Adams appeared on Broadway in the 1958 production of The Visit at the Morosco Theatre with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

Marla Adams (born August 28, 1938) is an American television actress, best known for her roles as Belle Clemens on The Secret Storm, from 1968 to 1974, and as Dina Abbott Mergeron on The Young and the Restless. As Belle Clemens, she was the show’s reigning villainess for the last years of its run, stopping at almost nothing to destroy the life of the show’s leading heroine, Amy Ames. The two rivals were, at one time, related through marriage. As Dina Abbott on The Young and the Restless from 1983-86, in 1991 and again in 1996, she caused major disruptions in the lives of her three children and ex-husband John Abbott and his wife Jill. She reprised her role as Dina for three episodes on The Young and the Restless in 2008 when Katharine Chancellor was presumed dead. In May 2017, Adams returned to The Young and the Restless. The following March, Adams’ performance garnered her an Emmy Nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Right before joining The Young and the Restless, she stepped into the role of the scheming Myrna Clegg, on the defunct daytime drama Capitol after the departure of actress Carolyn Jones who had left for health reasons, prior to Marj Dusay, who remained until the end of the show’s run. As Helen Mullin on Generations, she was involved in a storyline involving racism, although it was her character’s husband, Charles, who was the racist even though he was revealed to have a black mistress. She was the third actress to play Beth Logan, Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang), Donna (Carrie Mitchum, now Jennifer Gareis), and Katie’s (Nancy Sloan, now Heather Tom) mother on The Bold and the Beautiful (1991). In 1999, she appeared on Days of Our Lives as snooty Dr. Claire McIntyre. She appeared on the episode “Matter of Principle” of Walker, Texas Ranger. On April 2, CBS first aired Michael Preece’s television film The President’s Man, an action film vehicle for its two leads, Chuck Norris and Dylan Neal. Adams co-starred along side, Ralph Waite, Stuart Whitman, and Soon-Tek Oh. The story is about, Joshua McCord (Norris), who’s an aging president’s man, the highest classified job in the USA that consists to be a highly trained bodyguard of the president (Waite), who thinks of retiring and prepares to find his replacement (Neal). Within this ensemble Adams plays the first lady.