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 across the early twentieth century. She spent her childhood in Baltimore before returning to New York, and over the course of her life she also resided in Chicago and Honolulu, Hawaii. A Christian Scientist, she was a member of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist.

Montgomery established herself as a working actress by the age of seventeen, building her early experience through a series of stock companies. Among these was the Bush Temple Players Stock Company, and she performed regularly at two venues in particular: the Crescent Theater in Brooklyn, formerly known as the Montauk Theatre, and the Bush Temple Theater in Chicago. A notable early stage appearance placed her at the Bush Temple Theater in June 1907, where she played the role of Jane, and she appeared at the Crescent Theater in August 1912 in A Woman's Way. As her career progressed, she moved increasingly into character roles.

Her Broadway career extended from 1925 to 1937 and included appearances in several productions: Charm, Chalked Out, Blind Alley, Up Pops the Devil, and The Love Expert, among others.

Montgomery's personal life attracted considerable public attention. In 1898 she married actor Walter McCullough, born Walter O'Meliah; the couple separated in 1905, and their divorce became public by 1908. During the marriage, the press reported an affair between Montgomery and a married dentist named Joseph Henninger. She subsequently married Henninger, with whom she had two sons, and later entered marriages with Augustus John Gertenbach and James Mooney. In 1904, during her time in Chicago, she 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.