Phyllis Hill started on the stage in New York and later appeared with the Metropolitan Opera Company's ballet group and the Radio City Music Hall Ballet Corps. Formerly married to actor José Ferrer, she married Frank Overton in Los Angeles in 1962. She went into semi-retirement in 1983 following an automobile accident. Her mother was actress Peggy Johnstone Hill. She was the niece of writer Helen Leary and of actor Nolan Leary. Her sister, Joyce Hill Rainer, was a lead dancer with the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo.