A Greek immigrant, John Marlin immigrated to the United States in the 1920s and quickly found work as a waiter at a restaurant. During this time, Los Angeles was a small community and films were starting to increase in popularity so like many other actors, Marlin started working in the background in silent films in the 1920s.Since he looked like your typical Italian, Marlin began appearing in movies that had your little Italian town setting and he found a niche as a waiter. The biggest problem for Marlin was that there were already people who were established as waiters and they were the ones who usually got upgraded to silent bits or dialog.By the 1950s, Marlin's luck started to turn around because many of those very people who were his competition were starting to retire so he started to receive better roles and would constantly interact with the main characters. The wide variety of movies at the time enabled Marlin to venture into roles that weren't open to him in the earlier years of his career. He started appearing as spectators, socialites, and he even scored a few credited roles because his short stature enabled him to appear as an ape.In the 1970s, he found steady employment in the television series Nichols as the stand-in for Stuart Margolin. This break didn't last long because Nichols was cancelled after one season. However, with the massive increase in popularity in television dramas, he was able to find regular work were he first started appearing in Italian based settings and as waiters. Marlin continued to act until he retired in the mid 1980s.