During the mid-1950s, she began working regularly on television, co-hosting with Bud Collyer the NBC daytime game show Feather Your Nest.

Although that goal was unsuccessful, she then worked on Broadway, where she was spotted on stage by Darryl F. Zanuck, who signed her to a movie deal.

She appeared in the films Night Editor (1946) and Framed (1947) with Glenn Ford, and Flying Leathernecks (1951) with John Wayne.

After leaving Los Angeles, Carter returned to New York and found work in television in comedies and dramas and as hostess for the quiz show Feather Your Nest opposite Bud Collyer.

She retired from acting in early 1955, after meeting New York lumber and shipping tycoon Julius Stulman; the couple married in 1956.