Her big break came in 1949, with a role in Adam's Rib. The part gave her the chance to star in Born Yesterday the next year, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Holliday was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee to "explain" her Communist links, but the appearance did not blackball her career, unlike the cases of others in the movie business.
In 1956 she starred in The Solid Gold Cadillac and in 1960 in Bells Are Ringing, in the role she had originated on Broadway.
In 1965 she died from breast cancer.
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6901 Hollywood Blvd.