A capable lead, Snodgress worked in episodic television and on the Chicago stage before making her screen mark in the riveting comedy-drama, "Diary of a Mad Housewife" (1970) which earned her a 1970 Best Actress Oscar nomination. She interrupted her blossoming career to raise her son but returned to the screen in Brian De Palma's "The Fury" (1978). Since then, her features have ranged from forgettable ("A Night in Heaven" 1983) to passable (the heavy-handed "Pale Rider" 1985) to intriguing ("The Ballad of Little Jo" 1993).

Snodgress has fared somewhat better on the small screen, although she generally has been cast as mothers or motherly types in such fare as the biopics "Nadia" (syndicated, 1984) and "Rise & Walk: The Dennis Byrd Story" (Fox, 1994). An exception was her portrayal of real-life serial killer Virginia McGinnis in "Death Benefit" (USA, 1996).