Actress. Born the daughter of James Donlan, who was a hard-working character actor who appeared in over 100 Hollywood films in the 1920s and 1930s, and Therese, a cabaret singer, she was brought up in American show business. In 1938, she started to appear in Hollywood films in small parts under the name of Yolande Mallott. She was cast as a French maid in the creaky horror movie 'The Devil Bat' (1940), starring Bela Lugosi. That same year, she was hired as one of the singing and dancing troupe of Earl Carroll’s Vanities musical revue. After a six-month stint on Broadway, she was offered a role in the hit comedy 'Born Yesterday', which was playing on Broadway with Judy Holliday as the quintessential dumb blonde. Laurence Olivier, anxious to add to his talents as a director and actor, wanted to bring the play to London. He flew to Boston to discover whether Donlan was as good as the local critics had said - she was - so in January 1947, Olivier’s production of 'Born Yesterday', starring Donlan, opened at the Garrick theatre in London’s West End to great success. In London, she met director Val Guest. The couple fell in love and set up house together, however, they had to wait five years for both their marriages to be dissolved, hers from the American actor Philip Truex, and his from Pat Watson, a Gaiety Girl. From the very beginning of their relationship, Guest set about writing and directing films as starring vehicles for Donlan, such as 'Miss Pilgrim’s Progress' (1949), 'Mister Drake’s Duck' (1951 opposite Douglas Fairbanks Jr), 'Penny Princess' (1952), 'They Can’t Hang Me' (1955), 'Expresso Bongo (1959), 'Jigsaw' (1962) and '80,000 Suspects' (1963). Shortly thereafter, she went into retirement, only reappearing a couple of times on stage and on film, to enjoy her passion for travelling, which was evident in a travel book she wrote, 'Sand in My Mink' (1955). In 1985, Guest retired from directing and the couple moved to the United States in the early 1990s, where they resided in Palm Springs until his death in 2006. In 2004, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to Donlan and Guest.