Marjorie Riordan's remarkable journey began in Wisconsin during the early 1940s, where she was discovered and subsequently signed a studio contract with Warner Brothers. As she navigated the Hollywood scene throughout the 1950s, she found herself alongside another Warner Brothers player, Joyce Reynolds, who shared her sentiments of intellectual dissatisfaction with the acting profession.
Together, they made the bold decision to return to graduate school, opting to pursue degrees in speech pathology. Riordan's academic focus shifted towards the psycho-dynamics of stuttering, which naturally led her to delve deeper into the field of clinical psychology.
Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, Riordan successfully balanced her dual careers as a clinical psychologist and actress, but eventually, she chose to dedicate herself fully to her work in psychology, relinquishing her acting career altogether.
During her time in graduate school, Riordan met her future husband, Allan Schlaff, a fellow clinical psychologist. The couple went on to have a son, John Schlaff, who was born in 1959.
Sadly, Marjorie Riordan's life was cut short when she succumbed to breast cancer in 1984.
