Mabel Bert

Mabel Bert, born Mabel Scott in Australia in 1862 and died in 1945, was an Australian-born American actress whose stage career spanned from the 1880s through the mid-1920s, including Broadway appearances from 1899 to 1925.

Bert was born into a wealthy family; her father was A.C. Scott. The family emigrated from Australia to the United States in 1865, settling in San Francisco, California. She received her education at Mills Seminary in Oakland, California, and left school at the age of 17. On 25 May 1879, she married Edward G. Bert, a theatrical manager who worked for his brother Fred Bert, a pioneer theater figure in Oakland. Bert made her stage debut in 1880.

Her entry into acting came about by circumstance rather than design. While visiting backstage during a performance of Oliver Twist, she was called upon at the last moment to fill in for an absent actress, delivering three lines. Following that introduction to the stage, she spent approximately two years performing with various companies throughout California. In 1886, she joined a stock company in San Francisco in leading roles, taking on a new part each week for fourteen months across a wide range of material, including Shakespeare, old comedies, melodramas, society plays, and burlesques. She also played leading roles for the John A. Stevens Company at the old Grand Opera House in San Francisco. In 1887, she traveled east and joined one of the Frohman Brothers' companies in Held by the Enemy, after which she took leading parts in productions across major cities throughout the United States.

In 1887, Bert began a relationship with actor Arthur McKee Rankin, known professionally as McKee Rankin. She gave birth to a daughter, Doris Rankin, who later married actor Lionel Barrymore, Bert's costar in Arizona. In 1888, Bert's husband Edward filed for divorce on grounds of desertion. Rankin's wife filed for divorce in 1892, but Rankin, a devoted Catholic, did not marry Bert. Rankin had two daughters, Gladys and Phyllis, from his prior marriage to Kitty Blanchard. On 28 July 1893, Bert married actor Forrest Robinson, whom she had met while both were performing in The Lost Paradise. Robinson later appeared in films produced by Mary Pickford.

Bert's Broadway credits included the productions Ben Hur, Accused, The Senator Keeps House, Faith Healer, and What the Doctor Ordered, among others. She also appeared in Straight Is the Way, The Wonderful Thing, and Blackbirds, all in the early 1920s. Her Broadway career continued until 1925. Robinson died in 1924, leaving Bert a widow. During the 1930s she resided in Denver with her daughter.