She had a very successful stage career from 1912 as Winifred Lee before being signed by the Fox Film Corporation in the late 1920s. Her first film was Doctors' Wives (1931) in which she played under the name Nancy Gardner, a name given to her by Fox. After this, she spent a time coaching several young actresses before returning to film under her real name.
Gombell married Howard Chesham Rumsey on March 9, 1916, in New York City. They divorced in 1921. In 1933, Gombell married Joseph W. Sefton Jr., described as "a millionaire banker." They were divorced in 1954. Gombell's third husband was the film Writer, Producer, and Director Myron Coureval Fagan. (In the book Accustomed to Her Face: Thirty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood, Axel Nissen disputes the idea of Gombell's being married to Fagan because "Fagan already had a wife (and a son) at home in Pelham Manor, New York. He and Florence M. Fagan were married for nearly 50 years, until her death in 1966.")
Gombell was active in stock theater, starring with troupes in Albany, Atlanta, Cleveland, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. Her Broadway credits include Indiscretion (1928), The Great Power (1928), Ballyhoo (1926), Alloy (1924), Mr. Pitt (1923), Listening in (1922), On the Hiring Line (1919), The Indestructible Wife (1917), Six Months' Option (1917), and My Lady's Garter (1915).
On April 14, 1973, Gombell died in Los Angeles. She was buried in Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.
