Mae Costello

Mae Costello was an American silent film actress of the early twentieth-century who is best known as the matriarch of the Costello family of actors. Born in Brooklyn, Mae Costello grew up in a conservative upper-middle class Catholic home in New York City and was raised by parents morally opposed to the theatre. At the age of 19 she married itinerant stage actor Maurice Costello in opposition to her parents, a decision which ultimately led to the severing of ties with her family. Her marriage was not a happy one, with problems developing early from financial concerns and from her husband's alcoholism. In their early married life Mae was a wife and mother and had no ambition to become an actress.