Dorothy Tree on AllMovie

Never a Hollywood glamour girl, brunette Brooklynite Dorothy Tree was a versatile general purpose actress, playing everything from a middle-class housewife to a Nazi spy. After graduating from Cornell and working extensively on Broadway, Tree came to Hollywood for a part in the Fox musical comedy Just Imagine (1930). She remained in films for the next twenty years, appearing in such roles as Elizabeth Edwards in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) and Teresa Wright's mother in The Men (1950) (Marlon Brando's first film). Given her expertise at dialects and subtleties of intonations, it isn't surprising that Dorothy Tree later became a top vocal coach, writing a public-speaking guide titled A Woman's Voice.