W.C. Fields
Actor
Born January 29, 1880 in Darby, Pennsylvania, USA
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
W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
(archive footage)
Vaudeville
Self (archive footage)
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
Self (archive footage)
Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
(archive footage)
W.C. Fields: Straight Up
Going Hollywood: The '30s
(archive footage)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Wogan
Self
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
Self (archive footage)
The Hollywood Clowns
(archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II
(archive footage)
Hooray for Hollywood
Self (archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Self (archive footage)
The Movie Orgy
Self (archive footage)
The Big Parade of Comedy
Wilkins Micawber in 'David Copperfield' (archive footage)
Down Memory Lane
(archive footage)
Sensations of 1945
W.C. Fields
Song of the Open Road
W.C. Fields
Follow the Boys
W. C. Fields
Show-Business at War
Self
Tales of Manhattan
Professor Pufflewhistle (uncredited)
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
The Great Man
The Bank Dick
Egbert Sousé
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
Self (archive footage)
My Little Chickadee
Cuthbert J. Twillie
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
Larson E. Whipsnade
The Big Broadcast of 1938
T. Frothingill Bellows / S.B. Bellows
Poppy
Eustace McGargle
Man on the Flying Trapeze
Ambrose Wolfinger
Mississippi
Commodore Jackson
David Copperfield
Wilkins Micawber
It's a Gift
Harold Bissonette
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
Mr. Stubbins
The Old-Fashioned Way
The Great McGonigle / Squire Cribbs in 'The Drunkard'
Hollywood on Parade No. B-10
Self
You're Telling Me!
Sam Bisbee
Six of a Kind
Sheriff John Hoxley
Alice in Wonderland
Humpty-Dumpty
Tillie and Gus
Augustus Winterbottom
The Barber Shop
Cornelius O'Hare
International House
Professor Quail
The Pharmacist
Mr. Dilweg
The Fatal Glass of Beer
Mr. Snavely
Too Many Highballs
The Dentist
Dentist
If I Had a Million
Rollo La Rue
Million Dollar Legs
The President
Her Majesty, Love
Bela Toerrek
The Golf Specialist
J. Effingham Bellweather
Fools for Luck
Richard Whitehead
Tillie's Punctured Romance
Ring Master
The Circus: Premiere
Self
Two Flaming Youths
Gabby Gilfoil
Running Wild
Elmer Finch
The Potters
Pa Potter
So's Your Old Man
Samuel Bisbee
It's the Old Army Game
Elmer Prettywillie
That Royle Girl
Professor Royle
Sally of the Sawdust
Professor Eustance McGargle
Janice Meredith
A British Sergeant
Pool Sharks