She was educated in France; made her stage début at the Royalty Theatre, London, in 1865; came to America in 1868; and toured the United States under John Templeton's management.

[citation needed] In 1879 she played Buttercup in the first American production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pinafore.

She joined Daniel Frohman's stock company at his old Lyceum Theatre, where she appeared in more than 25 plays between 1887 and 1899 including The Wife (1887), The Charity Ball (1889), and Trelawny of the 'Wells' (1898).

She became Broadway's resident old lady character player after the death of Mrs. G. H. Gilbert in 1904.

Mrs Whiffen in later years appeared in Zira (1905); The Great Divide (1905–07); The Builder of Bridges (1909); The Brass Bottle (1910); Electricity (1910); Cousin Kate (1912); Tante (1913); A Scrap of Paper (1914); Rosemary (1915).