Her earliest talkies were with the Hal Roach studio, where she worked in short-subject comedies with Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, and The Boy Friends.

[citation needed] In 1941, she was offered a contract by Warner Bros. on the condition that she change her name; "Jacqueline Wells" was considered a faded, B-picture name.

[citation needed] She made 16 films at Warners, including supporting roles in Action in the North Atlantic (1943) with Humphrey Bogart and Princess O'Rourke (1943), starring Olivia de Havilland and Robert Cummings.

She was Errol Flynn's leading lady in Northern Pursuit (1943), played Ira Gershwin's wife in the biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945), and closed out her Warners years in 1946's Cinderella Jones.

She was among several former Wayne co-stars (including Laraine Day, Ann Doran, Jan Sterling, and Claire Trevor) who joined the actor in 1954's aviation drama, The High and the Mighty.