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