
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.
- Known ForActing
- Born29 January 1880 (age 145)
- Place of BirthDarby, Pennsylvania, USA
W.C. Fields

- Known ForActing
- Born29 January 1880 (age 145)
- Place of BirthDarby, Pennsylvania, USA

I Know A Riddle
2004

W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films
2000

Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
1999

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
1997

Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her
1994

Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
1990

W.C. Fields: Straight Up
1986

Going Hollywood: The '30s
1984

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1983

Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
1982

The Hollywood Clowns
1979

That's Entertainment, Part II
1976

Hooray for Hollywood
1976

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975

The Movie Orgy
1968

The Big Parade of Comedy
1964

Hollywood: The Selznick Years
1961

Down Memory Lane
1949

Follow the Boys
1944

Sensations of 1945
1944

Song of the Open Road
1944

Show-Business at War
1943

Tales of Manhattan
1942

Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
1941

The Bank Dick
1940

My Little Chickadee
1940

Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940

You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
1939

The Big Broadcast of 1938
1938

Poppy
1936

Man on the Flying Trapeze
1935

David Copperfield
1935

Mississippi
1935

It's a Gift
1934

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
1934

Six of a Kind
1934

You're Telling Me!
1934

The Old-Fashioned Way
1934

Hollywood on Parade No. B-7
1933

International House
1933

Alice in Wonderland
1933
The Pharmacist
1933

The Fatal Glass of Beer
1933

The Barber Shop
1933

Tillie and Gus
1933
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action
1933

The Dentist
1932

If I Had a Million
1932

Million Dollar Legs
1932

Her Majesty, Love
1931

The Golf Specialist
1930

Fools for Luck
1928

The Circus: Premiere
1928

Tillie's Punctured Romance
1928

Two Flaming Youths
1927

Running Wild
1927

The Potters
1927

So's Your Old Man
1926

It's the Old Army Game
1926

Sally of the Sawdust
1925

That Royle Girl
1925

Janice Meredith
1924
