Before she became an actress, Anderson worked as a telephone operator at Hudson's department store in Detroit.[2]
Anderson became the first documented double used in film in 1914 when she replaced Blanche Sweet in some scenes of The Escape while Sweet had scarlet fever.[3] She also volunteered to replace a leading lady in a Sennett comedy who refused to enter a lion's cage. After Anderson entered the cage, she received a contract for $675 a week.[1]
Anderson also appeared in the 1944 production of Mexican Hayride at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City.
She was married to Harry H. Anderson, a "wealthy Hollywood automobile agent".[4]