Yolande Donlan

Yolande Donlan

Born: June 2, 1920
Died: December 30, 2014
in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
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.

Movies for Yolande Donlan...

Seven Nights in Japan
Title: Seven Nights in Japan
Character: American Wife
Released: August 5, 1976
Type: Movie
Handsome Prince George arrives on board his ship in Japan. Youthful, immaculate in naval uniform and smiling broadly, he goes through the complicated formalities of being greeted by a host nation. But housed with the Ambassador and his family, the Prince finds the atmosphere stuffy and dull; he longs for freedom and, for once, rebels against his upbringing with all its constraints and responsibilities, escaping for a week of romance, and unexpected drama…
bee
The Adventurers
Title: The Adventurers
Character: Mrs. Erickson
Released: March 25, 1970
Type: Movie
The wealthy playboy son of an assassinated South American diplomat discovers that his father was murdered on orders of the corrupt president of the country- a man who was his father's friend and who, in fact, his father had helped put into power. He returns from living a jet-set life in Europe to lead a revolution against the government, only to find out that things aren't quite as black and white as he'd assumed.
bee
80,000 Suspects
Title: 80,000 Suspects
Character: Ruth Preston
Released: August 15, 1963
Type: Movie
A doctor's already-shaky marriage is tested to an even greater extent when he has to contend with a smallpox epidemic.
bee
Jigsaw
Title: Jigsaw
Character: Jean Sherman
Released: August 21, 1962
Type: Movie
A woman is found murdered in a house along the coast from Brighton. Local detectives Fellows and Wilks lead an investigation methodically following up leads and clues mostly in Brighton and Hove but also further afield.
bee
Expresso Bongo
Title: Expresso Bongo
Character: Dixie Collins
Released: December 1, 1959
Type: Movie
A seedy London promoter turns a naive, working-class teenager into a pop singing sensation.
bee
Tarzan and the Lost Safari
Title: Tarzan and the Lost Safari
Character: Gamage Dean
Released: April 12, 1957
Type: Movie
Tarzan leads five passengers from a downed airplane out of the jungle. En route white hunter Hawkins tries to sell them to the Oparian chief.
bee
They Can't Hang Me
Title: They Can't Hang Me
Character: Jill Wilson
Released: October 1, 1955
Type: Movie
A murderer hopes to escape his death sentence by identifying the leaders of a spy ring.
bee
Penny Princess
Title: Penny Princess
Character: Lindy Smith
Released: March 24, 1952
Type: Movie
A tiny European country which for years has survived financially only through evading its bills and smuggling is finally facing bankruptcy, when a rich American agrees to save the place by buying it. But before, the deal is closed, he dies. His nearest relative and heir turns out to be a young woman with high ethical and democratic standards, but no experience with money, or affairs of state, or Europe. A charming young English visitor helps her to muddle through. Comedy and romance follow.
bee
Mr. Drake's Duck
Title: Mr. Drake's Duck
Character: Penny Drake
Released: September 21, 1951
Type: Movie
Mr. Drake and his wife live a nice, quiet life on their Sussex farm, until one of their ducks lays a radioactive egg made of uranium! When the government finds out about this, the Armed Forces storm onto the farm in a frantic search for the duck responsible.
bee
Traveller's Joy
Title: Traveller's Joy
Character: Lil Fowler
Released: December 25, 1950
Type: Movie
A divorced couple, living hand-to-mouth in Stockholm, must first pay their hotel bill before returning to England. To raise the necessary funds, they must pretend that they're still married.
bee
The Body Said No!
Title: The Body Said No!
Released: April 30, 1950
Type: Movie
A cabaret artist sees on her television set after viewing hours, a plot being discussed to murder Michael Rennie. Although her friends are sceptical she warns Rennie, but things are not what they seem.
bee
Miss Pilgrim's Progress
Title: Miss Pilgrim's Progress
Character: Laramie Pilgrim
Released: November 29, 1949
Type: Movie
An exchange factory worker from New Jersey joins a plot to save a village from the Town and Country Planning Act.
bee
Under Age
Title: Under Age
Character: Lily Fletcher
Released: April 23, 1941
Type: Movie
Fresh out of reform school, a bunch of delinquent girls fall in with a gang of crooks and are put to work as "hostesses" in a number of mob-controlled bars and cafes. The girls are expected to string along male customers so that the latter will squander their money on watered-down drinks and fixed poker games. When one gullible New Yorker is clipped to the tune of $18,000 worth of diamonds, the Law closes in.
bee
The Devil Bat
Title: The Devil Bat
Character: Maxine
Released: December 13, 1940
Type: Movie
Dr. Paul Carruthers feels bitter at being betrayed by his employers, Heath and Morton, when they became rich as a result of a product he devised. He gains revenge by electrically enlarging bats and sending them out to kill his employers' family members by instilling in the bats a hatred for a particular perfume he has discovered, which he gets his victims to apply before going outdoors. Johnny Layton, a reporter, finally figures out Carruthers is the killer and, after putting the perfume on himself, douses it on Carruthers in the hopes it will get him to give himself away. One of the two is attacked as the giant bat makes one of its screaming, swooping power dives.
bee
Dark Streets of Cairo
Title: Dark Streets of Cairo
Character: Maggie Malone, aka Margo Molina
Released: December 1, 1940
Type: Movie
A rapid series of murders occurs when a professor disrupts a tranquil Egyptian tomb by removing some precious jewels.
bee
Cross-Country Romance
Title: Cross-Country Romance
Character: Jennie
Released: July 12, 1940
Type: Movie
A runaway heiress hides in a doctor's trailer for a rollicking trip to San Francisco.
bee
Turnabout
Title: Turnabout
Character: Marie (as Yolande Mollot)
Released: May 17, 1940
Type: Movie
Bickering husband and wife Tim and Sally Willows mutter a few angry words to a statue of Buddha and wind up living each other's life.