Jeffreys was 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 presentations as
La bohème,
Traviata, and
Pagliacci. However, she decided as a teenager to sign with the
John Robert Powers agency as a junior model. Her plans for an operatic career were sidelined when she was cast in a staged musical revue,
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. 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), the 1948 musical,
My Romance, 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". In 1955, she appeared in two TV musicals. On April 9, she starred in the title role of the Widow in the Max Liebman production of the "Merry Widow". Later that year on November 26, she appeared with her husband in "Dearest Enemy", set during the American Revolution, also produced by Liebman. On December 18, 1957, Jeffreys and her husband played a couple with an unusual courtship arrangement brought about by an attack of the fever in the episode "The Julie Gage Story", broadcast in the first season of
NBC's
Wagon Train. After a semi-retirement in the 1960s, she appeared on television, appearing in episodes of such series as
Love, American Style (with her husband),
L.A. Law and
Murder, She Wrote. She was nominated for a
Golden Globe for her work in
The Delphi Bureau (1972). From 1984 to 1985, she starred in the short-lived
Aaron Spelling series
Finder of Lost Loves. In the last year of
Port Charles, Amanda last appeared on screen in 2004 when Amanda attended Lila Quartermain's funeral. In 2012, she appeared in an episode of
California's Gold being interviewed, along with
Ann Rutherford, by
Huell Howser. ==Personal life==