Love was born Phyllis Ann Love in Des Moines, Iowa. Her parents were Jack Love, who owned a food market, and Lois Love, who owned a cafe prior to marriage. Her schooling came at Perkins Elementary School, Callanan Junior High School, and Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines. Beginning in 1948, she attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburg for an unknown length of time.
Throughout the 1950s she acted in Broadway productions and the occasional film. Her Broadway credits include A Distant Bell (1959), Flowering Cherry (1959), The Egghead (1957), The Rose Tattoo (1950), and The Country Girl (1950). She won the Clarence Derwent Award in 1951 for her role in The Rose Tattoo. That role also brought her a Donaldson Award for Best Supporting Performance (Actress)for 1950-1951.
She played Mattie Birdwell in the film Friendly Persuasion (1956), and Dick Clark's pregnant wife in The Young Doctors (1961). On television, she appeared principally in guest roles from 1950 until her retirement in the early 1970s. Among her roles were two guest appearances on Perry Mason, both times as the defendant, as Ellen Carter in the 1962 episode “The Case of the Bogus Books”, and the part of Minerva Doubleday in the 1964 episode "The Case of the Wooden Nickels". In 1961 she played Dot the waitress in season 4 episode 17 and 18 of Have Gun Will Travel, and in 1962 she played Mrs. Lucas in the 3rd-season episode "Four O'Clock" in The Twilight Zone. In 1965 she played Lieutenant Jenkins in Season 1, Episode 19 "Faith, Hope and Sergeant Aronson" in the TV series 12 O'Clock High
Love and James Vincent McGee were married from 1948 to 1978, when they divorced. On January 22, 1983, she married Alan Paul Gooding. They remained married until her death.
On October 30, 2011, Love died at her home in Menifee, California, at age 85.
