Mabel Normand

and Normand with Luke the Dog in Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916) Amabel Ethelreid Normand was born in New Brighton, New York, (before it was incorporated into New York City as part of Staten Island) on November 9, 1893. She took her name from her father's only sibling, who had died before her birth in 1892. Normand's mother, Mary "Minnie" Drury, of Providence, Rhode Island, was of Irish heritage; while her father, Clodman "Claude" George Normand, was French Canadian, with his ancestral lineage dating back to Normandy in France and their surname originally being LeNormand or Le Normand. For a short time at the start of her career, Normand worked for Vitagraph Studios in New York City for $25 per week (), but Vitagraph founder Albert E. Smith admitted she was one of several actresses about whom he made a mistake in estimating their "potential for future stardom." Normand's intensely beguiling lead performance in the 1911 dramatic short film Her Awakening, directed by D. W. Griffith, drew her attention and led to her meeting director Mack Sennett while at Griffith's Biograph Company. The two subsequently embarked on a relationship. Sennett later brought Normand to California when he founded Keystone Studios in 1912. '' (1913, Dutch-language edition), Collection EYE Film Institute Netherlands Normand appeared with Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in many short films. With the 1913 film A Noise from the Deep, Normand is credited as being the first film star to receive a pie thrown in the face. She played a key role in starting Chaplin's film career and acted as his leading lady and mentor in a string of films in 1914, collaborating with him as a director, co-director or co-writer. ==Scandals==

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle trials Arbuckle, Normand's co-star in many films, was the defendant in three widely publicized trials for manslaughter in the 1921 death of actress Virginia Rappe. Although Arbuckle was acquitted, the scandal damaged his career and his films were banned from exhibition for a short time. Since she had made some of her most notable works with him, much of Normand's output was withheld from the public as a result. However, Dines was not fatally injured; he died of a heart attack in 1945, over two decades after the shooting. == Later career and death ==

at Calvary Cemetery Normand continued her film career and joined Hal Roach Studios in 1926 after conversations with director and producer F. Richard Jones, who had previously worked with her at Keystone. The films she made at Roach included Raggedy Rose, The Nickel-Hopper, and One Hour Married — the latter being her last film—all co-written alongside Stan Laurel. In another Roach film, she was directed by Leo McCarey in the film Should Men Walk Home?. On the 17 September 1926, she married actor Lew Cody, with whom she had appeared in Mickey in 1918. They lived separately in nearby houses in Beverly Hills. Normand's health was in decline due to tuberculosis. After an extended stay in Pottenger Sanitorium, she died from pulmonary tuberculosis on February 23, 1930, in Monrovia, California, at the age of . She was interred as Mabel Normand-Cody at Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles. The date of birth listed on her crypt is incorrect. Her mother was buried in the crypt above. ==Legacy==

Normand has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to motion pictures at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard. Her film ''Mabel's Blunder'' (1914) was added to the National Film Registry in December 2009. In June 2010, the New Zealand Film Archive reported the discovery of a print of Normand's film Won in a Closet (exhibited in New Zealand under its alternate title Won in a Cupboard), a short comedy previously believed lost. This film is a significant discovery, as Normand directed the film and starred in the lead role, displaying her talents on both sides of the camera. In 2025, Mabel Normand was announced as an inductee in the Visual Effects Society Hall of Fame. ==Cultural references==

and Mack Sennett (foreground) argue while watching Normand onscreen in ''Mabel's Dramatic Career'' (1913) • A nod to Normand's celebrity in early Hollywood came through the name of a leading character in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, "Norma Desmond", which has been cited as a combination of the names Mabel Normand and William Desmond Taylor. The film also frequently mentions Normand by name. • Normand is mentioned during series 2 episode 1 of Downton Abbey by ambitious housemaid Ethel Parks. Daisy Mason (née Robinson), the kitchen maid, inquires what she is reading, and Ethel responds, "Photoplay about Normand. She was nothing when she started, you know. Her father was a carpenter and they had no money, and now she's a shining film star." • Singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks wrote a song about the actress titled "Mabel Normand", which appears on her 2014 album 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault. Fictional portrayals The 1974 Broadway musical Mack & Mabel (Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman) fictionalized the romance between Normand and Mack Sennett. Normand was played by Bernadette Peters and Robert Preston portrayed Sennett. Normand is played by actress Marisa Tomei in the 1992 film Chaplin opposite Robert Downey, Jr. as Charles Chaplin; by Penelope Lagos in the first biopic about Normand's life, a 35-minute dramatic short film entitled Madcap Mabel (2010); and by Morganne Picard in the motion picture Return to Babylon (2013). In 2014, Normand was played on television by Andrea Deck in series 2, episode 8 of Mr Selfridge and by Kristina Thompson in the short film ''Mabel's Dressing Room''. The character played by Alice Faye in Hollywood Cavalcade (1939) was reputed to have been based partly on Normand. == Filmography ==

Some of her early roles are credited as "Mabel Fortesque". Vitagraph Biograph Keystone Goldwyn Feature films Hal Roach Studios ==Notes==