Trundy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of an Italian father and an Irish mother. Her father was a wealthy insurance executive. When she was young, his work resulted in the family moving to New York City, where she attended Marymount School of New York.
Stage
Trundy performed on Broadway when she was 12 years old, earning the role of 15-year-old Nancy in A Girl Can Tell by convincingly acting older than her true age during the auditions.
Film
As an actress she starred in the 1962 filmMr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation. In May 1963, she was struck by a car, and suffered a ruptured disc in her back, disrupting the momentum of her acting career as she spent a year recovering in a back brace. Trundy's second husband, Arthur P. Jacobs, produced films and television through his APJAC Productions. APJAC produced the original Planet of the Apes movie series. In the early 1970s, Trundy played the telepathicmutant Albina in the second film, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, the early 1970s human Dr. Stephanie Branton in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, and featured as the nearer-future chimpanzeeLisa, the mate of Caesar, in both Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Trundy's last film was 1974's Huckleberry Finn, also produced by APJAC Productions.
Television
Newspaper columnistErskine Johnson once described Trundy as " sort of electronic Shirley Temple who sparkled on TV between the ages of 11 and 16," adding that she appeared, uncredited, "in nearly 200 live New York TV shows" in those early days of television. As Trundy, and television, matured, she made a number of credited appearances in network television series, including the 1960 episode "The Twisted Image" on Thriller, the 1960 episode "Denver McKee" on Bonanza, the 1963 episode "The Case of the Golden Oranges" on Perry Mason, the 1963 episode "Valley of the Shadow" on The Twilight Zone, as well as guest appearances on episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Silent Force and Wagon Train. Trundy last appeared in a 1978 episode of the series Quincy, M.E..
Producing
After her second husband's death in 1973, Trundy assumed control of his company, APJAC Productions.
Personal life
Trundy was married five times. In September 1959, 19-year-old Trundy married 22-year-old trust fund millionaire Charles Hirshon, though the marriage was annulled in 1960. She is the widow of her second husband, movie producer Arthur P. Jacobs. Trundy had two children during her six-year marriage to her third husband, Carmine Roberto Foggia. She had a short marriage to Scott Cristle in the early 1980s, and married Andres Lopez in 1985.
