Mabel Julienne Scott was born in Minnesota on November 2, 1892. The daughter of Mattie and Joseph Scott, 3014 Girard Avenue North, graduated from North High School in 1914. While she was still in school Scott played occasional engagements with stock companies at the Shubert Theater as an extra. After she graduated from Northwestern Conservatory in Minneapolis, she ran off to chase her dreams in New York City. Broadway didn’t come easy so she took a job with a stock company in Omaha, Nebraska. Scott eventually made her Broadway debut in a Rex Beach play called The Barrier. She was lucky to land roles in Painted Faces, with comedian Joe E. Brown and The Copperhead, playing opposite Lionel Barrymore. These performances and engagements in various vaudeville acts led to roles on the screen.
Scott’s film career took off with the Roaring 20’s. She was paired with Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle. in a Paramount Pictures release of The Round Up. In a Famous Players production of Behold My Wife (1920) she played the lead as an American Indian maiden called Lali. In 1921 she worked with Victor Schertzinger on a Comedy called The Concert, starred along side Winter Hall in The Jucklins and played Fanny Brandeis in No Woman Knows . After her little brother William Scott moved to Hollywood the two shared an apartment. William Scott appeared in between 90 silent movies between 1913 and 1934. Their sister Maud Scott taught violin at a Minneapolis music school. Although Scott was was contracted to George Medford Productions, she made pictures for both Famous Players and Goldwyn Pictures. In December of 1920 she told the Minneapolis Tribune,
“To succeed in pictures one must be young. The character actress of course place an important part in every production, but her grasp a fame is limited. On the other hand while the majority of stars of the screen today or young women scarcely out of their teens or in their early 20s, the most successful women stars of the stage a middle-age actresses with years of experience behind them. The chief reason for this is the camera is more exacting the eye. Youth alone can stand the close-ups of the camera lens. When I am a little older, I shall perhaps return to the legitimate stage but a present I feel that there is a greater opportunity in motion pictures.”
Scott appeared in over twenty-five silent movies. She may be best remembered for her role as Maud Brewster in the second adaptation of Jack London’s novel,Sea Wolf. Fame proved fleeting and fickle. She was playing mostly minor roles by the end of the decade. Scott continued to pursue work in the theater. In 1926, she performed with Clark Gable at the Pasadena Playhouse as the mother in The Lullaby. An affair with Gable was rumored when the production went on tour. Her last film was The Dream Melody in 1929. An outdoorsy sort, Scott loved golf and was often found at the Los Angeles, California Gun Club. She owned a Thoroughbred sport Lexington automobile. She eventually married a New York City doctor. Mabel Julienne Scott died in Los Angeles on October 1st, 1976.
