[4] Collins got her start as a child performer, and by the age of 17 she had appeared in both pantomime and music hall as a singer and actress.

On Broadway, she appeared in Vera Violetta (1911), The Merry Countess (1912), (and sharing a duet with Al Jolson), The Whirl of Society (1912), among others.

Collins recorded the song Just You and I and the Moon, composed by Dave Stamper with lyrics by Gene Buck, from the Ziegfeld Follies (1913).

Collins later appeared in Our Peg (1919), A Southern Maid (1920), Sybil (1921), The Last Waltz (1922), Catherine (1923), Our Nell (1924) and Frasquita (1925).

In her film career, she starred as Bessie, the vengeful model, in The Light That Failed, (1916, based on Rudyard Kipling's poem), and she appeared in The Imposter (1915), A Woman's Honor (1916), and The Sword of Damocles (1920),[6] among others.