W.C. Fields
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Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
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
Credits
David Copperfield (1935)
as Wilkins Micawber
Alice in Wonderland (1933)
as Humpty-Dumpty
The Movie Orgy (1968)
as Self (archive footage)
The Bank Dick (1940)
as Egbert Sousé
Tales of Manhattan (1942)
as Professor Pufflewhistle (uncredited)
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender (1997)
as Self (archive footage)
If I Had a Million (1932)
as Rollo La Rue
Hooray for Hollywood (1976)
as Self (archive footage)
Vaudeville (1997)
as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage (1983)
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Bob Hope's World of Comedy (1976)
as Self - Tribute Montage (archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)
as (archive footage)
Follow the Boys (1944)
as W. C. Fields
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)
as The Great Man
Show-Business at War (1943)
as Self
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards (1940)
as Self (archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1975)
as Self (archive footage)
The Big Parade of Comedy (1964)
as Wilkins Micawber in 'David Copperfield' (archive footage)
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths (1990)
as (archive footage)
Song of the Open Road (1944)
as W.C. Fields
Down Memory Lane (1949)
as (archive footage)
You're Telling Me! (1934)
as Sam Bisbee
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers! (1982)
as Self (archive footage)
International House (1933)
as Professor Quail
Six of a Kind (1934)
as Sheriff John Hoxley
Mississippi (1935)
as Commodore Jackson
Million Dollar Legs (1932)
as The President
Her Majesty, Love (1931)
as Bela Toerrek
Going Hollywood: The '30s (1984)
as (archive footage)
Pool Sharks (1915)
Actor
The Golf Specialist (1930)
as J. Effingham Bellweather
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939)
as Larson E. Whipsnade
The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
as T. Frothingill Bellows / S.B. Bellows
Hollywood on Parade No. B-10 (1934)
as Self
The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933)
as Mr. Snavely
Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935)
as Ambrose Wolfinger
Tillie and Gus (1933)
as Augustus Winterbottom
My Little Chickadee (1940)
as Cuthbert J. Twillie
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934)
as Mr. Stubbins
The Barber Shop (1933)
as Cornelius O'Hare
Marlene Dietrich: Home Movies (—)
as Himself
Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her (1994)
as Self (archive footage)
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults (1999)
as (archive footage)
That Royle Girl (1925)
as Professor Royle
W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films (2000)
Actor
Poppy (1936)
as Eustace McGargle
Janice Meredith (1924)
as A British Sergeant
The Dentist (1932)
as Dentist
So's Your Old Man (1926)
as Samuel Bisbee
The Hollywood Clowns (1979)
as (archive footage)
W.C. Fields: Straight Up (1986)
Actor
It's the Old Army Game (1926)
as Elmer Prettywillie
It's a Gift (1934)
as Harold Bissonette
Sally of the Sawdust (1925)
as Professor Eustance McGargle
Sensations of 1945 (1944)
as W.C. Fields
The Old-Fashioned Way (1934)
as The Great McGonigle / Squire Cribbs in 'The Drunkard'
Running Wild (1927)
as Elmer Finch
The Potters (1927)
as Pa Potter
The Circus: Premiere (1928)
as Self
The Pharmacist (1933)
as Mr. Dilweg
Fools for Luck (1928)
as Richard Whitehead
Tillie's Punctured Romance (1928)
as Ring Master
Two Flaming Youths (1927)
as Gabby Gilfoil
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action (1933)
as Himself