Mabel Normand

Mabel Normand
Normand c. 1920
Born
Amabel Ethelreid Normand

(1893-11-09)November 9, 1893
New Brighton, New York, U.S.
DiedFebruary 23, 1930(1930-02-23) (aged 36)
Monrovia, California, U.S.
Resting placeCalvary Cemetery, Los Angeles
Other namesMabel Normand-Cody, Muriel Fortescue
Occupations
  • Actress
  • director
  • screenwriter
  • comedian
Years active1910–1927
Spouse
​
(m. 1926)​

Amabel Ethelreid Normand (November 9, 1893[1][2] – February 23, 1930), better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, director and screenwriter. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their Keystone Studios films,[3] and at the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s had her own film studio and production company,[4] the Mabel Normand Feature Film Company.[5] On screen, she appeared in twelve successful films with Charlie Chaplin and seventeen with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, sometimes writing and directing (or co-writing and directing) films featuring Chaplin as her leading man.[6][7]

Normand's name was repeatedly linked with gun violence, including the 1922 murder of her friend, director William Desmond Taylor, and the non-fatal[8] 1924 shooting of Courtland S. Dines by Normand's chauffeur, Joe Kelly. After police interrogation, she was ruled out as a suspect in Taylor's murder. Normand was a very heavy smoker who may have suffered lung cancer, and/or a recurrence of tuberculosis in 1923, which led to a decline in her health, an early retirement from films in 1926 and her death in 1930 at age 36.[9][10]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference 1900 USA Census Card was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference 1910 USA Census Card was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Harper Fussell 1992, pp. 50–52.
  4. ^ Harper Fussell 1992, pp. 71–73.
  5. ^ "Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Mabel Normand Studio Leads the Way". October 2022.
  6. ^ Harper Fussell 1992, pp. 64–70.
  7. ^ Lefler, Timothy Dean (2016). Mabel Normand: The Life and Career of a Hollywood Madcap. McFarland. ISBN 978-0786478675.
  8. ^ "BLAME JEALOUSY FOR DINES SHOOTING; Los Angeles Police Think the Chauffeur Was Infatuated With Miss Normand. SHE CONTRADICTS HIS STORY Breaks Down From Excitement and Goes to Hospital -- Dines Develops Pneumonia. BLAME JEALOUSY FOR DINES SHOOTING". The New York Times. January 3, 1924. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
  9. ^ cite magazine article Films in Review September 1974 Mabel Normand A Grand – Nephew's Memoir Normand, Stephen
  10. ^ Ward Mahar, Karen (2006). Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood. JHU Press. p. 131. ISBN 0-8018-8436-5.