She was brought to Hollywood by Gene Kelly to reprise her Broadway performance in the film version of On the Town (1949).

Pearce played comedic supporting roles in several films before being cast as nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz in the television sitcom Bewitched in 1964.

She returned to the United States as a teenager and boarded at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York.

[7] More movie roles followed, and she made appearances on Broadway where she met her husband, director Paul Davis, during a production of Bells Are Ringing.

[7] In 1964, Pearce was originally approached to play the part of Grandmama in the ABC television comedy series The Addams Family.

Later that year, Pearce joined the cast of Bewitched as the nagging and nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz.

Her hysterical accusations against Samantha, played by Elizabeth Montgomery, and the disbelief of her husband Abner (George Tobias) provided a common thread through many of the series' early episodes.