After beginning her career in theatre in the 1960s, Bedelia starred in the CBS daytime soap opera Love of Life and made her film debut in The Gypsy Moths.

Bedelia subsequently appeared in the films They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Lovers and Other Strangers, Heart Like a Wheel, The Prince of Pennsylvania, Die Hard, Presumed Innocent, Sordid Lives, and Needful Things.

Bedelia was born in New York City,[2] the daughter of Marian Ethel (née Wagner), a writer and editor, and Philip Harley Culkin, who was in public relations and 50 years old at the time.

She also worked on Broadway, where she debuted supporting Patty Duke in 1962, in Isle of Children,[3] and won a Theatre World Award for playing the lead of in My Sweet Charlie, in 1966.

[6] Bedelia made her film debut in The Gypsy Moths in 1969; later that year she attracted attention as the pregnant marathon dancer in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

[9] She played a number of leading roles in television films and miniseries, such as Switched at Birth, A Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story, Her Costly Affair, and Picnic.

[9] She later guest-starred in Big Love and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and starred opposite Rue McClanahan and Olivia Newton-John in the 2008 sitcom Sordid Lives: The Series.