[citation needed] She began her acting career in radio drama in 1935, while still in her 20s, and became a mainstay of soap operas during this period, appearing on Arnold Grimm's Daughter (as the titular daughter Constance in 1938),[3] Midstream (in the lead role of Julia),[4] Women in White (as Karen Adams),[5] Road of Life (as Nurse Helen Gowan), Lonely Women (as Marilyn Larimore), and the radio version of The Guiding Light, as Charlotte Wilson in the mid-1940s.

Moving to Los Angeles in the 1940s, she established herself on series such as The Whistler, Mr. President (as the presidential secretary), Crime Classics, Escape, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

[7] In an early example of the comic genius that her Cruella later showcased, she parodied her main radio persona in the Sam Spade detective series, "The Soap Opera Caper" episode which aired on February 16, 1951.

Eleven years later, she provided the voice of the villainous, selfish socialite Cruella de Vil in Disney's animated feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).

In television, she made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of murderer Marjory Davis in the episode, "The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll" (1959).