Following in the footsteps of her mother, a silent film actress, Ms. Marlowe began her career in the theatre as an actress, dropping out of Cornell at 19 and appearing on Broadway in a small role in Mr. and Mrs. North. That same year, she married New York Sun critic and columnist Ward Morehouse, a chubby, courtly Southerner with a eye for actresses. The two shared an ebullient lifestyle that included frequent visits to Sardi's and the "21" Club. They remained married until 1948.
In 1951, the Ithica-born Joan Marlow published the book "The Keys to Broadway," an instructional guide for actors based on her own struggles in the business. Ms. Marlowe and Blake also published New York Theater Critics' Reviews, a reference work that was sold to Playbill in the early 1990s, and Ms. Marlowe served as the president of the Outer Critics' Circle and New Drama Forum.
She married Roderic Warren Rahe, a chemist, in 1952. He survives her, as do her sons sons Roderic Warren Rahe, Jr., and Ward Morehouse III, a theatre journalist.