Career
Born in Liverpool, England, to William Alfred Whitty (ca 1837–1876) and Mary Louisa (née Ashton, ca 1837–1894), she made her first stage appearance in Liverpool in 1881, later moving to London to appear in the West End. Their first child, a son, died at birth. Their only surviving child, a daughter born in the United States of America in 1905, Margaret Webster, was a stage actress and held dual United States/United Kingdom citizenship.
Whitty"s stage career continued for the rest of her life.
In March 1910, she made her transition to middle-aged and elderly character roles, playing Amelia Madras in Harley Granville-Barker"s four-act comedy The Madras House. This led to several supporting roles in films, including that of the vanishing lady, Mission Froy, in Alfred Hitchcock"s The Lady Vanishes (1938).
She moved permanently to the United States of America (although she never became a United States citizen) in 1939 and appeared both on stage and in Hollywood films, usually playing wealthy dowagers.