[4] In November 1948, Talbott was in the cast of One Fine Day, a comedy presented on stage at the Biltmore Theater in Los Angeles.

In 1959, she appeared as an Indian, first in The Oregon Trail with Fred MacMurray as Shona and then in Alias Jesse James with Bob Hope as Princess Irawanee.

She later became known as a "scream queen", after appearing in a number of horror films, including The Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957), The Cyclops (1957), I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958), and The Leech Woman (1960).

In 1953, Talbott appeared in "The Crime of Sylvester Bonnard"[9] and "High Seas" on Favorite Story,[10] starred in "The Dear Departed" on Chevron Theatre[11] and played Herelda in "Gypsy Wagon," an episode of The Gene Autry Show.

On November 27, 1956, she starred as Maureen in a science-fiction episode of the television anthology series Conflict entitled "Man From 1997" featuring Charlie Ruggles and James Garner.

In a broadcast on NBC on January 27, 1958, Talbott played Valya in star/producer John Payne's The Restless Gun, season one, episode 19, "Hang and Be Damned".

She guest-starred as Jenny in the 1958 episode "A Cup of Black Coffee" of the CBS crime drama Richard Diamond, Private Detective, reprising the pairing David Janssen and she played in the 1955 film All That Heaven Allows.

In 1960, Talbott made guest-starring appearances as Nora Lanyard and Lucinda Jennings in the episodes "Landlubbers" and "Devil in Skirts" of the NBC Western series, Riverboat.