Mabel Normand
Widely considered to be the first major comedienne, and perhaps cinema's first comic star, actress Mabel Normand was rambunctious and non-conformist while exuding an ineffable charm and gentleness on screen. She rivaled her contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle as one of early Hollywood's top box office draws, while more often than not starring alongside both. After starting her film career with D.W. Griffith at the Biograph Company, she rose to stardom under the direction of Mack Sennett at his Keystone Studios, with whom she had a tumultuous romance. Because she never received her acting training in the theater - her entire education came on set - Normand was never prone to mugging for the camera like many of her silent film contemporaries, thus pioneering a more naturalistic form of acting. She became box office star with such Sennett film as "At Coney Island (1912) and "The Bangville Police" (1913), while making her mark alongside Arbuckle in "For the Love of Mabel" (1913), "Mabel and Fatty's Simple Life" (1915) and "Fatty and Mabel Adrift" (1915). During this time, Normand also developed into a capable director, and even orchestrated several early Chaplin efforts, including his first appearance as The Tramp in "Mabel's Strange Predicament" (1914). But in the latter half of the decade, Normand became increasingly unreliable due to late nights and drug abuse. In the early 1920s, she became embroiled in three separate scandals, effectively ending her career. Meanwhile, her health rapidly declined from tuberculosis and she died in 1930. Though remembered more for her involvement in the scandals of the early 1920s, Normand possessed both the talent and success to be ranked alongside the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as one of early cinema's finest comic talents.
Photos
Mabel Normand
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
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No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Funniest Man in the World | Unknown (Character) | - | 1967 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Should Men Walk Home? | The Girl Bandit (Character) | - | 1927 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Anything Once! | The Little Girl (Character) | - | 1927 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Raggedy Rose | Raggedy Rose (Character) | - | 1926 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Extra Girl | Sue Graham (Character) | - | 1923 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Molly O' | Molly O'Dair (Character) | - | 1921 |
88% | No Score Yet | Upstairs | Unknown (Character) | - | 1919 |
100% |
|
Mickey | Mickey (Character) | - | 1918 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Venus Model | Kitty O'Brien (Character) | - | 1918 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Fatty and Mabel Adrift | Mabel (Character) | - | 1916 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | He Did and He Didn't | The Doctor's Wife (Character) | - | 1916 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Mabel's Wilful Way | Mabel (Character) | - | 1915 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Fatty and Mabel's Simple Life | Mabel (Character) | - | 1915 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Fatty and Mabel at the San Diego Exposition | Mabel (Character) | - | 1915 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | That Little Band of Gold | Mabel (Character) | - | 1915 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Mabel Lost and Won |
Unknown (Character), Director |
- | 1915 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Mabel's Blunder |
Mabel - the Office Girl (Character), Director, Screenwriter |
- | 1914 |
No Score Yet |
|
Caught in a Cabaret |
Mabel (Character), Director, Screenwriter |
- | 1914 |
90% |
|
Tillie's Punctured Romance | The Other Girl (Character) | - | 1914 |
No Score Yet |
|
Mabel's Married Life | Mabel (Character) | - | 1914 |
No Score Yet |
|
Mabel's Busy Day |
Mabel (Character), Writer, Director |
- | 1914 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Charlie's Big Romance | Mabel (Character) | - | 1914 |
No Score Yet |
|
Mabel at the Wheel |
Mabel (Character), Director |
- | 1914 |
No Score Yet |
|
His Trysting Place | Mabel (Character) | - | 1914 |
No Score Yet |
|
Charlie the Actor | Unknown (Character) | - | 1914 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Fatal Mallet | Mabel (Character) | - | 1914 |
No Score Yet |
|
Gentlemen of Nerve | Mabel (Character) | - | 1914 |
No Score Yet |
|
Mabel's Strange Predicament |
Mabel (Character), Director |
- | 1914 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Getting Acquainted | Ambrose's Wife (Character) | - | 1914 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Speed Kings | Mabel (Character) | - | 1913 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Mabel's Dramatic Career | Mabel, the Kitchen Maid (Character) | - | 1913 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life | Mabel (Character) | - | 1913 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | A Muddy Romance | Mabel (Character) | - | 1913 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Mabel's New Hero | Mabel (Character) | - | 1913 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Bangville Police | Della (Character) | - | 1913 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | A Little Hero | Unknown (Character) | - | 1913 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | A Dash Through the Clouds | Josephine (Character) | - | 1912 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Water Nymph | Diving Venus (Character) | - | 1912 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Katchem Kate | Katchem Kate (Character) | - | 1912 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Eternal Mother | Mary (Character) | - | 1912 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Mender of Nets | Unknown (Character) | - | 1912 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Her Awakening | The Daughter (Character) | - | 1911 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Italian Blood | Unknown (Character) | - | 1911 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Making of a Man | Unknown (Character) | - | 1911 |