Yolande Donlan
Yolande Donlan (born June 2, 1920 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American actress who has worked extensively in the United Kingdom. She is the daughter of James Donlan, who was a hard working character actor in Hollywood films of the 1930s. It is thought that she had some uncredited roles in films including Pennies From Heaven and Love Finds Andy Hardy immediately following her father's death in 1938, but these have not been confirmed. Her early credited roles include Frenchy the maid in the horror film The Devil Bat in 1940 and she followed this up with several small roles, generally as similar French-accented maid characters. A notable stage success as Billie Dawn in a Boston production of Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin was the start of bigger things for Donlan. The production transferred to London's West End for a long run. Donlan was initially denied a work permit to star in the lead in Peter Pan due to complaints from Actors Equity who felt that a British star should have the lead. After it ended, Donlan remained in the United Kingdom and began accepting film work. After Traveller's Joy in 1949, Donlan worked for the director Val Guest in several films including Mister Drake's Duck, Penny Princess (in the title role) and The Body Said No. Donlan married Guest in 1954 and afterwards her film work included many of her husband's films such as Expresso Bongo and 80,000 Suspects, as well as a small number of films for other directors. In 1955 she penned the autobiographical travelogue, Sand in my Mink an amusing tale of adventures taken with her husband, across Europe, which makes a light hearted read of how travel used to be. A further stage success came in 1959 in Jack Popplewell's And Suddenly It's Spring opposite Margaret Lockwood. Her most recent film credit is Seven Nights in Japan from 1976. The same year saw publication of her autobiography, Shake the Stars Down, which concentrates on her childhood years growing up in the Hollywood of the 1930s. Guest retired from directing in 1985 and the couple moved back to the United States of America in the late 1980s, where they resided in Palm Springs until his death in 2006. Donlan now lives in Belgravia, London.
The Devil Bat
as MaxineDr. Paul Carruthers is frustrated because he thinks his employers, Mary Heath and Henry Morton,...
Movie pageThe Adventurers
as Mrs. EricksonThe wealthy playboy son of an assassinated South American diplomat discovers that his father was...
Movie pageUnder Age
as Lily FletcherFresh out of reform school, a bunch of delinquent girls fall in with a gang of crooks and are...
Movie pageThey Can't Hang Me
as Jill WilsonA murderer hopes to escape his death sentence by identifying the leaders of a spy ring.
Movie pageTarzan and the Lost Safari
as Gamage DeanTarzan leads five passengers from a downed airplane out of the jungle. En route white hunter...
Movie pageJigsaw
as Jean ShermanA woman is found murdered in a seaside house along the coast from Brighton in the county of East...
Movie pageExpresso Bongo
as Dixie CollinsA seedy London promoter turns a naive, working-class teenager into a pop singing sensation.
Movie pageDark Streets of Cairo
as Maggie Malone, aka Margo MolinaA rapid series of murders occurs when a professor disrupts a tranquil Egyptian tomb by removing...
Movie pagePenny Princess
as Lindy SmithA tiny European country which for years has survived financially only through evading its bills...
Movie pageTurnabout
as Marie (as Yolande Mollot)Bickering husband and wife Tim and Sally Willows mutter a few angry words to a statue of Buddha...
Movie pageCross-Country Romance
as JennieA runaway heiress hides in a doctor's trailer for a rollicking trip to San Francisco.
Movie pageMr. Drake's Duck
as Penny DrakeMr. Drake and his wife live a nice, quiet life on their Sussex farm, until one of their ducks...
Movie pageTraveller's Joy
as Lil FowlerA divorced couple, living hand-to-mouth in Stockholm, must first pay their hotel bill before...
Movie page80,000 Suspects
as Ruth PrestonA doctor's already-shaky marriage is tested to an even greater extent when he has to contend...
Movie pageSeven Nights in Japan
as American WifeHandsome Prince George arrives on board his ship in Japan. Youthful, immaculate in naval uniform...
Movie pageMiss Pilgrim's Progress
as Laramie PilgrimAn exchange factory worker from New Jersey joins a plot to save a village from the Town and...
Movie page