Of Scottish descent, Catherine McLeod was a self-confessed movie fan as a child of the Depression. Born in Santa Monica, she became a theater cashier in Dallas for a time before returning to Los Angeles and studying at an acting school. A talent scout discovered her in a play and signed her to an MGM contract in 1944. She was cultivated in small bit roles which culminated in the finest showcase of her career. In the sudsy romancer, Je vous ai toujours aimé (1946), which was set to classical music, Catherine has to grow from a naive 18-year-old girl to an embittered 45-year-old woman. In comparison, most of her co-starring roles were not only loanouts but far less demanding in scope. Finding her film career non-fulfilling, she settled into plays and television work in the 1950s, and ultimately turned to marriage and family. She wed fellow actor Don Keefer in 1950 and bore three sons, Don (born 1953), John (born 1955) and Tom (born 1962). Catherine gravitated toward soap operas in the 1960s (Search for Tomorrow (1951), Hôpital central (1963), Des jours et des vies (1965)) and phased out her career in the next decade.