People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Photograph by Fred Hartsook; Silent Era image collection.

Mabel Normand

Born 9 November 1892 in Staten Island, New York, USA, as Mabel Ethelreid Normand.
Died [?] 22 or 23? February 1930 in Monrovia, California, USA, of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Married actor Lew Cody, [?] 17 or 18? September 1926; until Mabel’s death, [?] 22 or 23? February 1930.

Mabel Normand first appeared in films for Vitagraph early in 1910 and continued through the summer of 1911. Having already made one film for Biograph in mid-1910, she regularly appeared in Biograph films from the summer of 1911 through the summer of 1912. She was the leading lady of Keystone’s initial company of players, beginning in late summer 1912, and remained so through the beginning of 1916. She appeared in the first American feature-length comedy, Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914). Charles Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle were the most famous of her leading men at Keystone. Her Keystone years were punctuated by her on-and-off relationship with Keystone producer Mack Sennett.

Beginning in late 1917 through the early summer of 1921, she appeared in 16 feature comedies for Goldwyn, before returning to work with Sennett, for whom she made her final three features. With her scandalous association to the William Desmond Taylor murder case, and increasing alcohol and drug use, her fortunes declined. From mid-1926 through early 1927, she made her final films for Hal Roach, ending her career back in two-reel comedies.

With her career clearly in decline, she married actor Lew Cody after a Hollywood party in the fall of 1926. Her failing health put an end to her career in early 1927.

References: Fussell-Normand pp. ?.