His father, Harold N. Nollen, served in the United States Coast Guard prior to running a successful petroleum distribution business, to which his mother, Shirley A.
[2] Nollen's literary collaborators include science-fiction legend Ray Bradbury, author-filmmakers Nicholas Meyer and Michael A. Hoey (son of actor Dennis Hoey), British musicians Ian Anderson and Dave Pegg, R&B singer Ruth Pointer, celebrity offspring Dame Jean Conan Doyle (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Sara Jane Karloff (Boris Karloff) and Chris Costello (Lou Costello), and film historians Paul M. Jensen and Gregory William Mank.
Book sales are now about 25% of what they were just a few years ago, so these volumes are always a labor of love and an attempt to discover the truth for people who like to read, a group dwindling rapidly.
The book was reviewed as "a fascinating account of the film's production," for which Robert E. Burns, the author of the autobiography[5] on which it was based, served as an advisor.
[7] Nollen's 2019 book, Takashi Shimura: Chameleon of Japanese Cinema, was praised by journalist Jordan R. Young as "likely to stand as the definitive study of this versatile character actor."
Jordan wrote that Nollen "is to be commended not only for his research but his erudite discourse on Japanese cinema...and Shimura’s role in it—something few Westerners could hope to attempt with such intelligent results.
"[9] Together, they have completed the third volume of Nollen's "Karloff Trilogy," Karloff and the East: Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern and Oceanian Characters and Subjects in His Screen Career, a massive tome covering the actor's entire life and career while devoting separate chapters to many neglected films, and are collaborating on the first-ever book on Asian American trailblazers Keye Luke, Victor Sen Yung and Benson Fong.
Shot entirely on location in West Java, Indonesia, the independent film Five Indo Samurai, an homage to Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, featuring Yuyun Yuningsih Nollen in the lead role and other performers from Indonesia, Japan and the United States, and written and directed by Nollen, was released in August 2019.