Born Marjorie Wollenberg, she had some Broadway stage experience in her youth and began appearing in films in her mid teens. She played leads in routine films from the late '30s to the early '50s, and later took character roles. She did much work on TV; from 1957-64 she played Danny Thomas's wife on the TV sitcom Make Room for Daddy. She was married to actor John Archer, and her daughter is actress Anne Archer.