Prior to starring in her husband's films, Carrol had been a nightclub singer and dancer.
Renaming her Laura Elliott, the studio cast her in a number of film noir thrillers, including Special Agent 1949; with and Paid in Full 1950; with and , and one of her meatiest roles came in Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train 1951; with Robert Walker in which she portrayed doomed estranged wife.
Payton later married Tone but left him after two months for Neal.