1880-01-29 Darby, Pennsylvania, USA
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.
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I Know A Riddle | 2004-04-01 | |
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W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films | 2000-01-01 | |
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The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender | Self (archive footage) | 1997-11-01 |
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Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her | Self (archive footage) | 1994-08-09 |
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Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths | (archive footage) | 1990-01-01 |
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W.C. Fields: Straight Up | 1986-01-02 | |
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Going Hollywood: The '30s | (archive footage) | 1984-01-01 |
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Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) | 1983-02-25 |
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Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers! | Self (archive footage) | 1982-01-01 |
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The Hollywood Clowns | (archive footage) | 1979-03-23 |
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That's Entertainment, Part II | (archive footage) | 1976-05-16 |
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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? | Self (archive footage) | 1975-08-06 |
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The Movie Orgy | Self (archive footage) | 1968-01-01 |
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The Big Parade of Comedy | Wilkins Micawber in 'David Copperfield' (archive footage) | 1964-09-02 |
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Hollywood: The Selznick Years | 'David Copperfield' (archive footage) (uncredited) | 1961-12-31 |
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Down Memory Lane | (archive footage) | 1949-08-01 |
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Follow the Boys | W. C. Fields | 1944-05-05 |
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Song of the Open Road | W.C. Fields | 1944-06-21 |
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Sensations of 1945 | W.C. Fields | 1944-06-30 |
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Show-Business at War | Self | 1943-05-21 |
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Tales of Manhattan | Professor Pufflewhistle | 1942-08-05 |
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Never Give a Sucker an Even Break | The Great Man | 1941-10-10 |
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Cavalcade of the Academy Awards | Self (archive footage) | 1940-07-31 |
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The Bank Dick | Egbert Sousé | 1940-11-29 |
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My Little Chickadee | Cuthbert J. Twillie | 1940-02-09 |
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You Can't Cheat an Honest Man | Larson E. Whipsnade | 1939-02-17 |
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The Big Broadcast of 1938 | T. Frothingill Bellows / S.B. Bellows | 1938-02-11 |
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Poppy | Eustace McGargle | 1936-06-17 |
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The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger | Wilkins Micawber | 1935-01-18 |
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Mississippi | Commodore Jackson | 1935-03-22 |
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Man on the Flying Trapeze | Ambrose Wolfinger | 1935-08-03 |
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Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch | Mr. Stubbins | 1934-10-28 |
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Six of a Kind | Sheriff John Hoxley | 1934-02-09 |
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The Old-Fashioned Way | The Great McGonigle / Squire Cribbs in 'The Drunkard' | 1934-07-13 |
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It's a Gift | Harold Bissonette | 1934-11-30 |
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You're Telling Me! | Sam Bisbee | 1934-04-06 |
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International House | Professor Quail | 1933-05-27 |
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The Barber Shop | Cornelius O'Hare | 1933-07-28 |
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How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action | Himself | 1933-06-23 |
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Hollywood on Parade No. B-7 | Self | 1933-01-01 |
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The Fatal Glass of Beer | Mr. Snavely | 1933-03-03 |
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Tillie and Gus | Augustus Winterbottom | 1933-10-13 |
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Alice in Wonderland | Humpty-Dumpty | 1933-12-18 |
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The Pharmacist | Mr. Dilweg | 1933-04-21 |
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If I Had a Million | Rollo La Rue | 1932-11-18 |
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Million Dollar Legs | The President | 1932-07-08 |
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The Dentist | Dentist | 1932-12-09 |
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Her Majesty, Love | Bela Toerrek | 1931-12-15 |
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The Golf Specialist | J. Effingham Bellweather | 1930-08-22 |
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Fools for Luck | Richard Whitehead | 1928-06-11 |
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The Circus: Premiere | Self | 1928-01-13 |
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Tillie's Punctured Romance | Ring Master | 1928-03-03 |
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The Potters | Pa Potter | 1927-01-15 |
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Two Flaming Youths | Gabby Gilfoil | 1927-12-17 |
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Running Wild | Elmer Finch | 1927-06-10 |
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It's the Old Army Game | Elmer Prettywillie | 1926-07-10 |
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So's Your Old Man | Samuel Bisbee | 1926-10-25 |
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Sally of the Sawdust | Professor Eustance McGargle | 1925-08-01 |
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That Royle Girl | Professor Royle | 1925-12-07 |
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Janice Meredith | A British Sergeant | 1924-12-08 |
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Pool Sharks | 1915-09-19 |
