[citation needed] Tyler's acting career began as a teenager, with regular appearances on Howdy Doody as Princess Summerfall Winterspring from 1950 to 1953.

[3] Offered an opportunity in Hollywood, Tyler appeared in the film Bop Girl Goes Calypso (1957), then starred opposite Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (1957).

On December 28, 1957— nearly six months after her passing —Tyler was a cast member in a televised Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Fan Dancer's Horse,” the “last film made by Judy Tyler before her death in an auto accident.”[4] A few days after her Jailhouse Rock filming ended, Tyler and her second husband, Gregory Lafayette (born Earl Gregory Nisonger Jr.), began driving home to New York from Hollywood.

The Casper Morning Star reported the passenger killed in the oncoming car, driven by Paul Reed, was Don D. Jones, 23, of Hanna, Wyoming.

Police said Lafayette's car swerved to avoid hitting a slow-moving car-and-trailer entering the highway and collided head-on with the other vehicle in the crash.