Actress. She is remembered for her many roles in radio dramas television series, most notably as the voice of the mother of the character 'Norman Bates' in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic film "Psycho." She was born in Harrisburg, Illinois where her mother was a musician and her father a businessman. She got her start in show business as a musician but switched to radio drama in its early days. She was heard on such radio programs as "The Adventures of Sam Spade," "Dragnet," "Dr. Kildare," "Gunsmoke," "The Jack Benny Program," "Let George Do It," "Lux Radio Theatre," "One Man's Family," "Yours Truly," "Johnny Dollar," and "The Screen Guild Theater." She appeared in more than 45 films during her career, beginning with "Body and Soul" (1947), and included "Spencer's Mountain" (1963, with Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara) and "I'll Cry Tomorrow" (1955, with Susan Hayward and Richard Conte). Her television credits include the 1956 episode "The Mary Surratt Case" on "The Joseph Cotton Show," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "State Trooper," "Crossroads," "Perry Mason," "Going My Way," "Colt .45," "Laramie," "Wanted Dead or Alive," "The Man From Blackhawk," "The Rebel," "The Barbara Stanwyck Show," "Gunsmoke," "Maverick," "Rawhide", "The Eleventh Hour," and "Dragnet." She appeared in practically every narrative television series in the late 1950s through the early 1970s, including "Bourbon Street Beat," "Hawaiian Eye," "77 Sunset Strip," "The Rockford Files," "The Virginian," "Wagon Train," "Make Room for Daddy," "Philip Marlowe," "My Favorite Martian," "Hazel," "and Bonanza." For "Dragnet," Jack Webb utilized her in dozens of roles on both radio and television versions of the show as well as the 1954 "Dragnet" movie where she played the character 'Ethel Starkie'. She supplied the voice of 'Mrs. Bates' in "Psycho" as did Jeanette Nolan and Paul Jasmin, all uncredited. She was the only one who did the voice in the film sequels "Psycho II" (1983) and "Psycho III" (1986). She voiced 'Tarra' on the 1967 animated TV series, "The Herculoids," and reprised that role when the series was revived in 1981 as part of the "Space Stars" animated series. She died of lung cancer in Encino, California at the age of 70.