Raised in Manhattan after being born in Newark, New Jersey, she took the stage name Eleanor Audley before 1940 and debuted on Broadway at twenty-one in the 1926 musical Howdy, King, later appearing in several 1930s productions. In the 1940s and 1950s she became a familiar radio presence, notably as Mrs. Cooper on My Favorite Husband and as Mrs. Smith, the Andersons’ neighbor on Father Knows Best.…
