Brigitte Horney went to school in Berlin-Zehlendorf and attended a boarding school in Znoz (Switzerland). She took lessons in free dance at Mary Wigman"s and attended drama school. In 1930, Horney won the Max Reinhardt prize for young actors and starred in the leading role in Robert Siodmak"s film "Abschied" ("Farewell"). She also worked at Stadttheater Würzburg and at Berlin"s Lessing-Theater. From 1931 to 1932 Horney performed at Deutsches Theater but went to Volksbühne in 1932 where she regularly played until 1943. In 1934, she starred as bar singer Rubby in the successful movie "Liebe, Tod und Teufel" ("Love, Death and the Devil").

Horney"s style did not fit the Nazi clichées and she thus became an anti-star during the Nazi regime. She starred in six films by Viktor Tourjansky but also filmed in London in 1936. Only some of her parts corresponded with national socialistic stereotypes about women: Horney played a strong "companion" in "Ein Mann will nach Deutschland" ("A Man Wants to Get to Germany", Paul Wegener) and a home-loving ethnic German in "Feinde" (Tourjansky). Shortly before the end of the war, Horney moved to Switzerland. From 1946 to 1948 she performed at Schauspielhaus Zürich and went to Basel in 1950. From 1949 on, she also did movies in Germany again and starred in "Verspieltes Leben" ("Ulyssa", Kurt Meisel), among others.

When her mother, the psychoanalyst Karen Horney, died in 1952, Brigitte Horney relocated to the USA and continued her mother"s work. After 1952, Horney only sporadically performed at European theatres or made TV appearances, for example in Jean-Paul Sartre"s "Geschlossene Gesellschaft". From the mid-1960s on, Horney starred in several films of the Edgar Wallace series. Then, from 1972 on, she started to portray self-willed older ladies in TV series such as "Der Kommissar" or "Derrick".

Later, Horney became the star of TV series such as "Jakob und Adele" (Tögel/Stark) and "Teufels Großmutter" (Bob Herzet). In 1972, Horney won the German film award in Gold for her outstanding achievements in German film.