Actress. She was born as Rose Kefer in New York. She began her career as a stage actress in New York at the age of 15 in the Molnar play "Liliom", and quickly moved from off-Broadway to Broadway productions, taking lead roles in Noel Coward's "The Vortex" and in "What Every Woman Should Know" with actress Helen Hayes. Her performance in "Death Takes A Holiday" won critical acclaim as well as the attention of a Universal Studios casting agent, who invited her to screen test in Hollywood. She won her first studio contract and the lead in the Frank Borzage film version of "Liliom" (later made into the musical "Carousel"). She appeared in over 40 films such as "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "Tower of London," "Ziegfield Girl" and "Lady Be Good." Also, when artist Joseph Cornell re-cut East of Borneo (1931), (where she appeared as female lead) into an avant-garde silent short, he re-titled it Rose Hobart (1936) after her name. By the 1940s, she was a prominent member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Actors Lab, and was a veteran of many praised film projects, including "Conflict" and "The Farmer's Daughter." As a woman who was influencing other actors to hold out for better conditions and better parts, she found herself under attack of the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy. In 1949, she appeared before the committee and she saw her career brought to a screeching halt and was labeled a subversive and "blacklisted". She spent 10 years as an "untouchable", until the fear generated by the McCarthy communist witch-hunt had faded and she was able to find work in television. She wrote a book about her experiences, and in the 1960s the actress became a regular in series television, particularly "Peyton Place", popular western "Gunsmoke" and "The Danny Thomas Show", but she never returned to films. She died in the Motion Picture and Television Fund's retirement home peacefully from of old age in Los Angeles, California. According the newspapers, she was cremated.