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Dorothy spent much of her childhood in New Orleans, Louisiana. She began entering and winning beauty pageants and at the age of fifteen won the title of "Miss New Orleans". With this success she established a successful vaudeville act.

In 1931 she moved to New York to appear on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies, and followed this success with her role in the production of Tattle Tales in 1933. During this time she was closely associated with Russ Colombo and her celebrity status was elevated by the media attention she received while denying rumours of an impending marriage.

She moved to Hollywood in 1933 and was signed to a contract by Paramount Pictures. She won her first film role over such established contenders as Mae Clarke and Isabel Jewell and made her debut in Wharf Angel (1934). The film was a success and the reviews for Dell were favorable; Paramount began to consider her as a potential star. Her most important and substantial role followed in the Shirley Temple film Little Miss Marker.

Her next film Shoot the Works led to comparisons with Mae West, and her rendition of the ballad "With My Eyes Wide Open, I`m Dreaming" in the film became a hit record. Paramount scheduled her to play opposite Gary Cooper and Shirley Temple in Now and Forever in what was to have been her first major starring role as a romantic lead.

On June 8, 1934, Dell left an all-night party at an inn in Altadena, California and was going to Pasadena when the car left the highway, hit a telephone pole, bounced off a palm tree and hit a boulder. Dell was killed instantly. Her date (and reported fiancé), Dr. Carl Wagner, who was driving, died several hours later.

Dell was interred in Metairie Cemetery, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Her final role in Now and Forever was taken by Carole Lombard, and provided Lombard with one of her earliest significant successes. Dorothy Lamour, a childhood friend of Dell, later credited Dell as the person responsible for the beginning of her own film career. Lamour also won the title of "Miss New Orleans" in 1931, succeeding her friend Dell who had won the title the previous year.