Mary Boland (born Marie Anne Boland; January 28, 1882 – June 23, 1965) was an American stage and film actress.
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Early years
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boland was the daughter of repertory actor William Augustus Boland, and his wife Mary Cecilia Hatton. She had an older sister named Sara. The family later moved to Detroit.
Boland went to school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Detroit. By age fifteen she had left school and was performing on stage.
In 1901, she began acting on stage with a local stock theater company.
Career
She debuted on Broadway in 1907 in the play The Ranger with Dustin Farnum and had appeared in eleven Broadway productions, notably with John Drew, becoming his "leading lady in New York and on the road." She made her silent film debut for Triangle Studios in 1915. She entertained soldiers in France during World War I and then returned to America. After appearing in nine movies, she left filmmaking in 1920, returning to the stage and appearing in several Broadway productions, including The Torch-Bearers (1922). She became famous as a comedian.
