[4] Her mother said she was never interested in school;[3] instead she had brief jobs working as a store stock clerk and as a nightclub cigarette and camera girl, before becoming a model.

[11] Valentine had just turned eighteen when a candid photo appeared in newspapers, showing her in a New York nightclub with Orson Welles, who was then married to Rita Hayworth.

[30] A photo of Narayan and Valentine at the El Morocco nightclub in New York made the papers shortly before he had to leave the states.

[37] She again visited Narayan, arriving in India on November 16, 1951,[38] after telling columnists they had been secretly married in Cooch Behar in 1949 "by two traveling priests".

[4] Arriving in Britain from India on January 1, 1952, she was pictured in the London papers, which described her as wearing a platinum and diamond wedding ring.

[40] The Star Tribune reported in March 1952 that "sources in India" said the ceremony she underwent in 1949 was a "betrothal ritual" not a wedding, and that Valentine herself was now uncertain as to her marital status.

She received her first featured film role and screen credit with the November release of The Black Castle,[24] while columnist Mike Connolly reported she had signed an endorsement deal with the Puritan Dress Company in December.

[42] Valentine announced during May 1953 she was leaving acting to enter the Self-Realization Fellowship convent in Los Angeles,[25] following what she later described as a "nervous breakdown".

[50] Following her divorce, her television work picked up with episodes of Love That Jill[47] and Matinee Theatre[51] and as the first guest on George Fisher's local talk show.

One columnist expressed surprise at her performance,[54] while critic Philip K. Scheuer thought her not convincing as either society girl or would-be reporter.

[55] She had a much better received role in Tess of the Storm Country the following year,[56] and played uncredited bits in Portrait of a Mobster and Too Late Blues during 1961.

[57][58] From 1959 through 1961 Valentine was active on television, playing guest star and supporting roles on episodes of series such as Tales of Wells Fargo,[59] The Texan,[60] Man with a Camera,[61] 77 Sunset Strip,[62] Lawman,[63] The Real McCoys,[64] Hawaiian Eye,[65] Thriller,[66] and Surfside 6.

[67] Valentine married actor-director Everett Chambers in October 1961, at the Self-Realization Fellowship Center in Santa Barbara, California.