Born on December 26, 1929, in the Green Bank section of Washington Township, Burlington County, New Jersey as Betty Jane Crowley, she graduated from Egg Harbor City High School in 1946. On August 7, 1949, the 19-year-old Crowley won the title of Miss New Jersey at a contest held at Asbury Park. As the winner, she entered the Miss America pageant held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 10, 1949, and finished in seventh place. At the time she was working as a bookkeeper.
Many of her films were low-budget science fiction and horror movies, but she appeared in a wide range of narrative television series produced in the late 1950s and 1960s, including Crossroads, Yancy Derringer, Bourbon Street Beat, Surfside 6, Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip, Bat Masterson, The Americans. Bonanza, Colt .45, Bronco, Branded, Redigo, My Three Sons, The Donna Reed Show, Checkmate, Route 66, Thriller, Batman, Disneyland, Family Affair, Rawhide, The Virginian, The High Chaparral, The Restless Gun, Tales of Wells Fargo, The Lone Ranger, and The Adventures of Champion.
In February 1951, she appeared with Conrad Nagel in A Star is Born on Robert Montgomery Presents. Crowley made 81 television appearances, and was cast in 20 movies between 1951–70. One of her last movie roles was in Downhill Racer with Robert Redford. She made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of defendant and title character Marylin Clark in the 1958 episode, "The Case of the Lonely Heiress." She was in the 1963 episode of Perry Mason's "The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito" as Mrs. Bradisson.
Crowley is best remembered for appearing in eight episodes as a variety of seductive sirens on the ABC/Warner Brothers series, Maverick (1957), opposite James Garner, Jack Kelly, and Roger Moore.
Crowley married John Rubsam in Los Angeles on September 27, 1969, and gave birth to her only child, a son named Matthew, the following year.
She died on April 23, 2017, at her home in her native Green Bank, New Jersey. She was survived by her husband, son and a granddaughter.
