She is best known for her roles in films like The Bad News Bears (1976), St. Elmo's Fire (1985) (as Mrs. Beamish), and as Gloria Noonan in Grown Ups (2010).

She appeared in guest or recurring roles on Stoney Burke, Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke (as bar girl "Molly" in "Anybody Can Kill a Marshal" - S8E26), The Untouchables, The Law and Mr. Jones, The Twilight Zone ("Passage on the Lady Anne"), The Jack Benny Program, Family Affair, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Andy Griffith Show, Mr. Novak, The Outer Limits, Mannix, The Rockford Files, The Bob Newhart Show, The Odd Couple, The F.B.I., Lou Grant, Law & Order, Oz, and The Sopranos.

On a 1976 episode of Columbo, "Old Fashioned Murder", Van Patten played the lead, as a museum owner and curator.

In 1979, she starred as Iris Chapman in The Mary Tyler Moore Hour, and appeared in The Martian Chronicles the following year.

Her film credits include I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968), The Trouble with Girls (1969), Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You (1970), Making It (1971), Something Big (1971), Bone (1972), Thumb Tripping (1972), Mame (1974), The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery (1975), The Bad News Bears (1976), Mikey and Nicky (1976), The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), Billy Galvin (1986), Blind Date (1987), Monkey Shines (1988), Grown Ups (2010), This Must Be the Place (2011), and God's Pocket (2014).