Dolores Donlon Bio
Dolores Donlon was an American glamour model, pin-up girl, and actress. Born Patricia Vaniver on September 19, 1920, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she has also been credited as Patricia Dolores Donlin and Pat Van Iver. Playboy named her its August 1957 Playmate at 36. Her appearance dates from the magazine's formative 1950s, when the Playmate format was still taking shape.
Donlon had natural breasts, blue eyes and blond hair. Her measurements are 36-23-33.
Her centerfold was shot by Peter Gowland, whose studio‑polished compositions were a familiar presence in 1950s men's magazines; the images framed Donlon with the composed poise and picture‑book lighting that photographers like Gowland favored for glossy pin‑ups of the era.
A brief education at a French convent school in upstate New York preceded her move into New York City modeling, where she built a commercial and pin‑up portfolio that extended beyond the usual circuit. She posed for other men's magazines and earned the kind of mainstream exposure that brought her to the cover of Life, work that balanced advertising assignments with more playful glamour spreads.
Off the page she crossed into Hollywood. Donlon was at one point a contract player at Metro‑Goldwyn‑Mayer and collected a string of film and television credits through the 1950s and into the early 1960s. One neatly placed guest turn came in 1959, when she played Dawn Manning in a Perry Mason episode titled "The Case of the Calendar Girl," a role that showcased the same camera ease she brought to her pictorials.
Her personal life intersected with the business side of entertainment: in 1949 she married talent agent Victor Orsatti, her third marriage. Taken together—commercial work, a Life cover, studio employment and steady television appearances—Donlon's career is a concise example of a mid‑century model who moved freely between the magazine page and the soundstage.
