Gloria Holden came to America as a child. She attended school in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and later studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.
Gloria Holden succeeded Lilly Cahill as the feminine lead in As Husbands Go at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway (Manhattan), in June 1931. Prior to this she had small parts in plays like The Royal Family, in which she spoke four lines playing a nurse. She was an understudy to Mary Ellis in Children of Darkness. She had a bit part in The Ferguson Family.
In August 1932 Gloria Holden was part of the cast of Manhattan Melody. The play was presented at the Longacre Theatre. The Lawrence Hazard play, adapted by L. Lawrence Weber, also featured Helen Lowell, Minnie Dupree, and William Corbett as players. She was the leading lady in Survivor (1933), written by D.L. James. Holden was among the cast members in Memory (1933), a Myron Fagan play.
The western drama, The Long Frontier (1935), was presented at the Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, Connecticut. Nance O'Neil headed a cast which included Gloria Holden, Alan Bunce, and Claire Carleton.
She may be best remembered for two roles in her long career, that of Mme. Zola in The Life of Emile Zola (1937), and her "exotic" depiction of the title role in Dracula's Daughter (1936).
In July 1937 Gloria Holden was assigned to play the character of Marian Morgan in The Man Without A Country (1937). The technicolor short co-starred John Litel and was nominated for an Academy Award.
In Dodge City (1939), Gloria Holden played the part of the aunt of Olivia de Havilland, Mrs. Cole. This Warner Brothers western drama was filmed in Modesto, California.
In the Pearl Harbor-themed Behind The Rising Sun (1943), Gloria Holden portrays Sara Braden and plays alongside of Robert Ryan and Margo.
Gloria Holden accumulated film credits throughout the 1940s and 1950s, including films such as The Hucksters (1947), Killer McCoy (1947), Precious Waters (1948), A Kiss For Corliss (1949), and The Eddie Duchin Story (1956). Her last roles came in 1958, when she played in This Happy Feeling and Auntie Mame ((uncredited).
Gloria Holden had brown hair and eyes and an olive complexion. She was 5'5" tall and weighed 124 pounds.
In 1931 Gloria Holden had a son who was six years of age.
In 1937 dated Rudy Sehr, a member of a Viennese banking family and a film cutter in Hollywood Gloria.
In 1944 she married William Hoyt, her husband until her death.
Gloria Holden was an enthusiastic cyclist.
She died in 1991 in Redlands, California, USA, from a heart attack, aged 82.
