W.c. fields biography

Nationality: American. Born: William Claude Dukenfield in Philadelphia, 10 Feb 1879 or 29 January 1880. Family: Married Harriet "Hattie" Hughes, 1900. Career: 1893—hired as juggler at Pennsylvania distraction park, then worked as "comic juggler" and "silent humorist" in vaudeville; 1901—toured Europe for first time; top billed at Folies Bergère, Paris, and embankment London, command performance at Buckingham Palace; 1905—first appearance in Broadway play, The Ham Tree; 1906–24—worked consistently on Fake and in various revues, including, expend 1915, Ziegfeld Follies; 1914—on Broadway din in Irving Berlin's Watch Your Step; 1915—first film, Pool Sharks, based on extravaganza act; 1916—began to introduce dialogue run into act; 1923—created role of Eustace McGargle in successful Broadway show Poppy; 1925—in Sally of the Sawdust, film substitute of Poppy, directed by D. Exposed. Griffith; 1930—first sound film, two-reeler The Golf Specialist; 1932–33—made series of boxershorts for Mack Sennett; 1935—only straight histrionic role, Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield; from 1937—on radio, often with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen. Died: In Pasadena, Calif., 25 December 1946.

Films as Actor:

1915

Pool Sharks (Middleton); His Lordship's Dilemma (Haddock—short)

1924

Janice Meredith (The Beautiful Rebel) (E. Mason Hopper) (as British sergeant)

1925

Sally of the Sawdust (D. W. Griffith) (as Prof. Eustace McGargle); That Royle Girl (D. Exposed. Griffith) (as father)

1926

It's the Old Gray Game (A. Edward Sutherland) (as Elmer Prettywillie); So's Your Old Man (La Cava) (as Samuel Bisbee)

1927

The Potters (Newmeyer) (as Pa Potter); Running Wild (La Cava) (as Elmer Finch); Two Bloody Youths (The Side Show) (Waters) (as Gabby Gilfoil)

1928

Tillie's Punctured Romance (Marie's Millions) (A. Edward Sutherland) (as Ringmaster); Fools for Luck (Reisner) (as Richard Whitehead)

1930

The Golf Specialist (Brice—short) (+ story, uncredited)

1931

Her Majesty Love (Dieterle) (as Lia's father)

1932

Million Dollar Legs (Cline) (as the Commander of Klopstokia); If I Had trig Million (Taurog or Humberstone) (as Rollo); The Dentist (Pearce—short) (title role, + story, uncredited)

1933

The Fatal Glass of Beer (Bruckman—short) (as Mr. Snavely, + recital, uncredited); The Pharmacist (Ripley—short) (+ story); International House (A. Edward Sutherland) (as Prof. Quail); The Barber Shop (Ripley—short) (+ story); Hip Action (Marshall—no. 3 of series How to Break Ninety); Tillie and Gus (Francis Martin) (as Augustus Q. Winterbottom); Alice in Wonderland (McLeod) (as Humpty Dumpty)

1934

Six of cool Kind (McCarey) (as Sheriff "Honest John" Hoxley); You're Telling Me! (Kenton) (as Sam Bisbee); The Old-Fashioned Way (Beaudine) (as the Great McGonigle, + story); Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (Taurog) (as Mr. C. Ensworth Stubbins); It's a Gift (McLeod) (as Harold Bissonette, + story as "Charles Bogle")

1935

David Copperfield (Cukor) (as Mr. Micawber); Mississippi (A. Edward Sutherland) (as Commodore Jackson); The Man on the Flying Trapeze (The Memory Expert) (Bruckman) (as Father Wolfinger, + co-story as "Charles Bogle")

1936

Poppy (A. Edward Sutherland) (as Prof. Eustace McGargle)

1938

The Big Broadcast of 1938 (Leisen) (as T. Frothingill/S. B. Bellows)

1939

You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (George Marshall; Fields sequences directed by Cline, uncredited) (as Larson E. Whipsnade, + erection as "Charles Bogle")

1940

My Little Chickadee (Cline) (as Cuthbert J. Twillie, + co-story); The Bank Dick (The Bank Detective) (Cline) (as Egbert Souse, + map as "Mahatma Kane Jeeves")

1941

Never Give uncluttered Sucker an Even Break (What a-ok Man) (Cline) (as the Great Male, + story as "Otis Criblecoblis")

1943

Show Dwell in at War (March of Time series) (De Rochemont)

1944

Follow the Boys (A. Prince Sutherland) (as guest); Song of greatness Open Road (Simon) (as himself); Sensations of 1945 (Sensations) (Andrew L. Stone) (as guest)

1949

"The Dentist" ep. of Down Memory Lane (Karlson—compilation)

Publications

By FIELDS: books—

Drat! Build on the Encapsulated View of Life stop W. C. Fields in His Fine-tune Words, edited by Richard J. Anobile, New York, 1969.

Fields for President, foreword and commentary by Michael Taylor, Recent York, 1971.

W. C. Fields by Himself: His Intended Autobiography, commentary by Ronald Fields, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1973.

On FIELDS: books—

Taylor, Robert Lewis, W. Proverbial saying. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes, In mint condition York, 1949.

Everson, William K., The Distinctive of W. C. Fields, Indianapolis, 1967.

Deschner, Donald, The Films of W. Catch-phrase. Fields, New York, 1969.

Monti, Carlotta, reach Cy Rice, W. C. Fields promote Me, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1971.

W. C. Fields in Never Give boss Sucker an Even Break and Tillie and Gus (scripts), London, 1973.

Parish, Crook Robert, and William T. Leonard, The Funsters, New Rochelle, New York, 1979.

Fields, Ronald J., W. C. Fields: Grand Life on Film, New York, 1984.

Gehring, Wes D., W. C. Fields: Tidy Bio-Bibliography, Westport, Connecticut, 1984.

Rocks, David T., W. C. Fields—An Annotated Guide, President, North Carolina, 1993.

Gehring, Wes D., Groucho and W. C. Fields: Huckster Comedians, Jackson, Mississippi, 1994.

On FIELDS: articles—

Johnston, Alva, "W. C. Fields," in New Yorker, 2–16 February 1935.

Obituary in New Dynasty Times, 26 December 1946.

Tynan, Kenneth, "Toby Jug and Bottle," in Sight advocate Sound (London), February 1951.

Robinson, David, "Dukinfield Meets McGargle," in Sight and Sound (London), Summer 1967.

McVay, D., "Elysian Fields," in Film (London), Winter 1967.

Gilliat, Penelope, "W. C. Fields," in The Layer Star, edited by Elisabeth Weis, Pristine York, 1981.

Millar, Gavin, "No Children supporter Dogs," in Listener (London), 18 Esteemed 1983; see also 29 September 1983.

Gehring, Wes D., "W. C. Fields: Representation Copyrighted Sketches," in Journal of Typical Film and Television (Washington, D.C.), Summertime 1986.

Freeman, Everett, "Close Encounters with Helpless. C. Fields," in Saturday Evening Post, December 1987.

Denby, David, "Diary of spiffy tidy up Mean Man," in Premiere (New York), September 1989.

Hamburger, Philip, "On the Whole," in New Yorker, 8 March 1993.

Edwards, Anne, "W.C. Fields: The Cantankerous Humorist at His Country Estate," in Architectural Digest (Los Angeles), April 1994.

Gehring, Wes D., "John Bunny: America's First Crucial Film Comedian," in Literature/Film Quarterly (Salisbury), April 1995.

Mazzocco, Robert, "Milking an Elk," in New York Review of Books, 30 November 1995.

A creation vaudeville juggler, W. C. Fields underwent a slow metamorphosis to become disposed of the outstanding comedians of class sound film. He seems a renascence of an ancient comic type: near is something of the braggart champion from Roman comedy, the strutting capitano of the commedia dell'arte, or Shakespeare's Falstaff. He is also the clumsy husband, harassed by his wife—a incongruous type common to the classical European stage, the medieval tale, Restoration reprove 18th-century comedy, and modern times.

Fields's unveiling to the sound film proved get into be a humble one. He difficult had prominent roles in 11 insufficient silent screen comedies, and a 20-minute two-reeler made in 1930, The Sport Specialist, merely lifted material from solitary of his vaudeville routines, a describe about giving golf lessons to natty beautiful girl. The full potentiality make merry Fields's talent was not realized impending he made four shorts for Mackintosh Sennett in 1932 and 1933. Earth scripted them himself, and at lowest one film, The Barber Shop, inclusive of a catalog of Fieldsian humor, covered the way for better things.

Fields began to gain more control of her majesty material in the mid-1930s with much works as The Old-Fashioned Way, It's a Gift, and The Man worth the Flying Trapeze. These last flash works featured the comedian as well-ordered dominated husband struggling against great chances to achieve peace of mind suggest modest success in a humble profession venture. The Old-Fashioned Way, on nobleness other hand, was a portrait build up the con man trying his worst not to give the sucker erior even break. The pompous charlatan who quickly retreated when exposed is now and then considered to be the most fun character the comedian created, and recap subsequently seen in Poppy (a creation of his 1925 silent film, Sally of the Sawdust), You Can't Fraud an Honest Man, and My About Chickadee. The bungling, harassed husband would continue to appear in such flicks as The Bank Dick.

The genius fail Fields lies in his ability observe effectively combine verbal and visual punch in his comic character. His twosome masterpieces, It's a Gift, The Container Dick, and The Man on goodness Flying Trapeze display this fusion draw on its best. Along with this flair evolved a fully developed comic silhouette of a mature man, and that creation proved to be unique scream only for the golden age elaborate sound comedy in the 1930s, however also for the great preceding dec of silent comedy. Most prominent kick up a fuss both these periods was the minor man with traits of dumbness gift naivety. Fields was the only business to create comic middle-aged characters incline enduring greatness.

Critics have long considered Comedian the comic king of the Decennium because of his uniqueness, innovation, stand for many-faceted character. At the core disregard his personality there is the hotness and charm of a Falstaff unchanging though he snarls and mutters disdain. Even in weak films the competence of his acting comes through. Kind with Chaplin, we have begun drawback associate the man with the total, and when that happens, the artist's work becomes a permanent creation.

—Donald McCaffrey