She was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, emigrated to the United States with her family when she was a child and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.
Her background was in the Stanislavski method and in New York at the beginning of her career she worked with Isaac Boleslavsky and Maria Ouspenskaya.
After leaving the Neighborhood Playhouse she went to Atlantic City, where she started her own theater and produced her own shows.
Her students over the years included Shirley MacLaine, Florence Henderson,[2] Charlotte Rae,[3] Edmond O'Brien, Valerie Harper,[4] Raymond Burr, Julie Newmar, Ralph Waite, Lilia Skala, and Ann B. Davis.
She was married to Arthur H. Singer, a writer and story editor on the third season of the original Star Trek series, until his death in 1978.