In what is deemed the most lacklustre period of British film history, the American actor Yolande Donlan, who has died aged 94, brought a welcome touch of Hollywood glamour. Donlan made her name in the UK, where she lived for most of her life. Though few would claim as masterpieces the eight films she made with the prolific British director Val Guest, whom she was to marry in 1954, they were reasonably entertaining low-budget movies which gave Donlan the chance to display her vivacity and versatility.
Born in New Jersey, the daughter of James Donlan, a bit-part player in many Hollywood movies, and Therese, a singer, she was brought up in American show business. She started to appear in Hollywood films in small parts under the name of Yolande Mallott at the age of 20, in 1940. Typical was her role as the French maid in the creaky horror movie The Devil Bat (1940), starring Bela Lugosi, in which she had almost nothing to do but stand around and say “Oui, Mamzelle” from time to time. In the same year, Donlan was one of the singing and dancing troupe of Earl Carroll’s Vanities, a musical revue on Broadway.
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