Born on December 26, 1929, in the Green Bank section of Washington Township, New Jersey, Crowley graduated from Egg Harbor City High School in 1946.

[5] Crowley attended New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1950 on a scholarship won at the Miss America pageant, and undertook some live TV work there.

She made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of defendant and title character Marylin Clark in the 1958 episode "The Case of the Lonely Heiress."

Many of her films were science fiction and horror movies, but she appeared in a wide range of narrative television series produced from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s including Crossroads, Yancy Derringer with Jock Mahoney, Bourbon Street Beat with Andrew Duggan, Surfside 6 with Troy Donahue, Hawaiian Eye with Connie Stevens, 77 Sunset Strip with Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Bat Masterson with Gene Barry, Cheyenne with Clint Walker, an anthology series Fireside Theater, another anthology series The Americans, Bonanza in the first season chapter 28, Colt .45, Bronco with Ty Hardin, Branded with Chuck Connors, Climax!, My Three Sons with Fred MacMurray, The Donna Reed Show, Checkmate with Sebastian Cabot and Doug McClure, Route 66, Thriller with Boris Karloff, Batman with Adam West, Disneyland, Family Affair with Brian Keith, Rawhide with Clint Eastwood, The Virginian with Doug McClure, The High Chaparral, The Restless Gun with John Payne, Tales of Wells Fargo with Dale Robertson, The Lone Ranger, and The Adventures of Champion.

Crowley married John Rubsam in Los Angeles on September 27, 1969, and gave birth to her only child, a son named Matthew, the following year.