She soon became — under mysterious circumstances — the child of Leon and Edith Osborn, who called her Marie and added the "e" to the surname, apparently to obscure the adoption.

[2] Her foster parents, the Osbornes, introduced their daughter to silent films when they left Colorado to work at Balboa Studios in Long Beach, California.

As an adult, she returned to motion pictures 15 years later in 1934 – at the request of director Henry King – to appear in his film Carolina, starring Janet Gaynor and Lionel Barrymore.

Over the next 16 years, Osborne worked as a film extra, also serving as a stand-in for actresses such as Ginger Rogers, Deanna Durbin, and Betty Hutton.

Osborne worked on the wardrobes for such films as Around the World in 80 Days (1956), How to Murder Your Wife (1965), The Godfather: Part II (1974), and Harry and Walter Go to New York (1976).