Louise Sorel was born in Los Angeles, California into a theatrical family, the daughter of actress Jeanne Sorel and producer Albert Cohen. She studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and made her Broadway debut in Take Her, She's Mine.

Her other stage credits include the Broadway plays Lorenzo, The Dragon, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, Philadelphia Here I Come and Man & Boy. She appeared in several feature films, including The Party's Over, Plaza Suite, Airplane II, Where the Boys Are '84 and Crimes of Passion.

Louise's television credits include Knots Landing, Star Trek, Bonanza, Ladies Man, Medical Center, Kojak, The Don Rickles Show, Get Christie Love and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She made her daytime drama debut as Augusta Lockridge on Santa Barbara. She then appeared as Judith Sanders on One Life to Live and as the popular Vivian Alamain on Days of Our Lives. The latter role garnered her five Soap Opera Digest Awards. She was also on daytime's Port Charles, All My Children and Passions.

In 1985, Louise's Santa Barbara character went temporarily blind. Sorel received a get-well card from then-President Ronald Reagan. Apparently, the President forgot that Augusta was a fictional character.

Louise briefly attended the Institut du Français abroad. Her birthdate is August 6, 1940.