After performing in student plays in college, she was signed by Paramount and debuted onscreen in 1949; she played leads in a number of films through 1955, took five years off, then returned occasionally to the screen in character roles after 1960. For her work in Sunset Boulevard (1950) she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. She costarred in the '80s TV series Paper Dolls. From 1950-57 she was married to songwriter Alan Jay Lerner, and she later married Alan Livingston, the president of Capitol Records.