Trivia

On stage from the age of 17, she was in the original Broadway production of "The Women". She regularly acted in films after moving to Hollywood in 1943, and later directed at the Cleveland Playhouse. In 1966 she formed The Player's Production Company, the only professional touring company funded by the California Arts Commission. She was married and divorced from prolific screen character actor Whit Bissell.

She was the daughter of Lenora I. (Stein) and Ralph Adrian Marden/Baruch. Her maternal grandparents were from German Jewish families. Her father, who was of Colonial American (English) descent, took on the name of his stepfather, Emmanuel Baruch, who was also Jewish.