Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1871 (or 1868 according to other sources), Kruger had a long career on stage before appearing in films.

[citation needed] She portrayed Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in Marie Antoinette (1938)[4] and the almost mother-in-law of Rosalind Russell's lead character in His Girl Friday (1940), after already playing an in-law to Russell's character four years earlier in Craig's Wife.

In 1942, she appeared as the subversive society matron Henrietta Sutton in Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942).

On radio, Kruger played Emily Mayfield on Those We Love and the captain's wife on Show Boat.

[5] Kruger died of natural causes April 5, 1960 in a nursing home in Seattle, Washington.