Mary Imogene Robertson After a bad childhood (her mother died in 1908 and her father was absent) including working as a farm laborer, Mary Robertson moved to New York City in 1919 where she worked as a model. Before long she was discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld, who hired her under the name of Imogene Wilson (the first of three major name changes she was to have) as a dancer in his follies. It was at this point that she began a long and abusive relationship with comedian Frank Tinney, which would culminate in being hospitalised for injuries he inflicted on her during an argument. Because Tinney was married to another woman, the affair caused a scandal. Mary Robertson was fired from the Ziegfeld Follies and subsequently moved to Germany for two years. While in Germany, she made a large number of films, including "Das Panzergewölbe" and "Verborgene Gluten."
Moving back to the United States in 1927, Mary Robertson adopted the stage name Mary Nolan and had a brief film career starring in films such as "The Foreign Legion", "Shanghai Lady," and her final film, "Docks Of San Francisco." Unable to gain work she became addicted to heroin and died of cardiac arrest on October 31, 1948.
