W.C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield was the eldest of five children born to Cockney immigrant James Dukenfield and Philadelphia native Kate Felton. He went to school for four years, then quit to work with his father selling vegetables from a horse cart. At eleven, after many fights with his alcoholic father (who hit him on the head with a shovel), he ran away from home. For a while he lived in a hole in the ground, depending on stolen food and clothing. He was often beaten and spent nights in jail. His first regular job was delivering ice. By age thirteen he was a skilled pool player and juggler. It was then, at an amusement park in Norristown PA, that he was first hired as an entertainer. There he developed the technique of pretending to lose the things he was juggling. In 1893 he was employed as a juggler at Fortescue's Pier, Atlantic City. When business was slow he pretended to drown in the ocean (management thought his fake rescue would draw customers). By nineteen he was billed as "The Distinguished Comedian" and began opening bank accounts in every city he played. At age twenty-three he opened at the Palace in London and played with Sarah Bernhardt at Buckingham Palace. He starred at the Folies-Bergere (young Charles Chaplin and Maurice Chevalier were on the program).
He was in each of the Ziegfeld Follies from 1915 through 1921. He played for a year in the highly praised musical "Poppy" which opened in New York in 1923. In 1925 D.W. Griffith made a movie of the play, renamed Sally of the Sawdust (1925), starring Fields. Pool Sharks (1915), Fields' first movie, was made when he was thirty-five. He settled into a mansion near Burbank, California and made most of his thirty-seven movies for Paramount. He appeared in mostly spontaneous dialogs on Charlie McCarthy's radio shows. In 1939 he switched to Universal where he made films written mainly by and for himself. He died after several serious illnesses, including bouts of pneumonia.
Known for
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
Larson E. Whipsnade
The Circus: Premiere
Self
Mississippi
Commodore Jackson
The Pharmacist
Mr. Dilweg
The Dentist
Dentist
Going Hollywood: The '30s
(archive footage)
The Potters
Pa Potter
Tales of Manhattan
Professor Pufflewhistle (uncredited)
The Big Parade of Comedy
Wilkins Micawber in 'David Copperfield' (archive footage)
Six of a Kind
Sheriff John Hoxley
Tillie's Punctured Romance
Ring Master
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
Self (archive footage)
Show-Business at War
Self
International House
Professor Quail
My Little Chickadee
Cuthbert J. Twillie
The Barber Shop
Cornelius O'Hare
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
(archive footage)
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
Self (archive footage)
If I Had a Million
Rollo La Rue
Poppy
Eustace McGargle
That's Entertainment, Part II
(archive footage)
The Big Broadcast of 1938
T. Frothingill Bellows / S.B. Bellows
Million Dollar Legs
The President
The Bank Dick
Egbert Sousé
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
The Great Man
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
Mr. Stubbins
David Copperfield
Wilkins Micawber
The Hollywood Clowns
(archive footage)
Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her
Self (archive footage)
Her Majesty, Love
Bela Toerrek
Man on the Flying Trapeze
Ambrose Wolfinger
So's Your Old Man
Samuel Bisbee
I Know A Riddle
(archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Self (archive footage)
That Royle Girl
Professor Royle
Running Wild
Elmer Finch
Hooray for Hollywood
Self (archive footage)
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action
Himself
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
Self (archive footage)
The Old-Fashioned Way
The Great McGonigle / Squire Cribbs in 'The Drunkard'
You're Telling Me!
Sam Bisbee
Sally of the Sawdust
Professor Eustance McGargle
It's a Gift
Harold Bissonette
It's the Old Army Game
Elmer Prettywillie
The Movie Orgy
Self (archive footage)
Down Memory Lane
(archive footage)
Song of the Open Road
W.C. Fields
Sensations of 1945
W.C. Fields
Alice in Wonderland
Humpty-Dumpty
W.C. Fields: Straight Up
Tillie and Gus
Augustus Winterbottom
Follow the Boys
W. C. Fields
Hollywood on Parade No. B-7
Self
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films
Two Flaming Youths
Gabby Gilfoil
The Golf Specialist
J. Effingham Bellweather
The Fatal Glass of Beer
Mr. Snavely
Fools for Luck
Richard Whitehead
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
(archive footage)
Janice Meredith
A British Sergeant
Pool Sharks
Wogan
Self