The petite, dark-haired, exotic beauty worked onstage in productions ranging from Tennessee Williams' "The Rose Tattoo" to William Inge's "Bus Stop". Kohner first won acclaim on screen as an Italian girl briefly romanced by WWII hero Audie Murphy in the biopic "To Hell and Back" (1955). She scored as a half-breed making an ill-fated journey across Apache territory in the Western "The Last Wagon" (1956) and won praise as a plain-looking neighborhood girl romanced by juvenile delinquent Sal Mineo in "Dino" (1957). 1959 proved to be a banner year for the young player. Kohner earned an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her turn as Juanita Moore's willful daughter in Douglas Sirk's remake of "Imitation of Life". She was an Arab princess in love with John Saxon in the Biblical epic "The Big Fisherman" and showed skill as the woman in the life of a jazz musician in "The Gene Krupa Story", again reteamed with Sal Mineo as Krupa. Her next two features "All the Fine Young Cannibals" (1960) and "By Love Possessed" (1961) found her cast a George Hamilton's love interest and are among her least successful screen portrayals. Her final screen appearance was as Montgomery Clift's wife in "Freud", John Huston's 1962 biopic.