Her film career began after Norman Lear spotted her on stage and cast her in The Night They Raided Minsky's in 1968.

When she was a young girl the family moved to New York, where they owned a dance school, which both Gloria and her brother Kenneth studied.

Gloria performed on Broadway in Artists and Models[3][4] with Jackie Gleason in 1943 at age 17 as a Specialty Dancer.

She later headlined Nouvelle Eve, a Parisian cabaret show import, at the Hotel El Rancho Vegas from 1951 to 1952.

[23][11] She had recurring roles on the soaps Days of Our Lives as Queenie (1989), The Young and the Restless as Beatrice Tucker (1998) and Passions as Ruth (2000).