Her grandparents were Isaac and Rose Schlomowitz Tashman,[2] and her siblings were named Bertha, Kitty, Jennie, Annie, Sarah, Gustav and Hattie.

By 1914, she had also starting working in vaudeville, on a bill that included the up and coming double act Eddie Cantor and Al Lee.

[4] Later in 1919, she was given a job by the producer David Belasco in a comedy called The Gold Diggers starring Ina Claire.

The show was a success, and ran for two years and in addition to her own supporting role, Tashman acted as Claire's understudy.

After a period of misfortune in New York in which one show closed, and she was fired from another, Tashman decided to move to Hollywood to further her film career.

On coming to Hollywood, Lilyan was cast in a supporting role in a Mabel Normand film, Head Over Heels (1922).

At first, she worked for independent film companies but later, she was featured in productions being made by the largest organizations in the industry.

Other film roles of note included "Seven Days" (1926), "Texas Steer" (1926), "Camille" (1927), "So This Is Paris" (1928), "Craig's Wife" (1928), "The Trial of Mary Dugan" (1929), "The Marriage Playground" (1929), and "The Gold Diggers of Broadway" (1929), and the pre-Production Code comedy "Girls About Town" (1931).

After a busy year in 1931 in which Tashman appeared in eight films, she began to reduce her work schedules while newspapers speculated about the state of her health.

After denying repeatedly that there was a problem with her health, Tashman was eventually hospitalized, and upon her release answered further rumors with a statement saying that she had undergone an appendectomy.