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