Gordon was born on 16 May 1882 in Glasgow, Scotland, the fifth of seven children of Mary and Robert Gilmour, a wire weaver.

After her husband died during World War I she opened a boarding house to support her mother, her baby daughter, and herself.

[citation needed] Gordon came to the United States with her mother and daughter soon after World War I ended.

[3] With her mother and daughter, she arrived in Los Angeles in the mid-1920s and began playing variations on the roles she would spend her career on.

She entered retirement just as television reshaped the entertainment industry, making only a single appearance in that medium.