Winner of a 1933 beauty contest who was rewarded with a bit parts in several Paramount features before signing in 1936 with Warner Bros. Once there her smart, no-nonsense persona was put to good use in a number of crime melodramas, especially "Angels with Dirty Faces" (1938) and "They Drive by Night" (1940). Dubbed the "oomph girl", Sheridan made her mark in the haunting small town saga, "Kings Row" (1942), and continued to showcase her talent in comedies, dramas, and occasional musicals through the mid-1950s. Among Sheridan's best remembered films are "Torrid Zone" (1940), one of the efforts which clinched her stardom and which she blithely stole from James Cagney and Pat O'Brien with her nifty wisecracking. She also performed admirably in "I Was a Male War Bride" (1949), in which she coped with the sight of Cary Grant in drag, and in "Come Next Spring" (1956), an appealing rural period saga. She was subsequently known her roles on the TV series, "Another World" and "Pistols and Petticoats." Married to actors Edward Norris, George Brent and Scott McKay.