W.C. Fields, orig. William Claude Dukenfield, (born Jan. 29, 1880, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died Dec. 25, 1946, Pasadena, Calif.), U.S. actor and screenwriter. He was a vaudeville headliner as a juggler and appeared for seven seasons (1915–21) in the Ziegfeld Follies. His starring role in the stage hit Poppy (1923) brought him to Hollywood for its film adaptation, Sally of the Sawdust (1925). He emerged as a top film comedian only after the advent of sound pictures, when audiences could hear his distinctive raspy voice. His screen personality—an unlovable but hilarious con man, braggart, misanthrope, and hater of children and dogs—was largely his own. Fields wrote and improvised the action for most of his films, which include comedies such as You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939), My Little Chickadee (1940), The Bank Dick (1940), and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941). His only serious role was Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield (1935).
W.C. Fields Article
W.C. Fields summary
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acting Summary
Acting, the performing art in which movement, gesture, and intonation are used to realize a fictional character for the stage, for motion pictures, or for television. (Read Lee Strasberg’s 1959 Britannica essay on acting.) Acting is generally agreed to be a matter less of mimicry, exhibitionism, or
comedy Summary
Comedy, type of drama or other art form the chief object of which, according to modern notions, is to amuse. It is contrasted on the one hand with tragedy and on the other with farce, burlesque, and other forms of humorous amusement. The classic conception of comedy, which began with Aristotle in
film Summary
Film, series of still photographs on film, projected in rapid succession onto a screen by means of light. Because of the optical phenomenon known as persistence of vision, this gives the illusion of actual, smooth, and continuous movement. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film