Born in Taylorville, Illinois, Joyce Taylor sang in amateur shows at age ten and turned professional when she was a very grown-up-looking 15, signing on with Mercury Records. She was under contract to Howard Hughes' RKO in the 1950s but the eccentric and enigmatic tycoon only allowed her to act in one picture (a small part in Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). After the end of seven frustrating years "bottled up" by Hughes, she became a regular on the TV sci-fi/adventure series Men Into Space (1959) and acted in many other TV shows (as well as a handful of features).