Born January 18, 1895, as Virginia McSweeney[4] in Chicago, Illinois, she got her acting start in Milwaukee with a stock company.

"[citation needed] Most of her films were made between 1924 and 1927, and included Alfred Hitchcock's debut feature, The Pleasure Garden (1925), Paid to Love (1927), with William Powell, and Evening Clothes (1927), which featured Adolphe Menjou.

[citation needed] Her first sound picture was The Isle of Lost Ships with Jason Robards Sr. and Noah Beery Sr. in 1929.

[citation needed] In 1931, she married her second husband, actor Charles Farrell.

[citation needed] She suffered a stroke in 1966, and died two years later, aged 73, in Palm Springs.