[1] After years in theatre stock companies, including an 87-week stint in Lincoln, Nebraska, she got a part on Broadway in Up Pops the Devil (1930).

She was well-received playing against type as the seamstress sentenced to death on the guillotine with Sydney Carton (Ronald Colman in A Tale of Two Cities (1935).

Jewell's films included Gone with the Wind (1939) (in the role of "that white trash, Emmy Slattery"), Northwest Passage (1940), High Sierra (1941), and the low-budget The Leopard Man (1943).

In 1941, Jewell married actor Paul Marion, who was then a private in the United States Army.

[10] Jewell died in Los Angeles, California on April 5, 1972, aged 64, from suicide after taking an overdose of barbiturates.

[11] In 1960, Jewell was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to motion pictures.