[citation needed] When Cody was seven years old, she was cast in the theatre production of Uncle Willie, with Menasha Skulnik at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Florida.

[citation needed] In 1963, at the age of nine, Cody was named one of the original cast members of the Broadway show Here's Love, appearing in the role of Hendrika.

[2] In 1965, Cody started her daytime television career with regular long running parts on the CBS daytime soap operas The Edge of Night as Laurie Ann Karr, As the World Turns as Sally Graham, and The Secret Storm as Cecilia, before becoming a regular cast member of the ABC gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows.

In 1967, Cody was cast as Betty Parris, in David Susskind's television production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, which starred George C. Scott, Melvyn Douglas, Colleen Dewhurst, and Tuesday Weld.

In 1967, the show was nominated for, and won three Emmy Awards for Best Actor George C. Scott, Best Actress Colleen Dewhurst, and Best Director Alex Segal.

Upon completion of The Crucible, Cody was cast in a PBS special, the novelist and playwright, Colette's 1922 play, My Mother's House (originally entitled La Maison de Claudine), starring Dewhurst.

Cody has guest-starred in numerous prime time television shows, including 3 episodes of Gunsmoke with actors James Arness, James Whitmore, Richard Jaeckel, Buck Taylor, Nicholas Hammond and Louise Latham; The Partridge Family with David Cassidy; Doc Elliot with James Farentino; the Love, American Style segment "Love and the Model Apartment" with Davy Jones as her newlywed husband; Barbary Coast with William Shatner and Doug McClure; The Waltons with Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite, and Will Geer; Cannon, guest-starring in a dual role with William Conrad, Mitch Ryan, and Ralph Meeker; Three for the Road with Vincent Van Patten; and Barnaby Jones with Buddy Ebsen and Kristoffer Tabori; and Dirty Sally with Jeanette Nolan.

The pilot episode focuses on the girls, members of the cheerleading team, as they perform embarrassing pledge week antics for a sorority house they hope to join.

In 1974, Leachman was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her portrayal of Nettie Appleby in the film.

The film also starred Kurt Russell, portraying Cody's love interest for the second time, and Bruno Kirby and Ed Begley, Jr.

In 1975, Cody appeared in the Vincent McEveety-directed film The Last Day, starring Richard Widmark, Barbara Rush, Tim Matheson and Robert Conrad.

While she had previously retired from acting, relocating from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Florida, Cody responded to a 1987 call for local actors to appear in the Peter Bogdanovich directed film Illegally Yours.

In 1983, she returned to Los Angeles, when she was cast in the Stephen J. Cannell television series, The Rousters, starring Chad Everett, Jim Varney, and Mimi Rogers.

[citation needed] In 2010, Cody appeared at the annual Dark Shadows Festival convention in Burbank, California, as one of the original cast members of the cult classic daytime drama.