W.C. Fields
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.
Personal Details
Also Known As
Movies (49)
I Know A Riddle
as (archive footage)
2004
W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films
2000
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
as (archive footage)
1999
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
as Self (archive footage)
1997
Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her
as Self (archive footage)
1994
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
as (archive footage)
1990
W.C. Fields: Straight Up
1986
Going Hollywood: The '30s
as (archive footage)
1984
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1983
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
as Self (archive footage)
1982
The Hollywood Clowns
as (archive footage)
1979
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
1976
Hooray for Hollywood
as Self (archive footage)
1976
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
as Self (archive footage)
1975
The Movie Orgy
as Self (archive footage)
1968
The Big Parade of Comedy
as Wilkins Micawber in 'David Copperfield' (archive footage)
1964
Down Memory Lane
as (archive footage)
1949
Sensations of 1945
as W.C. Fields
1944
Song of the Open Road
as W.C. Fields
1944
Follow the Boys
as W. C. Fields
1944
Show-Business at War
as Self
1943
Tales of Manhattan
as Professor Pufflewhistle (uncredited)
1942
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
as The Great Man
1941
The Bank Dick
as Egbert Sousé
1940
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
as Self (archive footage)
1940
My Little Chickadee
as Cuthbert J. Twillie
1940
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
as Larson E. Whipsnade
1939
The Big Broadcast of 1938
as T. Frothingill Bellows / S.B. Bellows
1938
Poppy
as Eustace McGargle
1936
Man on the Flying Trapeze
as Ambrose Wolfinger
1935
Mississippi
as Commodore Jackson
1935
David Copperfield
as Wilkins Micawber
1935
It's a Gift
as Harold Bissonette
1934
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
as Mr. Stubbins
1934
The Old-Fashioned Way
as The Great McGonigle / Squire Cribbs in 'The Drunkard'
1934
You're Telling Me!
as Sam Bisbee
1934
Six of a Kind
as Sheriff John Hoxley
1934
Alice in Wonderland
as Humpty-Dumpty
1933
Tillie and Gus
as Augustus Winterbottom
1933
The Barber Shop
as Cornelius O'Hare
1933
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action
as Himself
1933
International House
as Professor Quail
1933
The Pharmacist
as Mr. Dilweg
1933
The Fatal Glass of Beer
as Mr. Snavely
1933
Too Many Highballs
Story (Writing)
1933
Hollywood on Parade No. B-7
as Self
1933
The Dentist
as Dentist
1932
If I Had a Million
as Rollo La Rue
1932
Million Dollar Legs
as The President
1932
