Winfield Harding Roope was born October 20, 1893, in Allston, Massachusetts, near Boston, the only son of George Winfield Roope and Lucie Mattie Jacobs, a wealthy couple listed in Newton's Blue Book.

[3] He began acting professionally on stage in New York City in the early 1920s, and continued to do so for almost thirty years, appearing both off and on Broadway.

[5] From March 30, 1949, to April 9, 1949, he played Colonel Jared Rumley in the comedy The Biggest Thief in Town.

[5] Fay Roope portrayed generals, admirals, and colonels in such movies as From Here To Eternity, Rock Hudson's Seminole, the Gary Cooper comedy You're in the Navy Now, and the original version of the science-fiction classic film The Day the Earth Stood Still.

[citation needed] Faye Roope played judges in Raymond Burr's Perry Mason TV series, had a continuing role as Mr. Botkin in the long-lasting western Gunsmoke, and appeared as an older man of authority in many TV Westerns of the 1950s.