In 1955, she began working with a press agent in Hollywood, Walter Winslow Lewis III (aka "Bud").

She appeared in movies such as Special Agent, Samson and Delilah, Silver City, Paid in Full, Two Lost Worlds, and, in perhaps her best-known film role, Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, playing Miriam, the scheming, adulterous wife of Guy Haines (Farley Granger).

She guest-starred on various series, such as Sergeant Preston, Stage 7, The Restless Gun, The Lone Ranger, Bat Masterson, Maverick, Yancy Derringer, Perry Mason, as Francie Keene in the Wanted: Dead or Alive episode "Railroaded", and many other programs.

In 1972, she performed as Louise Tate for the final time in the episode "Serena's Youth Pill".

[citation needed] In the 1970s, she became involved with motorcycles after her son began riding and then racing at the age of nine.

She worked closely with the AMA and established PURR ("PowderPuffs Unlimited Riders and Racers"), an association that brought women into the male-dominated sport, in 1974.