[2] She attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, where she had planned on becoming a nun, but left when her father was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was forced to give up his dental practice.

In late 1917 she relocated to the relatively young film colony in Hollywood, California, and began appearing in comedy shorts opposite Billy West and Oliver Hardy.

Her career quickly gained momentum, and by 1920 she had become a highly-popular actress with the filmgoing public[citation needed] and was given leading-lady status opposite such performers as Wallace Beery, Conrad Nagel, Nita Naldi, and Irene Rich.

[6] Directors often cast Joy in the strong-willed independent woman role, and the liberated atmosphere of the Jazz Age Roaring Twenties solidified her public popularity, especially with female movie goers.

[citation needed] With her increasing popularity, Joy was sought out by Cecil B. DeMille, who signed her to Paramount Pictures in 1922, immediately casting her in that year's successful high-society drama Saturday Night opposite Conrad Nagel.

[7] The studio developed projects to promote the “Leatrice Joy bob” which she wore in Made for Love, Eve's Leaves, The Clinging Vine, For Alimony Only, and Vanity.

[8] Joy's career began to falter with the advent of talkies, possibly because her heavy Southern accent was considered unfashionable in comparison with other actresses' refined "Mid-Atlantic" diction.

[citation needed] By the early 1930s, Joy was semi-retired from the motion-picture industry, but she later made several guest appearances in a few modestly-successful films, such as 1951's Love Nest, which featured a young Marilyn Monroe.