Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont would probably consider it a tragedy that she is best-known for her performances as the ultimate straight woman in seven of the Marx Brothers' films (including most of their best). By all accounts she never understood their jokes (offscreen and on), which is of course a major reason why she's so funny. Apart from a small role in a 1917 Dickens adaptation, she spent her early career on the stage, ending up with the Marxes in the late 1920s in the stage versions of The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930), and was given a Paramount contract at the same time they were. She played similar roles alongside other great comedians, including W.C. Fields, Laurel & Hardy and Jack Benny and also played straight dramatic parts (her chief love), but few of them made much impact - it is as Groucho Marx's foil that she ranks among the immortals, and she died shortly after being reunited with him on "The Hollywood Palace" (1964).
Known for
The Colgate Comedy Hour
Self
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
Self
The Donna Reed Show
Racket Squad
Duck Soup
Gloria Teasdale
Auntie Mame
Noblewoman in Play (uncredited)
What a Way to Go!
Mrs. Foster
Bathing Beauty
Mrs. Allenwood
A Night at the Opera
Mrs. Claypool
A Day at the Races
Emily Upjohn
Reckless
Woman in Audience Yelling 'Get Off the Stage' (uncredited)
The Cocoanuts
Mrs. Potter
The Horn Blows at Midnight
Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder
The Big Store
Martha Phelps
That's Entertainment, Part II
(archive footage)
Rendezvous
Mrs. Hendricks (uncredited)
At the Circus
Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury
Tales of Manhattan
Mme. Langehanke (uncredited)
Animal Crackers
Mrs. Rittenhouse
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Self (archive footage)
Little Giant
Mrs. Hendrickson
Anything Goes
Mrs. Wentworth
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Self (archive footage)
High Flyers
Martha Arlington
Up in Arms
Mrs. Willoughby
Rhythm Parade
Ophelia MacDougal
The Dancing Masters
Louise Harlan
Wise Girl
Mrs. Bell-Rivington
Diamond Horseshoe
Mrs. Standish
Zotz!
Persephone Updike
Born to Sing
Mrs. E. V. Lawson
About Face
Mrs. Culpepper
Arbor Day
Woman Outside (uncredited)
Fifteen Wives
Sybilla Crum
Gridiron Flash
Mrs. Fields
The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell
(archive footage)
Sunset in El Dorado
Aunt Dolly / Aunt Arabella
We're Rich Again
Wedding Guest (uncredited)
Seven Days Ashore
Mrs. Croxton-Lynch
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
Self (archiveFootage)
Dramatic School
Pantomime Teacher
Stop, You're Killing Me
Mrs. Whitelaw
After Office Hours
Mrs. Murchison (uncredited)
The Girl Habit
Blanche Ledyard
Enemies of Women
French Beauty
Youth on Parole
Mrs. Abernathy
Shake, Rattle and Rock!
Georgianna Fitzdingle
For Beauty's Sake
Mrs. Franklin Evans
Kentucky Kernels
Mrs. Baxter
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
Mrs. Hemogloben
A Tale of Two Cities
Aristocrat (uncredited)
Song and Dance Man
Mrs. Whitney
Storm at Daybreak
Duchess Sophie (uncredited)
Sing Your Worries Away
Flo Faulkner - Landlady
The Hollywood Clowns
(archive footage)
The Life of the Party
Mrs. Penner
Three for Bedroom C
Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne
Wonderland of California
Self
Gypsy Sweetheart
Mrs. Van Updyke
Here, Prince
The Queen of Deleria (uncredited)