credits of
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.
Release Date | Title | Character Name | Rating | Your Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
January 1st, 2000 | W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films | TBD | 7.3 | |
July 20th, 1999 | Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults | (archive footage) | 9 | |
November 27th, 1997 | Vaudeville | Self (archive footage) | 8 | |
November 1st, 1997 | The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender | Self (archive footage) | 5.1 | |
August 9th, 1994 | Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her | Self (archive footage) | TBD | |
January 1st, 1990 | Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths | (archive footage) | 5.7 | |
January 2nd, 1986 | W.C. Fields: Straight Up | TBD | 9 | |
January 1st, 1984 | Going Hollywood: The '30s | (archive footage) | 9 | |
February 25th, 1983 | Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) | 7 | |
January 1st, 1982 | Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers! | Self (archive footage) | 6 | |
March 23rd, 1979 | The Hollywood Clowns | (archive footage) | TBD | |
October 29th, 1976 | Bob Hope's World of Comedy | Self - Tribute Montage (archive footage) | TBD | |
May 16th, 1976 | That's Entertainment, Part II | (archive footage) | 7 | |
January 1st, 1976 | Hooray for Hollywood | Self (archive footage) | 8 | |
August 6th, 1975 | Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? | Self (archive footage) | 6.3 | |
January 1st, 1968 | The Movie Orgy | Self (archive footage) | 6.6 | |
September 2nd, 1964 | The Big Parade of Comedy | Wilkins Micawber in 'David Copperfield' (archive footage) | 7.2 | |
August 1st, 1949 | Down Memory Lane | (archive footage) | 7 | |
June 30th, 1944 | Sensations of 1945 | W.C. Fields | 6.6 | |
June 21st, 1944 | Song of the Open Road | W.C. Fields | 8 | |
May 5th, 1944 | Follow the Boys | W. C. Fields | 5.7 | |
May 21st, 1943 | Show-Business at War | Self | 7 | |
August 5th, 1942 | Tales of Manhattan | Professor Pufflewhistle (uncredited) | 6.4 | |
October 10th, 1941 | Never Give a Sucker an Even Break | The Great Man | 7 | |
November 29th, 1940 | The Bank Dick | Egbert Sousé | 6.5 | |
July 31st, 1940 | Cavalcade of the Academy Awards | Self (archive footage) | 6.5 | |
February 9th, 1940 | My Little Chickadee | Cuthbert J. Twillie | 6.5 | |
February 17th, 1939 | You Can't Cheat an Honest Man | Larson E. Whipsnade | 7 | |
February 11th, 1938 | The Big Broadcast of 1938 | T. Frothingill Bellows / S.B. Bellows | 6.4 | |
June 17th, 1936 | Poppy | Eustace McGargle | 7 | |
August 3rd, 1935 | Man on the Flying Trapeze | Ambrose Wolfinger | 6.2 | |
March 22nd, 1935 | Mississippi | Commodore Jackson | 6.8 | |
January 18th, 1935 | David Copperfield | Wilkins Micawber | 6.7 | |
November 30th, 1934 | It's a Gift | Harold Bissonette | 6.3 | |
October 28th, 1934 | Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch | Mr. Stubbins | 6 | |
July 13th, 1934 | The Old-Fashioned Way | The Great McGonigle / Squire Cribbs in 'The Drunkard' | 7.2 | |
April 26th, 1934 | Hollywood on Parade No. B-10 | Self | TBD | |
April 6th, 1934 | You're Telling Me! | Sam Bisbee | 6.3 | |
February 9th, 1934 | Six of a Kind | Sheriff John Hoxley | 5.9 | |
December 18th, 1933 | Alice in Wonderland | Humpty-Dumpty | 6.1 | |
October 13th, 1933 | Tillie and Gus | Augustus Winterbottom | 7.8 | |
July 28th, 1933 | The Barber Shop | Cornelius O'Hare | 6.4 | |
June 23rd, 1933 | How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action | Himself | 10 | |
May 27th, 1933 | International House | Professor Quail | 5.5 | |
April 21st, 1933 | The Pharmacist | Mr. Dilweg | 5.7 | |
March 3rd, 1933 | The Fatal Glass of Beer | Mr. Snavely | 6 | |
December 9th, 1932 | The Dentist | Dentist | 5.9 | |
November 18th, 1932 | If I Had a Million | Rollo La Rue | 6.6 | |
July 8th, 1932 | Million Dollar Legs | The President | 6.8 | |
December 15th, 1931 | Her Majesty, Love | Bela Toerrek | 6.7 | |
August 22nd, 1930 | The Golf Specialist | J. Effingham Bellweather | 5.3 | |
June 11th, 1928 | Fools for Luck | Richard Whitehead | 7 | |
March 3rd, 1928 | Tillie's Punctured Romance | Ring Master | 6.5 | |
January 13th, 1928 | The Circus: Premiere | Self | 5.4 | |
December 17th, 1927 | Two Flaming Youths | Gabby Gilfoil | TBD | |
June 10th, 1927 | Running Wild | Elmer Finch | 6.5 | |
January 15th, 1927 | The Potters | Pa Potter | 10 | |
October 25th, 1926 | So's Your Old Man | Samuel Bisbee | 6.8 | |
July 10th, 1926 | It's the Old Army Game | Elmer Prettywillie | 5 | |
December 7th, 1925 | That Royle Girl | Professor Royle | 3.7 | |
August 1st, 1925 | Sally of the Sawdust | Professor Eustance McGargle | 6.2 | |
December 8th, 1924 | Janice Meredith | A British Sergeant | 7 | |
September 19th, 1915 | Pool Sharks | TBD | 5.2 |