actress. She is best remembered for her portrayal of the headstrong Mrs. Spike in "The Lady Eve" (1941). Born Martha Meysenburg, she was raised within a family of wealth and position, the eldest daughter of vice-consul E. A. Von Meysenburg and a direct descendant of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, following her formal education at the Art Students League in New York City, New York, she began her career as leading lady on the Broadway stage appearing in such productions as "His Wife's Family," "The Regeneration," "Under Sentence," "Fair and Warmer," "Double Exposure," "Call the Doctor," "A Bill of Divorcement," and "Ostriches." Upon meeting director Maurice Elvey while attending a social function at the American Museum of Natural History, he was impressed by her professionalism, humble charm, and graceful poise, that he arranged for her to begin a secondary career in the film industry appearing under his supervision per a major role in "Fine Feathers" (1915). From there, she would go on to flourish as a notable character actress appearing in 50 features; often typecast as wives, mothers, old maids, nannies, genial friends, society matrons, dowagers, secretaries, educators, white-collared workers, busybodies, snobs, aristocrats, and firm but compassionate matriarchs. She appeared in such feature films as "Gallant Lady" (1933), "The Last Gentleman" (1934), "So Red the Rose" (1935), "Love Before Breakfast" (1936), "The Thirteenth Chair" (1937), "Judge Hardy's Children" (1938), "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle" (1939), "All This, and Heaven Too" (1940), "For Beauty's Sake" (1941), "Reap the Wild Wind" (1942), and "Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour" (1943). During her career, she was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, was supportive of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, had been an honorary member of Actors Equity, was a member of the Hollywood Democratic Committee, had been a regular parishioner of the Unitarian church, was a theatrical instructor for the Pasadena Playhouse, presided as a chairwoman for her local charters of the American Red Cross and Planned Parenthood, had been the elder sister of stage actress Olive Wyndham, was cited as being "One of the Screen's Most Formative Mothers" per columnist Louella Parsons, and she was married to philanthropist Harry Guggenheimer from 1913 to 1919, and doctor Richard Hoffman from 1919 to 1935 (both unions ended in divorce and her second marriage produced one son). Upon her 1952 retirement following a rare television appearance on the "Lux Video Theatre", she spent the final years of her life dividing time between her homes in California and Connecticut, and was involved in charitable and religious causes, until her death.