Normand, Mabel

Normand, Mabel (b. Mabel Fortesque)

(1894–1930) movie actress; born in Boston, Mass. Daughter of a vaudeville pianist, she was a model at age 13 and made her screen debut at age 16. By 1912 she was starring in Mack Sennett comedies and her performance opposite Charlie Chaplin in Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) made her one of the stars of silent movies for a decade. Scandals involving drugs and two murder cases put a strain on her life and career and she died prematurely of pneumonia and tuberculosis.