Her father was a mining engineer, a gold prospector, and a grocery store proprietor, and her mother was a maid in homes and in a hotel.

Compson's star began to rise with the release of the 1919 feature The Miracle Man (1919) for George Loane Tucker.

She played the role of Blanche Davis, a girl born to wealth and cursed by her inheritance of physical beauty.

[9] Her contract with Paramount was not renewed, and she decided to freelance, working with lower-budget studios such as Columbia in The Belle of Broadway and Chadwick in The Ladybird.

During this time, she was suggested as a replacement for difficult Greta Garbo in the MGM feature Flesh and the Devil opposite John Gilbert.

Her performance as manipulative carnival girl Carrie garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress,[10] although she lost to Mary Pickford in Coquette.

In the same year, she appeared in the acclaimed Josef von Sternberg film The Docks of New York in a sympathetic portrayal of a suicidal prostitute.

In fact, Chaney offered her the female lead in his first talkie The Unholy Three, but she was too busy and instead suggested friend Lila Lee.

Compson's last film was 1948's Here Comes Trouble; after retiring from the screen, she began a cosmetic line and helped her husband run a business called Ashtrays Unlimited.

[12] For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Compson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street.