Margaret Dumont
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Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
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
Credits
Duck Soup (1933)
as Gloria Teasdale
Auntie Mame (1958)
as Noblewoman in Play (uncredited)
Bathing Beauty (1944)
as Mrs. Allenwood
A Night at the Opera (1935)
as Mrs. Claypool
A Day at the Races (1937)
as Emily Upjohn
What a Way to Go! (1964)
as Mrs. Foster
The Big Store (1941)
as Martha Phelps
At the Circus (1939)
as Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury
The Cocoanuts (1929)
as Mrs. Potter
About Face (1942)
as Mrs. Culpepper
Animal Crackers (1930)
as Mrs. Rittenhouse
Wise Girl (1937)
as Mrs. Bell-Rivington
That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)
as (archive footage)
Up in Arms (1944)
as Mrs. Willoughby
Tales of Manhattan (1942)
as Mme. Langehanke (uncredited)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1975)
as Self (archive footage)
Reckless (1935)
as Woman in Audience Yelling 'Get Off the Stage' (uncredited)
A Tale of Two Cities (1917)
as Aristocrat (uncredited)
Hollywood: The Dream Factory (1972)
as Self (archive footage)
Zotz! (1962)
as Persephone Updike
Rendezvous (1935)
as Mrs. Hendricks (uncredited)
Dramatic School (1938)
as Pantomime Teacher
High Flyers (1937)
as Martha Arlington
Born to Sing (1942)
as Mrs. E. V. Lawson
Little Giant (1946)
as Mrs. Hendrickson
Anything Goes (1936)
as Mrs. Wentworth
Youth on Parole (1937)
as Mrs. Abernathy
The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)
as Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)
as Mrs. Hemogloben
The Dancing Masters (1943)
as Louise Harlan
For Beauty's Sake (1941)
as Mrs. Franklin Evans
Song and Dance Man (1936)
as Mrs. Whitney
The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell (1982)
as (archive footage)
Stop, You're Killing Me (1952)
as Mrs. Whitelaw
After Office Hours (1935)
as Mrs. Murchison (uncredited)
Sunset in El Dorado (1945)
as Aunt Dolly / Aunt Arabella
Around the World with Nellie Bly (1960)
as Dowager #1
The Girl Habit (1931)
as Blanche Ledyard
Susie Steps Out (1946)
as Mrs. Starr
The Hollywood Clowns (1979)
as (archive footage)
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults (1999)
as (archive footage)
Seven Days Ashore (1944)
as Mrs. Croxton-Lynch
The Life of the Party (1937)
as Mrs. Penner
Gridiron Flash (1934)
as Mrs. Fields
Enemies of Women (1923)
as French Beauty
Three for Bedroom C (1952)
as Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne
Gypsy Sweetheart (1935)
as Mrs. Van Updyke
Storm at Daybreak (1933)
as Duchess Sophie (uncredited)
Rhythm Parade (1942)
as Ophelia MacDougal
Fifteen Wives (1934)
as Sybilla Crum
Diamond Horseshoe (1945)
as Mrs. Standish
Sing Your Worries Away (1942)
as Flo Faulkner - Landlady
Wonderland of California (1933)
as Self
Kentucky Kernels (1934)
as Mrs. Baxter
Arbor Day (1936)
as Woman Outside (uncredited)
Shake, Rattle and Rock! (1956)
as Georgianna Fitzdingle
Here, Prince (1932)
as The Queen of Deleria (uncredited)