Margaret McWade was born Margaret May Fish in Chicago, Illinois in 1872. In vaudeville, during the 1890s, she met
Margaret Seddon. The two teamed up in a double act billed as the "Pixilated Sisters". She later appeared most often as spinsters or mothers in many films, first under contract to the Edison Film Company under the direction of
Ashley Miller in
The Drama of Heyville (1914), starring
Marc McDermott, followed by the Vitagraph Film Company.
She may have been best-remembered for playing the role of Mrs. Challenger with
Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger in 1925's
The Lost World (1925), made with the First-National Film Company. She was mostly seen in minor roles in many talkies until her last film before retiring,
George Cukor's
It Should Happen to You (1954), starring
Jack Lemmon and
Judy Holliday.