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W.C. Fields
Acting
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 de…
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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.
Biography expanded
BODY OF WORK
W.C. Fields's Filmography
Select any movie to open its full Movies Mates details page.
Marlene Dietrich: Home Movies
as Self
No Poster
The Great Man: W.C. Fields
as Self (archive footage)
W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
as (archive footage)
Vaudeville
as Self (archive footage)
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
as Self (archive footage)
Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her
as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
as Self (archive footage)
W.C. Fields: Straight Up
Going Hollywood: The '30s
as (archive footage)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
as Self (archive footage)
The Hollywood Clowns
as (archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
Hooray for Hollywood
as Self (archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
as Self (archive footage)
The Movie Orgy
as Self (archive footage)
The Big Parade of Comedy
as Wilkins Micawber in 'David Copperfield' (archive footage)
Down Memory Lane
as (archive footage)
Sensations of 1945
as W.C. Fields
Song of the Open Road
as W.C. Fields
Follow the Boys
as W. C. Fields
Show-Business at War
as Self
Tales of Manhattan
as Professor Pufflewhistle (uncredited)
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
as The Great Man
The Bank Dick
as Egbert Sousé
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
as Self (archive footage)
My Little Chickadee
as Cuthbert J. Twillie
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
as Larson E. Whipsnade
The Big Broadcast of 1938
as T. Frothingill Bellows / S.B. Bellows
Poppy
as Eustace McGargle
Man on the Flying Trapeze
as Ambrose Wolfinger
Mississippi
as Commodore Jackson
David Copperfield
as Wilkins Micawber
It's a Gift
as Harold Bissonette
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
as Mr. Stubbins
The Old-Fashioned Way
as The Great McGonigle / Squire Cribbs in 'The Drunkard'
Hollywood on Parade No. B-10
as Self
You're Telling Me!
as Sam Bisbee
Six of a Kind
as Sheriff John Hoxley
Alice in Wonderland
as Humpty-Dumpty
Tillie and Gus
as Augustus Winterbottom
The Barber Shop
as Cornelius O'Hare
No Poster
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action
as Himself
International House
as Professor Quail
The Pharmacist
as Mr. Dilweg
The Fatal Glass of Beer
as Mr. Snavely
The Dentist
as Dentist
If I Had a Million
as Rollo La Rue
Million Dollar Legs
as The President
Her Majesty, Love
as Bela Toerrek
The Golf Specialist
as J. Effingham Bellweather
Fools for Luck
as Richard Whitehead
Tillie's Punctured Romance
as Ring Master
The Circus: Premiere
as Self
Two Flaming Youths
as Gabby Gilfoil
Running Wild
as Elmer Finch
The Potters
as Pa Potter
So's Your Old Man
as Samuel Bisbee
It's the Old Army Game
as Elmer Prettywillie
That Royle Girl
as Professor Royle
Sally of the Sawdust
as Professor Eustance McGargle
Janice Meredith
as A British Sergeant
