W.C. Fields

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 For: Acting
Birthday: 1880-01-29
Place of Birth: Darby, Pennsylvania, USA
Also Known As: William Claude Dukenfield, Bill Fields, Charles Bogle, Mahatma Kane Jeeves, Otis Criblecoblis

Movies List of W.C. Fields

HD

The Bank Dick

1940 Movie
HD

The Movie Orgy

1968 Movie
HD

International House

1933 Movie
HD

Alice in Wonderland

1933 Movie
HD

I Know A Riddle

2004 Movie
HD

Follow the Boys

1944 Movie
HD

Tales of Manhattan

1942 Movie
HD

The Hollywood Clowns

1979 Movie
HD

It's a Gift

1934 Movie
HD

Poppy

1936 Movie
HD

Fools for Luck

1928 Movie
HD

My Little Chickadee

1940 Movie
HD

The Golf Specialist

1930 Movie
HD

David Copperfield

1935 Movie
HD

Two Flaming Youths

1927 Movie
HD

The Pharmacist

1933 Movie
HD

The Dentist

1932 Movie
HD

The Barber Shop

1933 Movie
HD

Pool Sharks

1915 Movie
HD

If I Had a Million

1932 Movie
HD

Her Majesty, Love

1931 Movie
HD

Six of a Kind

1934 Movie
HD

Janice Meredith

1924 Movie
HD

Tillie and Gus

1933 Movie
HD

Mississippi

1935 Movie
HD

You're Telling Me!

1934 Movie
HD

Million Dollar Legs

1932 Movie
HD

So's Your Old Man

1926 Movie
HD

Sally of the Sawdust

1925 Movie
HD

Running Wild

1927 Movie
HD

Sensations of 1945

1944 Movie
HD

Song of the Open Road

1944 Movie
HD

The Circus: Premiere

1928 Movie
HD

The Old-Fashioned Way

1934 Movie
HD

Show-Business at War

1943 Movie
HD

The Potters

1927 Movie
HD

That Royle Girl

1925 Movie
HD

Down Memory Lane

1949 Movie