Busch, Mae (1891–1946)

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Busch, Mae (1891–1946)

Australian-born actress. Born in Melbourne, Australia, June 18, 1891; died April 19, 1946, in San Fernando Valley, CA; father was conductor of the Australian Symphony Orchestra; mother was a grand-opera singer; educated in a New Jersey convent; m. Francis McDonald (actor).

Spent much of her childhood in Tahiti, until family immigrated to US; made stage debut at 17 and became a popular headliner in vaudeville; had film debut in a Mack Sennett Keystone comedy, The Agitator (1912), and 1st major movie success while starring in Erich von Stroheim's Foolish Wives (1922); throughout 1930s, appeared in Laurel and Hardy two-reel comedies, sometimes playing Hardy's wife, other times as a foil for their routines; became a foil once again when Jackie Gleason began to use her name in a running gag on his tv program with the phrase "and the ever-popular Mae Busch."

See also Women in World History.