She was an original cast member of the daytime serial Days of Our Lives, where she played the role of Marie Horton, the show's very first heroine who had several traumatic relationships before going into a convent and becoming a nun. After leaving "Days" in 1973, she moved to New York, and by 1974 was on soap opera Search for Tomorrow, where she originated the role of the sarcastic and very vampy Stephanie Wilkins, who was Joanne Gardner's arch-enemy, having an affair with Jo's husband Martin (John Aniston). She was replaced on that soap opera in early 1984 by Emmy Winning actress/writer Louise Shaffer. In 1987, she became regular cast member of General Hospital, where she played Lucy Coe's wacky and fun-loving Aunt Charlene Simpson who eventually had a major storyline surrounding her two sons. When Gloria Monty returned as producer in 1991, Cheatham was one of many cast members let go, but in 1998, returned to the role with a brief appearance on the spin-off Port Charles when Charlene visited Lucy for Thanksgiving. During the last two seasons of Knots Landing, she played the role of the scheming Mary Robeson, a blackmailer who became the victim in a murder mystery. Cheatham has returned to "Days" on several occasions as Marie Horton, now a doctor and no longer a nun, first in 1994 for a tribute to the late MacDonald Carey when Tom Horton died and later on for one of Bo and Hope's many re-marriages, and more recently, in 2010 for a tribute to Frances Reid when Alice Horton died. She also appeared on the soap opera Passions in 2002, playing the role of Mona.
She has also made many guest appearances in TV series such as Gunsmoke, Cagney and Lacey, Quantum Leap, The Nanny, Dharma and Greg, Profiler, Judging Amy, Scrubs, The West Wing, Monk, Cold Case and Desperate Housewives. She has also appeared in movies, such as Rumor Has It..., Mr. & Mrs. Smith, America's Sweethearts, and a notable cameo in The Wedding Singer, in which she innocently asked Billy Idol what the "mile high club" was.
She was once married to Bill Arvin, but it ended in divorce in 1974.
