Mabel Taliaferro

Taliaferro was born as Maybelle Evelyn Taliaferro in Manhattan, New York City and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She was descended on her father's side from one of the early families who settled in Virginia in the 17th century, the Taliaferros, whose roots are from a northern Italian immigrant to England in the 16th century.{{cite web |title=Women in History Month |url=https://italiantribune.com/women-in-history-month-4/ |website=ItalianTribune.com |date=12 March 2020 |access-date=2 September 2023}}

Taliaferro was a sister of film and stage actress Edith Taliaferro and the cousin of actress Bessie Barriscale.[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E0CEED8173EE733A25752C0A9649D946797D6CF New York Times]. Saturday, December 1, 1906

File:Mabel taliaferro.jpg

Taliaferro began acting on stage at age 2 with Chauncey Olcott. Later she appeared with James A. Hearne and with Sol Smith Russell in A Poor Relation. In 1899, she achieved distinction in the role of little Esther in Israel Zangwill's play, Children of the Ghetto. A year later she played the witching elf-child in Yeats's Gaelic fantasy, The Land of Heart's Desire. In 1902-3 Taliaferro appeared in An American Invasion with John E. Dodson and Miss Annie Irish. The following year she was seen in the support of Louis Mann in The Consul. Her greatest opportunity came when she was cast for Lovey Mary in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, a part she played continuously for two and one-half years. In 1905 she supported Arnold Daly in You Never Can Tell and later went on tour in The Bishop's Carriage. After a brief season in vaudeville she joined William Collier's company in a tour of Australia.{{Cite journal |date=1906-08-01 |title=Miss Mabel Taliaferro |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3460367868 |journal=The Theatre: an illustrated monthly devoted to the stage |volume=4 |issue=9 |pages=8 |via=Trove}}

In the first decade of the 20th century, Taliaferro's husband and manager, Frederic Thompson, announced that her first name would be changed to Nell for billing purposes. Her first production with her new name was Springtime, and the change brought an outcry of opposition from the public. By 1910, she was once again Mabel.{{cite news |title=Mabel Taliaferro (Nell) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75747750/mabel-taliaferro/ |access-date=April 14, 2021 |work=The Anaconda Standard |date=February 6, 1910 |location=Montana, Anaconda |page=18}}

In 1911, her movie career began with the Selig Studios in The Three of Us and the film version of Cinderella co-starring her then-husband Thomas Carrigan.Pictorial History of the Silent Screen by Daniel Blum c. 1953 page 25 She continued performing in films through her retirement in 1921. In 1940, she appeared in her final picture, My Love Came Back. Her final Broadway success was in Bloomer Girl (1944).

On November 20, 1950, Taliaferro co-starred with Glenn Langan in "The Floor of Heaven" on Studio One on TV.{{cite news |title=Television . . . . . . Highlights of the Week |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75693573/detroit-free-press/ |access-date=April 13, 2021 |work=Detroit Free Press |date=November 19, 1950 |page=22|via = Newspapers.com}}

Mabel Taliaferro was known as favoring women's suffrage.{{cite news |title=Mabel Taliaferro, Actress and Suffragist, 27 Today |work=Altoona Tribune |date=May 21, 1914 |location=Altoona, Pennsylvania |page=6 |via = Newspapers.com}} In February 1914 she participated in a suffrage gathering that drew 1,500 people to honor the work of Anna Howard Shaw.{{cite news |title=Stars Draw 1,500 to Suffrage Fete |work=The New York Times |date=February 17, 1914 |location=New York, New York |page=6 |via = NYTimes.com}}

File:The Dawn of Love.jpg (1916)]]

In 1906, Taliaferro married (as her first husband) Frederic Thompson, who created Luna Park in Coney Island as well as the New York Hippodrome, under whose management she starred in the Broadway play Polly of the Circus.{{cite news |date=December 1, 1906 |title=Fred Thompson Marries. Head of Thompson & Dundy Weds Miss Mabel Taliaferro |newspaper=New York Times}}{{Subscription required}}{{cite news |title=Mabel Taliaferro Sues. Charges Her Husband, Fred Thompson, with Cruelty in Divorce Action |newspaper=New York Times}}{{Subscription required}}{{Cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F04E3DB153FE633A25753C1A9619C946296D6CF |title=Mabel Taliaferro A Bride. Actress Married to Tom Carrigan, Her Leading Man |date=July 10, 1913 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=January 16, 2023}}{{Subscription required}}

On January 11, 1920, Taliaferro married army officer Josephus P. O'Brien in Darien, Connecticut. They were divorced in Reno, Nevada on June 3, 1929.{{cite news |title=Mabel Taliaferro Divorced |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/104948286 |access-date=April 14, 2021 |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=June 4, 1929 |page=30|id={{ProQuest|104948286}} |via = ProQuest}} She also married and divorced actor Thomas Jay Carrigan.{{cite news |title=Thomas Jay Carrigan |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/105733806 |access-date=April 14, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=October 3, 1941 |page=23|id={{ProQuest|105733806}} |via = ProQuest}}{{Cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C0DE2D6143CE533A25755C0A9679C946095D6CF |title=Actress's Baby Wanders. Mabel Taliaferro's Child is Found in a Wood ... |date=January 6, 1921 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=January 16, 2023}}{{Subscription required}} Taliaferro married Robert Ober. He died in 1950.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116553891/robert-ober-8-dec-1950-daily-news-52/ |title=Robert Ober |date=1950-12-08 |newspaper=Daily News |location=New York City |page=52 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2023-01-16}}{{Open access}} She had one child.{{Cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19480326&id=tzAaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ICUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3382,5058927&hl=en |title=Archived copy |access-date=August 2, 2015 |archive-date=March 13, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313023336/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19480326&id=tzAaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ICUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3382,5058927&hl=en |url-status=dead }}

In 1907, she was injured in a car crash.{{cite news|date=December 27, 1907|title=Mabel Taliaferro Hurt In Car Crash. Badly Cut on Arm and Bruised When Brougham is Wrecked on Broadway|newspaper=New York Times|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9805EEDE113EE033A25754C2A9649D946697D6CF}}{{Subscription required}} She died in Honolulu, Hawaii, on January 24, 1979, aged 91.{{cite news |title=Mabel Taliaferro, 91, Star of Silent Screen Acted in 100 Plays |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/03/archives/mabel-taliaferro-91-star-of-silent-screen-acted-in-100-plays.html?_r=0 |newspaper=New York Times |date=February 3, 1979 }}{{Subscription required}}

• My Love Came Back (1940)
• Alexander Hamilton (1924)
• The Rich Slave (1921)
• Sentimental Tommy (1921)
• The Mite of Love (1919)
• Draft 258 (1917)
• Peggy Leads the Way (1917, extant)
• The Jury of Fate (1917)
• Peggy, the Will O' the Wisp (1917)
• A Magdalene of the Hills (1917)
• The Barricade (1917)
• A Wife by Proxy (1917, extant)
• The Sunbeam (1916)
• The Dawn of Love (1916)
• God's Half Acre (1916), extant)
• The Snowbird (1916), extant)
• Her Great Price (1916)
• The Three of Us (1914)
• The Sunbeam (1912)
• Cinderella (1911; released January 1, 1912)

File:A scene from "Polly of the Circus" (SAYRE 12078).jpg]]

• Springtime Folly (1951)
• Bloomer Girl (1946)
• Victory Belles (1944)
• George Washington Slept Here (1941)
• The Prince's Secret (1935){{cite news |title=Mabel Taliaferro Star in Play, "The Prince's Secret" |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1935-02-18/ed-1/seq-12/ |work=Evening Star |date=February 18, 1935 |location=Washington DC |page=A-12}}
• Back Fire (1932)
• The Piper (1920)
• Luck in Pawn (1919)
• Young Wisdom (1914)
• The Call of the Cricket (1910)
• Springtime (1909)
• Polly of the Circus (1907)
• Pippa Passes (1906)
• You Never Can Tell (1905)
• Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1905)
• The Land of Heart's Desire (1903)
• The Consul (1903)
• The Little Princess (1903)
• An American Invasion (1902)
• The Price of Peace (1901)
• Lost River (1900)
• Children of the Ghetto (1899)

• The De Santre Story (1956)
• The Hat from Hangtown (1952)
• Mistress Sims Inherits (1949)
• You Can't Take It with You (1945)

{{reflist}}

{{commons category}}

• {{IMDb name|0848065|Mabel Taliaferro}}
• {{IBDB name|61796}}
• [http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=554417&word= Mabel Taliaferro] portrait gallery of Mabel Taliaferro NY Public Library
• [http://www.moviecard.com/zamerican/theatre/favorite/fav-taliaferro.jpg portrait of Mabel Taliaferro 1910s] (moviecard)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taliaferro, Mabel}}

Category:1887 births

Category:1979 deaths

Category:American film actresses

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:Actresses from Richmond, Virginia

Category:Actresses from Honolulu

Mabel

Category:American vaudeville performers

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:Actresses from Manhattan

Category:American people of English descent

Category:American people of Italian descent