Ida was born in London to a show business family. In 1932, her mothertook Ida with her to an audition and Ida got the part her motherwanted. The picture wasHer First Affaire (1932). Ida,a bleached blonde, went to Hollywood in 1934 playing small,insignificant parts.Peter Ibbetson (1935) was one ofher few noteworthy movies and it was not untilThe Light That Failed (1939)that she got a chance to get better parts. In most of her movies, shewas cast as the hard, but sympathetic woman from the wrong side of thetracks. InThe Sea Wolf (1941) andHigh Sierra (1941), she played thepart magnificently. It has been said that no one could do hard-luckdames the way Lupino could do them. She played tough, knowingcharacters who held their own against some of the biggest leading menof the day -Humphrey Bogart,Ronald Colman,John Garfield andEdward G. Robinson. She madea handful of films during the forties playing different charactersranging fromPillow to Post (1945), where sheplayed a traveling saleswoman to the tough nightclub singer inThe Man I Love (1946). But goodroles for women were hard to get and there were many young actressesand established stars competing for those roles. She left WarnerBrothers in 1947 and became a freelance actress. When better roles didnot materialize, Ida stepped behind the camera as a director, writerand producer. Her first directing job came when directorElmer Clifton fell ill on a script thatshe co-wroteNot Wanted (1949). Idahad joked that as an actress, she was the poor man'sBette Davis. Now, she said that as adirector, she became the poor man'sDon Siegel. The films that she wrote, ordirected, or appeared in during the fifties were mostly inexpensivemelodramas. She later turned to television where she directed episodesin shows such asThe Untouchables (1959) andThe Fugitive (1963). In theseventies, she made guest appearances on various television show andappeared in small parts in a few movies.