Flannery received Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress for her performance in the 1974 disaster film, The Towering Inferno.

For her starring role in the 1976 miniseries The Moneychangers, she received Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series.

She made guest appearances on prime time dramas Slattery's People, Death Valley Days, Ben Casey, The Felony Squad and most notable three-episode act on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

[4] In 1966, Flannery was cast as Dr. Laura Spencer Horton on the NBC daytime soap opera, Days of Our Lives, where she met writer William J.

She played the role until 1975, winning her first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her final year on the soap.

Also that year, Flannery starred alongside Kirk Douglas, Joan Collins and Christopher Plummer in the NBC miniseries, The Moneychangers.

[7] She starred in an episode "A Nightmare for a Nightingale" of British anthology series Thriller in 1976 and was lead actress in the 1979 miniseries Women in White based on novel by Frank G. Slaughter.

[8] In 1981, Flannery joined the cast of CBS prime time soap opera, Dallas, playing Leslie Stewart appearing in 11 episodes during the fourth season.

Flannery took an active role in the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), and advocated for securing cable rights and foreign residuals for actors when their work appears in other media.

[11] Flannery appeared in two episodes of ABC's situation comedy Hope & Faith in 2004 with other well-known actors from rival soaps.

She appeared in a special episode of Wheel of Fortune with Deidre Hall (Marlena, Days of Our Lives) and Peter Bergman (Jack, The Young and the Restless) in 2006.

[12][13] Brown wrote the following about Flannery in her 1997 memoir Rita Will:[12]She'd been a star in a long-running TV program and had left to take a prominent role in a film.

Almost white-blonde, with a heart-shaped face, blue eyes, and a great figure, she appeared every inch a woman ready to become a major movie star.