Acting
W.C. Fields
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
The Great Man: W.C. Fields
Film · 2005
W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films
Film · 2000
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
Film · 1999
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
Film · 1997
Vaudeville
Film · 1997
Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her
Film · 1994
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
Film · 1990
W.C. Fields: Straight Up
Film · 1986
Going Hollywood: The '30s
Film · 1984
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Film · 1983
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
Film · 1982
Wogan
Series · 1982
The Hollywood Clowns
Film · 1979
That's Entertainment, Part II
Film · 1976
Hooray for Hollywood
Film · 1976
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Film · 1975
The Movie Orgy
Film · 1968
The Big Parade of Comedy
Film · 1964
Down Memory Lane
Film · 1949
Follow the Boys
Film · 1944
Sensations of 1945
Film · 1944
Song of the Open Road
Film · 1944
Show-Business at War
Film · 1943
Tales of Manhattan
Film · 1942
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
Film · 1941
The Bank Dick
Film · 1940
My Little Chickadee
Film · 1940
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
Film · 1940
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
Film · 1939
The Big Broadcast of 1938
Film · 1938
Poppy
Film · 1936
David Copperfield
Film · 1935
Man on the Flying Trapeze
Film · 1935
Mississippi
Film · 1935
Hollywood on Parade No. B-10
Film · 1934
It's a Gift
Film · 1934
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
Film · 1934
Six of a Kind
Film · 1934
You're Telling Me!
Film · 1934
The Old-Fashioned Way
Film · 1934
International House
Film · 1933
Alice in Wonderland
Film · 1933
The Pharmacist
Film · 1933
The Barber Shop
Film · 1933
The Fatal Glass of Beer
Film · 1933
Tillie and Gus
Film · 1933
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action
Film · 1933
The Dentist
Film · 1932
If I Had a Million
Film · 1932
Million Dollar Legs
Film · 1932
Her Majesty, Love
Film · 1931
The Golf Specialist
Film · 1930
Fools for Luck
Film · 1928
The Circus: Premiere
Film · 1928
Tillie's Punctured Romance
Film · 1928
Two Flaming Youths
Film · 1927
Running Wild
Film · 1927
The Potters
Film · 1927
So's Your Old Man
Film · 1926
It's the Old Army Game
Film · 1926
Sally of the Sawdust
Film · 1925
That Royle Girl
Film · 1925
Janice Meredith
Film · 1924
Pool Sharks
Film · 1915
Marlene Dietrich: Home Movies
Film