In the mid-1950s, after leaving Warner Bros., Roman continued to star in films and also began playing guest roles for television series.

After further enhancing her skills performing with the New England Repertory Company and the Elizabeth Peabody Players,[8] Roman moved to New York City, where she hoped to find success on Broadway.

[7] Roman moved to Hollywood, where she obtained bit parts in several films such as Stage Door Canteen (1943), Ladies Courageous (1944), Since You Went Away (1944), Song of Nevada (1944), and Storm Over Lisbon (1944).

[9] Her roles, though, remained small in such films as See My Lawyer (1945), The Affairs of Susan (1945), You Came Along (1945), Incendiary Blonde (1945), Gilda (1946), Without Reservations (1946), A Night in Casablanca (1946), and The Big Clock (1948).

While waiting for an opportunity in movies, Roman wrote short stories based on her experiences living in a theatrical boarding house.

The next year, she was chosen for the title role in Belle Starr's Daughter, as a killer in the thriller The Window, and as the wife of the central character in Champion, starring Kirk Douglas.

In recognition of Roman's rising status as an actress, Warner Bros. signed her to a long-term contract in 1949, casting her first as a supporting player for Bette Davis in Beyond the Forest and then for Milton Berle and Virginia Mayo in Always Leave Them Laughing.

That year, she was also one of many Warners stars in Starlift, the studio's musical tribute to United States military personnel fighting in the Korean War.

She went back to MGM to play Glenn Ford's love interest in Young Man with Ideas (1952) and was reunited with Cooper in Blowing Wild (1953), only this time she was billed beneath Barbara Stanwyck.

At Universal she was a love interest to James Stewart in the Anthony Mann-directed Western The Far Country (1955) and at Republic was top billed in The Shanghai Story (1954) with Edmond O'Brien.

Many other series featured guest appearances by Roman, including Route 66, The Untouchables, Mannix, Cannon, Marcus Welby, M.D., The Mod Squad, The FBI, Tarzan, and The Outer Limits - episode Moonstone - 1964 In 1971 Roman appeared as Marjorie Worth on "The Men from Shiloh" (rebranded name for the TV Western The Virginian) in the episode titled "The Angus Killer."

Roman was in the Belvedere Lounge when the collision happened and immediately took off her high heels and scrambled back to her cabin barefoot to retrieve her sleeping son.

Ruth stepped into the next boat and was eventually rescued along with 750 other survivors from the Andrea Doria by the French passenger liner SS Île de France.

[21] Roman died at the age of 76 in her sleep of natural causes at her beachfront villa on Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach, California, on September 9, 1999.