The younger Livingston made her debut in silent film in 1916. She made over 50 films during the "silent era," most notably in F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, and a further 20 films after she successfully made the transition to sound film in 1929, including Smart Money starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney. She occasionally dubbed voices for some other actresses, including Louise Brooks for The Canary Murder Case (1929).

Livingston was a guest on william Randolph Hearst's yacht the Oneida during the weekend in November 1924 with film Director and Producer Thomas Ince who later died of heart failure. In the Peter Bogdanovich film The Cat's Meow (2001), Livingston, played by Claudia Harrison, is depicted as having an affair with Ince at the time of his death.

On August 18, 1931, she married the band leader Paul Whiteman in a ceremony in Denver, Colorado, and retired from film acting in 1934. Livingston was unable to have children, and adopted four with her husband. She spent the remainder of her life investing in oil ventures and real estate, and was a partner in the construction of the Colonial House in West Hollywood, California.

Livingston died in Warrington, Pennsylvania on December 13, 1984, at age 89.