Vera Lewis was born in Manhattan, where she began acting in stage productions where; her film career started in 1915 with the film Hypocrites, which starred Myrtle Stedman (wife of Marshall Stedman, a drama school conductor) and Courtenay Foote.
In 1906 Stedman was named head of the drama school at the Chicago Musical College, a position he would hold for some four years. Several years later Stedman returned to teaching as a drama instructor with the Eagan School of Drama and Music in Los Angeles. Marshall Stedman (August 16, 1874  December 16, 1943) was an American stage and silent screen actor/director, playwright, author and drama teacher. 
