Following her high school graduation, she studied acting at the Schuster-Martin School of Drama in Cincinnati before moving to New York City, where she studied under Uta Hagen and Stella Adler.

[1] On stage, Stuart performed in the national touring company of Lunatics and Lovers.

(1980), Bachelor Party (1984), and Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills (1997).

She was in the hospital for eight months as the clot moved to her lung and she developed pneumonia.

[7] On May 15, 2011, she died at a nursing home in St. George, Utah, aged 81.