| Activity | After training at RADA, Karlin made her stage debut for ENSA - the Forces Entertainment organisation - in wartime shows and subsequently appeared in repertory theatre and cabaret. Her plays included The Diary of Anne Frank, The Bad Seed, The Egg, Fiddler on the Roof and Bus Stop. She made her movie debut in 1952's Down Among the Z Men, as well as featuring in Room at the Top, Heavens Above!, Ladies Who Do and Mahler by Ken Russell as well as Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick.
On television Karlin became known for playing the belligerent shop steward Paddy in the The Rag Trade, a British sitcom set in a textile factory. Paddy would use the slightest opportunity to cause a strike; her trademark was blowing a whistle and shouting "Everybody out!" She played the role, to great success, between 1961 and 1963. The show was resurrected by the BBC's rival channel, ITV, but it was a pale imitation of the original. She later played Yetta Feldman, the Jewish ghost, in the BBC sitcom So Haunt Me.
Karlin has appeared on stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon, the Aldwych Theatre, and The Barbican Centre. She appeared in And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, as well as appearing in a national tour of 84 Charing Cross Road. She became the first woman to play the central role in The Caretaker written by Harold Pinter.
Karlin also appeared in the 1989 TV movie The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
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