Talbot's older sister, Gloria Stone (born Gloria Sokol, January 5, 1929 – May 13, 2014) was also an Actress.

Born in New York City, Talbot began her acting career appearing as a model in the 1949 film It's a Great Feeling. She was afforded a wealth of varied screen roles, from the love-starved switchboard operator in A Very Special Favor (1965) to the brassy Madame Esther in Buck and the Preacher (1972).

She also appeared in such films as Bright Leaf (1950), This Could Be the Night (1957), I Married a Woman (1958), Who's Got the Action? (1962), Girl Happy (1965), The Day of the Locust (1975), Serial (1980), Chained Heat (1983), Fraternity Vacation (1985), and Puppet Master II (1991).

Talbot was married to actor Don Gordon (September 7, 1954–April 11 1958; divorced) and actor Thomas A. Geas (from August 13, 1961 until their divorce). She has one child, a daughter, Nicole Andrea Geas (born 1962), by her first husband, actor Thomas Geas (1934-2010).

Appearing in many TV series, Talbot was seen as Mabel Spooner opposite Larry Blyden's Joe Spooner in Joe and Mabel (1956), Iris Anderson in the 1958 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Pint-Sized Client", con-woman Blondie Collins in the second season of The Thin Man (1958–59), con-woman/struggling Actress Susan Reed in the first season of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1958-59) "Beautiful, Blue and Deadly", the immigrant wife in [S4:E9] "Land Deal" on Gunsmoke (1958), played against type in the Maverick third season episode "The Resurrection of Joe November" with James Garner (1959), and in "Belle's Back"' [5:35] resourceful girl Friday Dora Miles on The Jim Backus Show (aka: Hot Off the Wire), snooty socialite Judy Evans in Here We Go Again (1973), and hypercynical Rose (opposite Bill Daily) in Starting from Scratch. (1988).

Between 1966-71, she appeared in seven episodes of Hogan's Heroes as "White Russian" spy Marya, a role for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1968 for the 1967 episode "The Hostage".

In 1971, Talbot was cast in the pilot episode of the CBS sitcom Funny Face starring actress-comedian Sandy Duncan as Sandy Stockton, a young UCLA student from Illinois majoring in education and making ends meet by working part-time as an Actress in television commercials for the Prescott Advertising Agency. Talbot played Sandy's agent, Maggie Prescott. Shortly after filming the pilot, CBS picked up the program for the fall of 1971, but slightly revised the format, a result of which was Talbot being dropped from the cast. She appeared in the 6th episode second season in Columbo, called "A Stitch in Crime" (1973). Her last acting role was in 1997, when she voiced the character of Anastasia Hardy, the businesswoman mother of Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, in the animated series Spider-Man.

Talbot has been either the star or co-star of several other series, including Man Against Crime, Bourbon Street Beat (four episodes as Lusti Weather), The Secret Storm, and Supertrain, while guest-starring on others such as Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Talbot also had long-running roles in Search for Tomorrow and General Hospital. On General Hospital, she had the recurring role of Delfina from 1981-83 (and again in 1992), Tiffany Hill's old friend who takes over designing Luke and Laura's wedding.