Actress. She is best remembered for her portrayal of the wholesome Mrs. Kyle in "Della" (1965). Born Sarah Eleanor Taft, she was raised within a family of wealth and position. After being employed as a reporter for the Whitter News between 1920 to 1925, she took an interest in acting while attending several theatrical shows during the course of her penning reviews for entertainment columns and began a secondary career as a leading lady in stock companies. While attending a luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hotel, she was introduced to director Fred de Cordova. Impressed by her mature appearance, wholesome disposition, and calming voice, he decided to make further use of her abilities and arranged for her to begin appearing in the film industry starting with her appearing under his supervision via a supporting role in "Katie Did It" (1951). From there, she would go on to flourish as a recognizable character actress appearing in over 55 features; often typecast as wives, mothers, grandmothers, old maids, nannies, gossips, busybodies, clergywomen, neighbors, landladies, eccentrics, curmudgeons, white-collared workers, secretaries, historical or literary figures, indigenous people, dowagers, aristocrats, wealthy widows, socialites, housekeepers, and matriarchs. She appeared in such feature films as "You Never Can Tell" (1951), "Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair" (1952), "Take Me to Town" (1953), "Brigadoon" (1954), "The Benny Goodman Story" (1956), "The Kettles at Old MacDonald's Farm" (1957), "Vertigo" (1958), "The Hangman" (1959), "The Story of Ruth" (1960), "Parrish" (1961), "Bon Voyage!" (1962), "Donovan's Reef" (1963), "The Best Man" (1964), "Blackbeard's Ghost" (1968), "Death of a Gunfighter" (1969), and "The Mechanic" (1972). On television, she appeared in numerous guest spots on such syndicated sitcoms as "Boston Blackie," "Panic!," "The Californians," "The Court of Last Resort," "My Favorite Husband," "Shirley Temple's Storybook," "M Squad," "Highway Patrol," "Goodyear Theatre," "Death Valley Days," "The Loretta Young Show," "Whispering Smith," "The Law and Mr. Jones," "Tales of Wells Fargo," "Perry Mason," "The Untouchables," "The Rifleman," "The Twilight Zone," "Stoney Burke," "The Lloyd Bridges Show," "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour," "The Farmer's Daughter," "My Three Sons," "The Wild Wild West," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Ben Casey," "A Man Called Shenandoah," "CBS Playhouse," "Judd for the Defense," and "Peyton Place." During her career, she was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, was supportive of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, had been a regular parishioner of the Catholic church, was a member of the Hollywood Republican Committee, had been a commercial model for the Forbes Agency, was a theatrical instructor for the Pasadena Playhouse, presided on her local charters of the American Red Cross and the Boys & Girls Clubs, sat on the board of directors for the California division of the Homemakers of America, had been a notable ghost writer for the San Francisco Examiner, and she was married to columnist Milton Tompkins Somers from 1914 to 1919 and later unto businessman Frederick William Teschke from 1925 to 1949 (her first union ended in divorce and produced two children and her second marriage ended upon his death and produced one child). Following her 1972 retirement, she spent the final year of her life living comfortably in the suburbs being involved in charitable and religious causes until her death.