Ashley’s autobiography Actress: Postcards from the Road was published in a hardcover edition on June 1, 1978 by M. Evans & Co (now part of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group). A paperback publication followed on October 12, 1979 through Fawcett Publications.

Having earlier appeared with Burt Reynolds in Paternity in 1981 and as a guest star in his television series B.L. Stryker in 1989, Ashley became a cast member of Reynolds’ next television series, Evening Shade, from 1990 to 1994 as Aunt Frieda Evans. In 1991, this role garnered her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She was originally supposed to appear in the 1995 movie Mallrats, playing the governor of New Jersey; however, the entire sequence was cut and replaced by a new one.

She has been featured in major motion pictures over five decades, including early roles in The Carpetbaggers (1964), Ship of Fools (1965), and The Third Day (1965). Her other film credits include The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker (1971), Rancho Deluxe (1975), Coma (1978), Paternity (1981), Dragnet (1987), and Vampire’s Kiss (1989), and she starred as the villain in the controversial film Windows (1980). Her most recent film roles were as Diane Freed in Happiness (1998) and as Marg in the 2007 film The Cake Eaters.