She entered the theatrical profession with an amateur group in Seattle, and later toured the United States and Canada as a singer.

She co-starred with Rudolph Valentino in the 1922 The Young Rajah, and rose to stardom in a number of Cecil B. DeMille's and director Sam Wood's films.

Hawley was born Selma Wanda Pittack in Scranton, Pennsylvania, but together with her family moved to the Seattle, Washington area,[1] when she was a child.

She made her screen debut with the Fox Film Corporation, and after playing with them for eight months joined Famous Players–Lasky, where she appeared as leading lady in Mr. Fix-It (1918).

According to Wilkinson's petition for divorce in 1933, Hawley left him in March 1928 when he refused to continue touring as an actor with her.

She was five feet three inches high, weighed a hundred and ten pounds, and had blond hair and greyish blue eyes.