She appeared as a child actress with Tallulah Bankhead in Midgie Purvis, and played the youngest sister (Bielke) in the Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof (1964–66).

Zadora's acting career made little progress until, while touring with a musical production in 1972, she met Meshulam Riklis, 30 years her senior.

Not long after her marriage, Zadora had a breakthrough as the Dubonnet Girl, appearing in print and television commercials for the apéritif wine, in whose American distributor Riklis was a shareholder.

[13] Zadora next starred in the 1982 film Fake-Out, also called Nevada Heat, a women in prison B-movie comedy co-starring Telly Savalas and Desi Arnaz Jr.

In 1983, she appeared in the film adaptation of the Harold Robbins novel The Lonely Lady, as an aspiring screenwriter who achieves success after surviving sexual assault.

In addition to displaying her comedic side, it showcased her musical talents and featured half of the songs from her 1984 album Let's Dance Tonight.

The album was released only in Europe, and the single "Dance Out of My Head" did not chart despite the top producers and club remixes by Shep Pettibone and Ben Liebrand.

In February, she performed at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and the Kaye Auditorium in Boca Raton.

Zadora later claimed on a September 2012 episode of BIO's Celebrity Ghost Stories that Pickfair was razed owing to a troubling apparition that appeared to her and children when her husband was away on business.

[32] Zadora has been married to Michael Jeffries, a detective with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, since 2005 and currently resides in Summerlin, Nevada.

[34] In June 2013, following an altercation with her teenage son, Zadora was charged with domestic violence, battery and coercion, and jailed after a SWAT team surrounded her home.

"[36] In September 2014, Zadora was hospitalized in the intensive care unit of University Medical Center of Southern Nevada due to head and leg injuries sustained in a golf cart accident.

[38] The cult TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000 had riffed her debut film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians as a third season episode.