During the Golden Age of radio through the 1930s and 1940s, she provided the voices of a variety characters on such programs as "The March of Time", "Cavalcade of America", "The Court of Missing Heirs", "The Adventures of Mister Meek", "Life Begins" and "Manhattan at Midnight". On many of these dramatic performances she collaborated with her then husband, the late actor John McIntire. Nolan has the rather curious distinction of having provided a series of screams for "mother" in Psycho (1960) in which, coincidentally, her husband played Sheriff Chambers.
Mother of actor Tim McIntire and Holly McIntire.