Actress. She is best remembered for her portrayal of wholesome Sister Bernice in "The Sound of Music" (1965). Born into a family of wealth and position, after receiving her formal education at private schools in Paris and Geneva, she began her career as a leading lady on the stage in stock companies. While appearing at a fashion show in New York City, New York, she was discovered by director Robert D. Webb. Impressed by her dark good looks, hour-glass figure, and distinctive voice, he took notice of her potential and arranged for her to begin a career in the film industry beginning with her appearing under his supervision per a leading role in "Pirates of Tortuga" (1961). From there, she would go on to flourish as a notable character actress appearing in eight features; often typecast as playgirls, indigenous people, white-collared workers, clergywomen, love interests, secretaries, interns, nurses, and educators. She appeared in such feature films as "Seven Women from Hell" (1961), "The Second Time Around" (1961), "Take Her, She's Mine" (1963), "Shock Treatment" (1964), and "Fate Is the Hunter" (1964). She had a rare television appearance on an episode of "Daniel Boone". On the stage, she appeared in such productions as "Dinner at Eight," "The Skin of Our Teeth," "Wuthering Heights," "A Tale of Two Cities," "A Murder is Announced," "Blithe Spirit," "Street Scene," "The Glass Menagerie," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "All This and Heaven Too", "The Philadelphia Story," "Elmer Gantry," "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore," "Happy Birthday, Wanda June," "The Women," "Privates Lives," "Les Misérables," "Anna Karenina," "The Mousetrap," "Romeo and Juliet," "A Period of Adjustment," and "Her Cardboard Lover". During her career, she had been a naturalized United States citizen, was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, was supportive of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, was a member of the Hollywood Democratic Committee, had been a regular parishioner of the Unitarian Universalist church, was a model for Vogue Magazine, had been accoladed as a 1962 Deb Star, was cited per gossip columnist Louella Parsons as being "The Beauty of the Black Pearls", had been the celebrity spokeswoman for Playtex and Kodak, had allegedly been a noted lover of the prominent anthropologist Laurens van der Post, had been a stand-in for actresses Natalie Wood and Elizabeth Taylor, and she was married to fellow character actor Arch Whiting from 1964 to 1975 (their union ended in divorce and produced no children). Upon her 1965 withdrawal from acting, she spent the remainder of her life working as an environmental researcher, and was a notable benefactor for several state parks and public libraries until her death.