During the Golden Age of radio through the 1930s and 1940s, Nolan 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. She and McIntire played married couples in episodes of two different television series. The couple had two children, both actors:
Holly McIntire and
Tim McIntire.
Tim McIntire predeceased his parents, dying of congestive heart failure at age 41.