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Totter began her acting career in radio in the
late 1930s and after success in Chicago,
Illinois|Chicago and New York, New York|New York,
was signed to a seven year film contract with MGM
Studios. 

She made her film debut in Main Street After Dark
(1945) and during the 1940s established herself as
a popular female lead. Although she appearance in
various film genres, she became most widely known
to movie audiences in film noir productions. 
Initially MGM groomed her to become an important
player and she was paired opposite some of their
biggest stars.  Among her successes were The
Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) with John
Garfield and Lana Turner, Lady in the Lake (1947)
with Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery,
The Unsuspected (1947 for Warner Brothers Studios)
with Claude Rains, High Wall (1947) with Robert
Taylor, The Saxon Charm (1948) with Robert
Montgomery and Susan Hayward, Alias Nick Beal
(1949) with Ray Milland, The Set-Up (1949) with
Robert Ryan, Any Number Can Play (1949) with Clark
Gable and Alexis Smith and Tension (movie)|Tension
(1950) with Richard Basehart.  By the early 1950s
the tough talking "dames" she was best known for
portraying, were no longer fashionable, and as MGM
began to work towards creating more family themed
films, Totter was released from her contract. 
Totter for her part, was reported to have grown
dissatisfied with MGM's handling of her career,
only agreeing to appear in Any Number Can Play
after Gable intervened. 

She worked for Columbia Pictures and 20th Century
Fox but the quality of her films dropped sharply
and by the end of the decade her career was in
decline.  A continuing role in the television
series Medical Center (TV series)|Medical Center
from 1972 until 1976 was the biggest success of
her later years.   Totter's most recent film
performance was in a 1987 episode of Murder, She
Wrote.