Stevens made her feature movie acting debut as the teenage love interest in "Young and Dangerous" (1957) and co-starred in such late 1950s teen flicks as "The Party Crashers", "Dragstrip Riot" and "Rock-a-Bye Baby" (all 1958). With "Parrish" and "Susan Slade" (both 1961), Stevens moved into more mature territory. Both soapers co-starred hunk Troy Donahue as Stevens' love interest. In the former she must compete with two other ingenues for his affections, and in the latter she tries to win him despite having had an illegitimate child which her own mother (Dorothy McGuire) pretends is her own. Throughout the 1960s and 70s Stevens continued to make innocuous fare like "Palm Springs Weekend" (1963), "Two on a Guillotine" (1965), "Way... Way Out" (1966) and "Scorchy" (1976) that cashed in on her sexy image. As she aged out of pert blonde roles, Stevens continued to work appearing in "Grease 2" (1982) and joined old pals Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello for a trip down memory lane in "Back to the Beach" (1987). Her last screen role to date was an extended cameo as Tim Robbins' mom in the underrated comedy "Tapeheads" (1988).
On the small screen, Stevens was a regular on the long-running detective series "Hawaiian Eye" (ABC, 1959-63), playing sidekick Cricket, a ditzy singer-photographer who sometimes inadvertently got in the way of solving that week's crime. Stevens starred with George Burns in the series "Wendy and Me" (ABC, 1964-65), and through the years appeared on numerous variety specials, frequently with Bob Hope, and several TV-movies, notably the Marilyn Monroe-inspired "The Sex Symbol" (ABC, 1974).
Stevens was formerly married to actor James Stacy and singer Eddie Fisher. Her two daughters with Fisher, Joely and Tricia, are both singers and actors.