A blond, intelligent, charming actress with a distinctive face, she was the famous "Fairy Soap" baby in magazine ads, which led to much work as a child star in silent films, beginning with The Sign of the Cross (1915) when she was five. She maintained her film career into her mid teens, then after her last silent film, Classmates (1924), she went on to a Broadway career. After seven years she returned to the screen as a leading lady in Son of India (1931), then had a very busy screen career in which she usually played nice, amiable romantic heroines; however, she never became a major star. After marrying playwright Sidney Kingsley in 1939 she retired from the screen; she continued acting onstage until 1943, making her last appearance in The Patriots, written by her husband.