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Mabel Normand was born November 9th, 1892 on Staten Island, New York. Mabel went to work as an actress at the Biograph Company, and Director D. W. Griffith realized that she was not just an actress, but a comedienne. Griffith wasn't keen on comedy, so he shifted the directorial duties over to Mack Sennett. Here, Sennett directed Mabel in her first comedy role, "The -Diving Girl", 1911. Sennett eventually won her over, and the majority of her films were directed by Sennett. When Sennett left Biograph, he took Mabel out west with him to start his new "Keystone Studios" in the San Fernando valley of California. From 1912 to 1916, Mabel cranked out comedy films with comics like Charlie Chaplin, Fred Mace, Mack Swain, and Ford Sterling among many others. Chaplin was friends with Mabel, until he had to take orders from her as a Director (A Woman). Chaplin resented her after this, he did not take orders from women. After a romantic alliance with Mack Sennett and its turmoil, she became more and more of an alcoholic. Mabel also wanted to be known for "Classier" roles. By 1917, Mabel had left Mack and Keystone, when she signed with Goldwyn -Studios. After this, Mabel became even more unhappy and was known as the "I Don't care" girl, as well as a partying one. She was linked with the Roscoe "FATTY" Arbuckle scandal, as well as her health deteriorating. She returned to Mack Sennett's studio to make a few more films. In 1926 she married actor Lew Cody, and tried to lead a more normal, quiet lifestyle. That same year, she made her last film "One Hour Married" for Hal Roach in 1927. All the past hard living took its toll on Mabel, and she contracted tuberculosis, in which she died in 1930 at the age of 37.
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