Born Annie Jeffreys Carmichael on January 26, 1923 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Jeffreys entered the entertainment field at a young age, having her initial training in voice (she was an accomplished soprano). "She became a member of the New York Municipal Opera Company on a scholarship and sang the lead at Carnegie Hall in such things as La bohème, Traviata, and Pagliacci." However, she decided as a teenager to sign with the John Robert Powers agency as a junior model.\n', '
Her plans for an operatic career were sidelined when she was cast in a staged musical review, Fun for the Money. Her appearance in that revue led to her being cast in her first movie role, in I Married an Angel (1942), starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. She was under contract to both RKO and Republic Studios during the 1940s, including several appearances as Tess Trueheart in the Dick Tracy series, and the 1944 Frank Sinatra musical Step Lively. She also appeared in the horror comedy Zombies on Broadway with Wally Brown and Alan Carney in 1945 and starred in Riffraff with Pat O\'Brien two years later. Jeffreys also appeared in a number of western films and as bank robber John Dillinger\'s moll in 1945\'s Dillinger\n', '
When her Hollywood career faltered, she instead focused on the stage, playing lead roles on Broadway in productions such as the 1947 opera Street Scene, the 1948 Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate (having replaced Patricia Morison) and the 1952 musical Three Wishes for Jamie. With long-term husband Robert Sterling, she appeared in the CBS sitcom Topper (1953–1955), in which she was billed in a voiceover as "the ghostess with the mostest".\n', '