[citation needed] A chorus girl by age 18, Keyes came out to Hollywood and was introduced to Cecil B. DeMille who in her own words "signed me to a personal contract without even making a test".

Though she failed to get the part, Selznick was impressed by her Southern accent and cast her as Scarlett O'Hara's sister Suellen in January 1939.

[7] Keyes' last role in a major film was a small part as Tom Ewell's vacationing wife in The Seven Year Itch (1955).

In her autobiography Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister: My Lively Life In and Out of Hollywood, Keyes described being raped by her director Andrew Stone while working on Say It in French.

"[4] Later, she married and divorced director Charles Vidor (1943–1945), actor/director John Huston (23 July 1946 – February 1950),[9][10][11] and bandleader Artie Shaw (1957–1985).

Among her many love affairs in Hollywood she recounted in Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister, were those with film producer Michael Todd (who left Evelyn for Elizabeth Taylor), actors Glenn Ford, Sterling Hayden, Dick Powell, Anthony Quinn, David Niven and Kirk Douglas.

[citation needed] Keyes died of uterine cancer on July 4, 2008 at the Pepper Estates in Montecito, California,[2] and was cremated.