Janet Beecher, daughter of the German vice-consul in Chicago, studied acting at the Art Students League in New York. For almost three decades she made a name for herself as a leading actress in plays on the Broadway stage, beginning with a bit part in 'The Two Orphans' in 1903. Her hits included 'The Lottery Man' (1909-10), 'The Concert' (1910-11), 'A Bill of Divorcement' (1921-22) and 'Courage' (1928-29).

She made her Hollywood debut in 1933. Despite consistently good critical reviews, her theatrical stardom never translated to the screen. She was destined to be typecast as forthright wives and was particularly droll as Mrs.Barnum in The Mighty Barnum (1934), opposite Wallace Beery. She also played sympathetic dowagers, genial friends of the heroine and a multitude of steadfast mothers (best of those being Margaret Sullavan's in So Red the Rose (1935) and Tyrone Power's in The Mark of Zorro (1940). In 1943, she returned to the stage and made her theatrical curtain call as the wife of the title character in 'The Late George Apley' the following year.