Born in San Francisco, California in 1876, the daughter of two Shakespearean actors, George Caine and the former Jennie Darragh,[2] she travelled with them when they toured the country.

[2] She made her last Broadway appearance in 1935, in Damon Runyon and Howard Lindsay's A Slight Case of Murder.

[8] With her stage career fading, Caine took advantage of the advent of talking pictures to change her focus and moved to California to work in Hollywood.

In 1930, Caine made her first film, Good Intentions, and in the next twenty years appeared in 83 films,[citation needed] mostly playing character roles[citation needed] – mothers, aunts, and older neighbors[2] – although she occasionally played against type, such as when she was a streetwalker in Camille (1936).

Appearing as Barbara Stanwyck's evil mother in Remember The Night (1940), she became part of Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actresses, appearing in seven other films written by Sturges: Christmas in July, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Hail the Conquering Hero, The Great Moment, Unfaithfully Yours, The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend and The Sin of Harold Diddlebock.