Although best remembered for her comic performances as socially ambitious mothers (My Man Godfrey (1936)), she often played serious roles, among them Lavinia Mannon in the original Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's "Mourning Becomes Electra".
Daughter of Broadway producer William A. Brady who was also involved in filmmaking and was head of the World Film Corporation (191?-1918). He was involved in an early fight against censorship in 1919 (not too ably) as president of the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry.
Died of a virulent cancer, 5 days before what would have been her 47th birthday.
Due to a broken ankle she was not able to attend The 10 Annual Academy Awards in which she won Best Supporting Actress for In Old Chicago (1937). During the ceremony an unidentified man walked up to the podium and accepted the award on her behalf. When she called The Academy to say that she had not received her Oscar, it was revealed that the man was had been an impostor who had crashed the party, accepted her award and walked off with it. Brady passed away before the academy could issue a replacement. Neither the stolen Oscar nor the man who walked away with it were ever heard from again.
Her son was born in 1922.