Early career Hanley began her acting career in San Francisco, where she worked days as a secretary at an advertising agency for $50 a week while auditioning for roles in repertory theater. When she landed the lead female role of Robin in a touring company production of
The Trials of Arvid "Tickles" Yastrzemski, her weekly salary doubled. She played Robin for almost four years in theaters in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles and Hollywood until Screen Gems signed her to a contract in 1966. playing Terry in the episode "My Fair Co-Ed". That was followed by credited appearances on numerous
Screen Gems television series, including
Gidget, ''
The Farmer's Daughter, Love on a Rooftop, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and The Flying Nun. While working at Screen Gems, Hanley met director/producer E. W. Swackhamer, whom she later married. She also made several pilots for Screen Gems, including her first lead role in the series Here Come the Brides. The series stars
Barbara Eden as Stella Johnson, a door-to-door saleswoman and single mother living in the fictional town of Harper Valley, Ohio, who is trying to make ends meet and raise her daughter Dee following the loss of her husband. The PTA of Harper Valley Junior High School, egged on by its socialite president, Flora Simpson Reilly (
Anne Francine), takes a dim view of Mrs. Johnson's flouting of the small town's conventions. Hanley's character, Wanda Reilly Taylor, is a member of the snooty family that tries to rule Harper Valley. She appeared on the television comedy ''
Mama's Family, and in an episode of the crime drama series Murder, She Wrote as the wife of a serial cheating husband. created and produced May Day Sermon'', a one-woman play starring Hanley, based on the poem by James Dickey. Hanley later starred in "Bronwen, the Traw and the Shapeshifter," also based on a
James Dickey poem. Hanley was a guest lecturer and performer at
Radford University. ==Personal life==