Lupino was born into one of England’s most-celebrated theatrical families. As a child, she acted in a model theatre built by her father, and she entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at age 13.

After her film debut in Her First Affaire (1932), she appeared in several inconsequential roles before being cast as a vengeful prostitute in The Light That Failed (1939). That led to weighty roles in such films as They Drive by Night (1940), in which the actress gave perhaps her best performance, playing an unstable wife who is in love with one of her husband’s employees; High Sierra (1941), a classic crime drama starring Humphrey Bogart; and The Sea Wolf (1941), an adaptation of a Jack London novel, with Lupino cast as a fugitive and Edward G. Robinson as a brutal sea captain.

In the thriller Ladies in Retirement (1941) she played a murderous maid, and in The Hard Way (1943) she gave an acclaimed performance as a ruthless woman who pushes her sister to pursue an entertainment career in order to escape their small town.

With her second husband, Collier Young (her first husband was actor Louis Hayward), Lupino founded a production company in 1949 and began writing scripts, tackling such controversial topics as rape, illegitimacy, and bigamy.

Their first project was the unwed-mother drama Not Wanted (1949), which Lupino produced and coscripted with Paul Jarrico. Director Elmer Clifton fell ill midway through the production, and Lupino stepped in and completed it; her work was not credited, however. She made her official directing debut with Never Fear (1949; also known as The Young Lovers), a low-budget drama in which Not Wanted star Sally Forrest played a young dancer stricken with polio. With that film Lupino became Hollywood’s first credited female director since the retirement of Dorothy Arzner in 1943. In 1950 Lupino also became the second woman admitted to the Directors Guild of America.

In 1953 Lupino directed her masterpiece, the grim film noir The Hitch-Hiker, which was 71 minutes of unabated tension. It centres on two friends (Frank Lovejoy and Edmond O’Brien) who, while on a fishing trip, pick up a stranded man (William Talman) only to discover that he is a psychopath wanted for murder. The film earned acclaim, and it is considered to be the only noir made by a woman.

In 1956 she began directing episodes of television shows, and she eventually worked on more than 40 programs, including The Donna Reed Show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Have Gun—Will Travel, The Fugitive, Dr. Kildare, The Twilight Zone, Bewitched, and Gilligan’s Island. In addition, she also directed several made-for-TV movies.

From 1975 a series of health problems impaired her ability to work, and she was forced to retire after starring in My Boys Are Good Boys (1978). Her memoir Ida Lupino: Beyond the Camera (cowritten with Mary Ann Anderson) was published posthumously in 2011.

According to britannica.com