‘One Tree Hill’: What Ever Happened To Lee Norris AKA Mouth McFadden?

One Tree Hill wasn’t the first TV job of Lee Norris’ acting career, but it was definitely the most prolific. Before he starred as Marvin “Mouth” McFadden in the WB/CW teen drama, Norris was Chuckie Lee Torkelson on The Torkelsons and Almost Home — a job that he landed at the age of nine. He also played Stuart Minkus on Boy Meets World, but he was eventually written out of the show.

It was One Tree Hill where Norris really made a name for himself, first as a recurring character then as a series regular for nine seasons. The question is, what happened to Norris after the One Tree Hill finale in 2012?

Lee Norris has only had a handful of roles since ‘One Tree Hill’

Norris was 30 years old when One Tree Hill ended, and that definitely affected his career. Norris made a name for himself as a child actor, but he was too old to play a high school or college student when the series wrapped.

In 2012, he made an appearance in the sketch comedy show Paulilu Mixtape. In 2014, he had a small role in the David Fincher film Gone Girl, starring Ben Affleck.

He also popped up in an episode of The Walking Dead, and starred in a TV movie called Christmas Wish. Which ended up being a bit of a One Tree Hill reunion. In that Lifetime movie, Norris starred alongside Hilarie Burton (Peyton Sawyer), Tyler Hilton (Chris Keller), Barbara Alyn Woods (Deb Scott), Antwon Tanner (Skills Taylor), and Colin Fickes (Jimmy Edwards).

However, Norris’ most notable work post-One Tree Hill was the reprisal of his popular Minkus character on the reboot Girl Meets World. And his most recent project was the Apple TV movie Greyhound, starring Tom Hanks.

What ever happened to Mouth McFadden?

In his personal life, Norris graduated from Wake Forest University and then married his wife Andrea in 2011. The couple welcomed a son in 2019, but the details about their toddler have been kept quiet.

Norris has mentioned his son a couple of times on social media and on the Drama Queens podcast, hosted by Burton, Sophia Bush (Brooke Davis), and Bethany Joy Lenz (Haley James Scott).

During his podcast appearance, Norris also talked about acting alongside Hanks — his personal hero — in Greyhound. Even though he had the small role of Messenger #2, Norris joked that he would have happily played Messenger 47 if it meant being on set with Hanks for two months.

“It was like a master class to just stand five feet from him and watch him day in and day out,” Norris said, per The Things.

‘One Tree Hill’ isn’t Lee Norris’ only connection to North Carolina

One Tree Hill was set in the fictional town of Tree Hill, North Carolina. But that’s not Norris’ only connection to the state. The actor says that he often spends time in Wilmington with his wife and son for family vacations, and he visits the state often because it’s where he is from and his parents still live there.

Norris keeps in touch with his former One Tree Hill co-stars, and occasionally appears on their podcasts or social media pages. He also attends most One Tree Hill fan conventions and charity events like Friends with Benefits and EyeCon.

One Tree Hill is now playing on HBO Max.