From 1945 on she attended commercial school. After graduating in 1948, she worked as a model and took acting classes at the Bern conservatory, now part of the Bern University of Applied Sciences. Following small parts at the Bern Theatre (Stadttheater Bern), she appeared at the renowned Schauspielhaus Zürich, one of the most prestigious German-speaking theatres.
Her breakthrough movie role was "Vreneli", the wife of the lead in Uli, der Knecht, made after the novel of Swiss author Jeremias Gotthelf. One of her most recognizable roles in American cinema is that of James Cagney's sexy secretary in Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three. For her role as a Russian woman in A Global Affair she was in 1963 nominated for the Golden Globe Award as best supporting Actress.
From 1978-83 she worked for the German edition of Sesame Street, Sesamstraße. She is essentially retired, her last film credit being in 1996.
Her daughter committed suicide in 1989. Her husband died in 1992 of a heart attack. Pulver lives secluded in Perroy, Canton Vaud on the shores of Lake Geneva; she also has an apartment at the Burgerheim, a retirement home near Bern.
