Hillie began acting as a teenager in Detroit, Michigan, where she got a part in a radio drama on station WWJ.

[1] Against her wishes, her mother submitted her photo to a national competition for the role of "Lota the Panther Woman" in Paramount's 1932 film Island of Lost Souls.

[2] She lost the competition to Kathleen Burke, but the studio gave her a contract anyway, starting her with a bit part in Madame Butterfly.

In 1934 she co-starred with Ken Maynard in Mystery Mountain, a Western serial film from Mascot Pictures.

Hillie retired from acting in the 1940s to focus on raising her children,[4] returning to work as "Clara Bagley" in two early 1950s episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.