W.C. Fields
Acting • Born 1880-01-29 – Died 1946-12-25
Biography
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.
Filmography
63 credits
The Bank Dick
Movie • 1940
Egbert Sousé
Hollywood on Parade No. B-10
Movie • 1934
Self
The Movie Orgy
Movie • 1968
Self (archive footage)
International House
Movie • 1933
Professor Quail
Alice in Wonderland
Movie • 1933
Humpty-Dumpty
I Know A Riddle
Movie • 2004
(archive footage)
Follow the Boys
Movie • 1944
W. C. Fields
Tales of Manhattan
Movie • 1942
Professor Pufflewhistle (uncredited)
The Hollywood Clowns
Movie • 1979
(archive footage)
It's a Gift
Movie • 1934
Harold Bissonette
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
Movie • 1939
Larson E. Whipsnade
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
Movie • 1941
The Great Man
Poppy
Movie • 1936
Eustace McGargle
Fools for Luck
Movie • 1928
Richard Whitehead
My Little Chickadee
Movie • 1940
Cuthbert J. Twillie
The Big Broadcast of 1938
Movie • 1938
T. Frothingill Bellows / S.B. Bellows
The Golf Specialist
Movie • 1930
J. Effingham Bellweather
David Copperfield
Movie • 1935
Wilkins Micawber
Two Flaming Youths
Movie • 1927
Gabby Gilfoil
The Pharmacist
Movie • 1933
Mr. Dilweg
The Dentist
Movie • 1932
Dentist
The Barber Shop
Movie • 1933
Cornelius O'Hare
The Fatal Glass of Beer
Movie • 1933
Mr. Snavely
Pool Sharks
Movie • 1915
Man on the Flying Trapeze
Movie • 1935
Ambrose Wolfinger
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
Movie • 1934
Mr. Stubbins
If I Had a Million
Movie • 1932
Rollo La Rue
Her Majesty, Love
Movie • 1931
Bela Toerrek
Six of a Kind
Movie • 1934
Sheriff John Hoxley
Janice Meredith
Movie • 1924
A British Sergeant
Tillie and Gus
Movie • 1933
Augustus Winterbottom
Mississippi
Movie • 1935
Commodore Jackson
You're Telling Me!
Movie • 1934
Sam Bisbee
Million Dollar Legs
Movie • 1932
The President
So's Your Old Man
Movie • 1926
Samuel Bisbee
Sally of the Sawdust
Movie • 1925
Professor Eustance McGargle
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
Movie • 1982
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Movie • 1983
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
It's the Old Army Game
Movie • 1926
Elmer Prettywillie
Running Wild
Movie • 1927
Elmer Finch
Sensations of 1945
Movie • 1944
W.C. Fields
W.C. Fields: Straight Up
Movie • 1986
Going Hollywood: The '30s
Movie • 1984
(archive footage)
Song of the Open Road
Movie • 1944
W.C. Fields
The Circus: Premiere
Movie • 1928
Self
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
Movie • 1990
(archive footage)
Tillie's Punctured Romance
Movie • 1928
Ring Master
The Old-Fashioned Way
Movie • 1934
The Great McGonigle / Squire Cribbs in 'The Drunkard'
Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her
Movie • 1994
Self (archive footage)
The Big Parade of Comedy
Movie • 1964
Wilkins Micawber in 'David Copperfield' (archive footage)
W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films
Movie • 2000
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action
Movie • 1933
Himself
Show-Business at War
Movie • 1943
Self
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
Movie • 1940
Self (archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Movie • 1975
Self (archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II
Movie • 1976
(archive footage)
The Potters
Movie • 1927
Pa Potter
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
Movie • 1997
Self (archive footage)
That Royle Girl
Movie • 1925
Professor Royle
Down Memory Lane
Movie • 1949
(archive footage)
Hooray for Hollywood
Movie • 1976
Self (archive footage)
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
Movie • 1999
(archive footage)
Wogan
TV • 1982
Self