Mabel Montgomery

Mabel Montgomery, born Mabel Montgomery Mosher around 1873 in Brooklyn, New York City, was an American actress whose career spanned theatre and film during the early twentieth century. She spent her childhood in Baltimore before returning to the New York area, and over the course of her life she also resided in Chicago and Honolulu, Hawaii. A member of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, Montgomery was affiliated with the Christian Science faith throughout her life.

Montgomery had established herself as a recognized actress by the age of seventeen, working through a series of stock companies that formed the foundation of her professional career. Among these was the Bush Temple Players Stock Company, and she performed regularly at two prominent venues: the Crescent Theater in Brooklyn, formerly known as the Montauk Theatre, and the Bush Temple Theater in Chicago. As her career progressed, she gravitated toward character roles. Her Broadway appearance came in 1898, when she performed in the musical In Atlantic City. Her stage work continued into the following decade, with a June 1907 appearance at the Bush Temple Theater in Chicago in which she played the role of Jane, and an August 1912 production of A Women's Way at the Crescent Theater in Brooklyn.

Montgomery's personal life attracted considerable public attention. In 1898, the same year as her Broadway credit, she married actor Walter McCullough, born Walter O'Meliah. The couple separated in 1905, and their divorce became public by 1908. While still married to McCullough, her relationship with a married dentist named Joseph Henninger was reported by the press. She subsequently married Henninger, with whom she had two sons, and later entered into marriages with Augustus John Gertenbach and James Mooney. In 1904, during her time in Chicago, Montgomery shot at two burglars who attempted to rob her.

Montgomery died on July 20, 1942, from shock attributed to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which had occurred seven months earlier.