Aged 17, she performed in the Tom Cushing comedy The Devil In The Cheese with Fredric March at the Charles Hopkins Theater in New York City. In 1928, she appeared in the Forest Theater production of Trapped by Samuel Shipman. She appeared in a revival of The Wild Duck in November 1928, starred in the George S. Kaufman/Ring Lardner comedy June Moon in 1929, and co-starred with Ralph Morgan in Sweet Stranger in 1930.

Watkins married lawyer Gabriel L. Hess, a widower, at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago on January 28, 1932. He was attorney for Will Hays and the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. The couple had a son, Adam Hess, who died in 1969; he left three daughters, Elizabeth, Faye, and Emily, Watkins’ granddaughters. Watkins obtained her release from Fox prior to her marriage.

Watkins appeared in numerous television broadcasts beginning with an episode of The Billy Rose Show in 1950. Other shows in which she performed are Wagon Train (1957), Death Valley Days (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1958), M Squad (1957), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1957–1958), Peter Gunn (1959), Perry Mason (1959), The David Niven Show (1959), The Adventures of Jim Bowie (1958), Gunsmoke (Season 4, Episode 23 “Sky”), Gunsmoke (Season 6, Episode 15 “Old Fool”), Gunsmoke season 7 (episode 3 Miss Kitty), Gunsmoke (Season 8, Episode 10 “The Hunger”), Gunsmoke (Season 10 Episode 6 “Take Her, She’s Cheap”) The Asphalt Jungle (1961), The Investigators (1961), The Munsters, Hazel (1963–64), and The Doris Day Show (1968).

She also appeared as Emily Hull, the mother of Sally McMillan (Susan St. James), in several episodes of McMillan & Wife. One of her last television appearances was as a guest star on The Waltons in 1973 as Maggie MacKenzie, in the episode “The Journey”.

Linda Watkins died in Los Angeles in 1976, aged 68, from undisclosed causes.