Jeanette Nolan (December 30, 1911 – June 5, 1998) was an American actress, born in Los Angeles.
She began her acting career at the Pasadena Community Playhouse and, while a student at Los Angeles City College, made her radio debut in 1932 in "Omar Khayyam", the first transcontinental broadcast from station KHJ, and continued acting until the 1990s. She made her film debut as Lady Macbeth in Orson Welles's 1948 film version of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Despite the fact that she and the film received withering reviews at the time, Nolan's film career flourished in large supporting roles. Viewers of film noir may know her best as the corrupt wife of a dead (and equally corrupt) police officer in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat. Her final film appearance was in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer as Robert Redford's mother. Nolan made over 300 TV appearances and was nominated for 4 Emmy Awards.
She played Alma, Rose Nylund's adoptive mother, in the hit series The Golden Girls.
She married actor John McIntire, of the 1960s TV series Wagon Train, in 1935. Unlike typical short-lived Hollywood marriages, they remained married for 56 years until his death in 1991. She was the mother of 2 children, one of whom was the actor Tim McIntire, who was best-known for his turn as the legendary DJ Alan Freed in the 1978 film American Hot Wax.
She died on June 5, 1998, in Los Angeles, California following a stroke at the age of 86.
Jeanette Nolan began her acting career in the Pasadena Community Playhouse and, while a student at Los Angeles City College, made her radio debut in 1932 in "Omar Khayyam", the first transcontinental broadcast from station KHJ. Her film debut was probably also her best part, Lady Macbeth opposite director/actor Orson Welles's Macbeth (1948). Her final film role was as Tom Booker's ('Robert Redford''s) mother Ellen Booker in Horse Whisperer, The (1998). She appeared in more than 300 television shows, including episode roles in "Perry Mason" (1957), "I Spy" (1965), "MacGyver" (1985), "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955), and as a regular on "Richard Boone Show, The" (1963) and "Virginian, The" (1962). She received four Emmy nominations. She died, aged 86, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, following a stroke.
