W. C. Fields

W. C. Fields

W. C. Fields, 1938
Born William Claude Dukenfield
(1880-01-29)January 29, 1880
Darby, Pennsylvania, US
Died December 25, 1946(1946-12-25) (aged 66)
Pasadena, California, US
Cause of death Stomach hemorrhage
Resting place Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
Other names Charles Bogle
Otis Criblecoblis
Mahatma Kane Jeeves
"Uncle Claude"
Occupation Actor, comedian, juggler, writer
Years active 1898–1946
Spouse(s) Harriet Hughes (m. 1900–46) (his death) 1 child
Partner(s) Bessie Poole (girlfriend) 1 child
Carlotta Monti (girlfriend)
Children William Claude Fields, Jr.
William Morris

William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880[1] – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer.[2] Fields' comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist, who remained a sympathetic character despite his snarling contempt for dogs and children.

His career in show business began in vaudeville, where he attained international success as a silent juggler. He gradually incorporated comedy into his act, and was a featured comedian in the Ziegfeld Follies for several years. He became a star in the Broadway musical comedy Poppy (1923), in which he played a colorful small-time con man. His subsequent stage and film roles were often similar scoundrels, or else henpecked everyman characters.

Among his recognizable trademarks were his raspy drawl and grandiloquent vocabulary. The characterization he portrayed in films and on radio was so strong it was generally identified with Fields himself. It was maintained by the publicity departments at Fields' studios (Paramount and Universal) and was further established by Robert Lewis Taylor's biography, W.C. Fields, His Follies and Fortunes (1949). Beginning in 1973, with the publication of Fields' letters, photos, and personal notes in grandson Ronald Fields' book W.C. Fields by Himself, it was shown that Fields was married (and subsequently estranged from his wife), and financially supported their son and loved his grandchildren.

Early years

Fields was born William Claude Dukenfield in Darby, Pennsylvania, the oldest child of a working-class family. His father, James Lydon Dukenfield (1840–1913), was from an English family that emigrated to America from Sheffield, England in 1854.[3][4] James Dukenfield served in Company M of the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War and was wounded in 1863.[5] Fields' mother, Kate Spangler Felton (1854–1925), was a Protestant of British ancestry.[6][7] The 1876 Philadelphia City Directory lists James Dukenfield as a clerk. After marrying, he worked as an independent produce merchant and a part-time hotel-keeper.[7][8]

Claude Dukenfield (as he was known) had a volatile relationship with his short-tempered father. He ran away from home repeatedly, beginning at the age of nine, often to stay with his grandmother or an uncle.[9] His education was sporadic, and did not progress beyond grade school.[10] At age twelve he worked with his father selling produce from a wagon, until the two had a fight that resulted in Fields running away once again.[11] In 1893 he worked briefly at the Strawbridge and Clothier department store,[12] and in an oyster house.[13]

Fields later embellished stories of his childhood, depicting himself as a runaway who lived by his wits on the streets of Philadelphia from an early age, but his home life seems to have been reasonably happy.[14] He had already discovered in himself a facility for juggling, and a performance he witnessed at a local theater inspired him to dedicate substantial time to perfecting his juggling.[13] At age 17, he was living with his family and performing a juggling act at church and theater shows.[15]

In 1904 Fields' father visited him for two months in England while he was performing there in music halls.[16] Fields enabled his father to retire, purchased him a summer home, and encouraged his parents and siblings to learn to read and write, so they could communicate with him by letter.[17]

Entry into vaudeville

Inspired by the success of the "Original Tramp Juggler", James Edward Harrigan,[18] Fields adopted a similar costume of scruffy beard and shabby tuxedo and entered vaudeville as a genteel "tramp juggler" in 1898, using the name W. C. Fields.[19] His family supported his ambitions for the stage and saw him off on the train for his first stage tour. To conceal a stutter, Fields did not speak onstage.[20] In 1900, seeking to distinguish himself from the many "tramp" acts in vaudeville, he changed his costume and makeup, and began touring as "The Eccentric Juggler".[21] He manipulated cigar boxes, hats, and other objects in what appears to have been a unique and fresh act, parts of which are reproduced in some of his films, notably in The Old Fashioned Way (1934).

By the early 1900s, while touring, he was regularly called the world's greatest juggler.[22] He became a headliner in North America and Europe, and toured Australia and South Africa in 1903.[23] When Fields played for English-speaking audiences, he found he could get more laughs by adding muttered patter and sarcastic asides to his routines. According to W. Buchanan-Taylor, a performer who saw Fields' performance in an English music hall, Fields would "reprimand a particular ball which had not come to his hand accurately", and "mutter weird and unintelligible expletives to his cigar when it missed his mouth".[24]

Broadway

W.C. Fields

In 1905 Fields made his Broadway debut in a musical comedy, The Ham Tree. His role in the show required him to deliver lines of dialogue, which he had never before done onstage.[25] He later said, "I wanted to become a real comedian, and there I was, ticketed and pigeonholed as merely a comedy juggler."[26] In 1913 he performed on a bill with Sarah Bernhardt (who regarded Fields as "an artiste [who] could not fail to please the best class of audience") first at the New York Palace, and then in England in a royal performance for the king and queen.[27] He continued touring in vaudeville until 1915.[28]

Beginning in 1915 he appeared on Broadway in Florenz Ziegfeld's Ziegfeld Follies revue.[29] Therein, he delighted audiences with a wild billiards skit, complete with bizarrely shaped cues and a custom-built table used for a number of hilarious gags and surprising trick shots. (His pool game is reproduced, in part, in some of his films, notably in Six of a Kind [1934].) The act was a success, and Fields starred in the Follies from 1916 to 1922, not as a juggler but as a comedian in ensemble sketches. In addition to multiple editions of the Follies, Fields starred in the Broadway musical comedy Poppy (1923), wherein he perfected his persona as a colorful small-time con man.

His stage costume from 1915 onwards featured a top hat, cut-away coat and collar, and a cane—an appearance remarkably similar to the comic strip character Ally Sloper, who may have been the inspiration for Fields' costume, according to Roger Sabin. The Sloper character may in turn have been inspired by Dickens' Mr Micawber, whom Fields later played on film.[30]

Films

Silent era and first talkies

In 1915, Fields starred in two short comedies, Pool Sharks and His Lordship's Dilemma, filmed in New York.[31] His stage commitments prevented him from doing more movie work until 1924, when he played a supporting role in Janice Meredith, a Revolutionary War romance.[32] He reprised his Poppy role in a silent-film adaptation, retitled Sally of the Sawdust (1925) and directed by D. W. Griffith. His next starring role was in the Paramount Pictures film It's the Old Army Game (1926), which featured his friend Louise Brooks, later a screen legend for her role in G. W. Pabst's Pandora's Box (1929) in Germany.[33] Fields' 1926 film, which included a silent version of the porch sequence that would later be expanded in the sound film It's a Gift (1934), had only middling success at the box office.[34] After Fields' next two features for Paramount failed to produce hits, the studio teamed him with Chester Conklin for three features which were commercial failures and are now lost.[35]

Fields wore a scruffy clip-on mustache in all of his silent films. According to the film historian William K. Everson, he perversely insisted on wearing the conspicuously fake-looking mustache because he knew it was disliked by audiences.[36] Fields wore it in his first sound film, The Golf Specialist (1930)—a two-reeler that faithfully reproduces a sketch he had introduced in 1918 in the Follies[37]—and finally discarded it after his first sound feature film, Her Majesty, Love (1931), his only Warner Bros. production.

At Paramount

In the sound era, Fields appeared in thirteen feature films for Paramount Pictures, beginning with Million Dollar Legs in 1932. In that year he also was featured in a sequence in the anthology film If I Had a Million. In 1932 and 1933, Fields made four short subjects for comedy pioneer Mack Sennett, distributed through Paramount Pictures. These shorts, adapted with few alterations from Fields' stage routines and written entirely by himself, were described by Simon Louvish as "the 'essence' of Fields".[38] The first of them, The Dentist, is unusual in that Fields portrays an entirely unsympathetic character: he cheats at golf, assaults his caddy, and treats his patients with unbridled callousness. William K. Everson says that the cruelty of this comedy made it "hardly less funny", but that "Fields must have known that The Dentist presented a serious flaw for a comedy image that was intended to endure", and showed a somewhat warmer persona in his subsequent Sennett shorts.[39]

The popular success of his next feature film, International House (1933) established him as a major star.[40] A shaky outtake from the film, allegedly the only moving image record of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, was later revealed to have been faked as a publicity stunt for the movie.[41]

His 1934 classic It's a Gift included his stage sketch of trying to escape his nagging family by sleeping on the back porch and being bedeviled by noisy neighbors and salesmen. That film, like You're Telling Me! and Man on the Flying Trapeze, ended happily with a windfall profit that restored his standing in his screen families.

He achieved a career ambition by playing the character Mr. Micawber, in MGM's David Copperfield in 1935.[42] In 1936, Fields re-created his signature stage role in Poppy for Paramount Pictures.

Personal life

Fields married a fellow vaudevillian, chorus girl Harriet "Hattie" Hughes (1879–1963), on April 8, 1900.[43] She became part of Fields' stage act, appearing as his assistant, whom he would entertainingly blame whenever he missed a trick.[44] Hattie was well educated and tutored Fields in reading and writing during their travels.[45] Fields became an enthusiastic reader and habitually traveled with a trunkful of books that included grammar books, translations of Homer and Ovid, and works by authors ranging from Shakespeare to Dickens to Twain.[46]

The couple had a son, William Claude Fields, Jr. (July 28, 1904 – February 16, 1971)[47] and although Fields was an avowed atheist—who, according to James Curtis, "regarded all religions with the suspicion of a seasoned con man"—he yielded to Hattie's wish to have their son baptized.[48]

By 1907 he and Hattie separated; she had been pressing him to stop touring and settle into a respectable trade, but he was unwilling to give up show business.[49] They never divorced. Until his death, Fields continued to correspond with Hattie and voluntarily sent her a weekly stipend.[50]

While performing in New York City at the New Amsterdam Theater in 1916, Fields met Bessie Poole, an established Ziegfeld Follies performer whose beauty and quick wit attracted him, and they began a relationship. With her he had another son, named William Rexford Fields Morris (August 15, 1917 – November 30, 2014).[51][52][53] Neither Fields nor Poole wanted to abandon touring to raise the child, who was placed in foster care with a childless couple of Bessie's acquaintance.[54] Fields' relationship with Poole lasted until 1926. In 1927, he made a negotiated payment to her of $20,000 upon her signing an affidavit declaring that "W. C. Fields is NOT the father of my child".[55] Poole died of complications of alcoholism in October 1928,[56] and Fields contributed to her son's support until he was 19 years of age.[57]

Fields met Carlotta Monti (1907–1993) in 1933, and the two began a sporadic relationship that lasted until his death in 1946.[58] Monti had small roles in two of Fields' films, and in 1971 wrote a memoir, W.C. Fields and Me, which was made into a motion picture at Universal Studios in 1976. Fields was listed in the 1940 census as single and living at 2015 DeMille Drive (Cecil B. DeMille lived at 2000, the only other address on the street).

Alcohol, dogs, and children

Fields' screen character often expressed a fondness for alcohol, a prominent component of the Fields legend. Fields never drank in his early career as a juggler, because he did not want to impair his functions while performing. Eventually, the loneliness of constant travel prompted him to keep liquor in his dressing room as an inducement for fellow performers to socialize with him on the road. Only after he became a Follies star and abandoned juggling did Fields begin drinking regularly.[59] His role in Paramount Pictures' International House (1933), as an aviator with an unquenchable taste for beer, did much to establish Fields' popular reputation as a prodigious drinker.[60] Studio publicists promoted this image, as did Fields himself in press interviews.[61]

Fields expressed his fondness for alcohol to Gloria Jean (playing his niece) in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break: "I was in love with a beautiful blonde once, dear. She drove me to drink. That's the one thing I am indebted to her for." Equally memorable was a line in the 1940 film My Little Chickadee: "Once, on a trek through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew...and were forced to live on food and water for several days!" The oft-repeated anecdote that Fields refused to drink water "because fish fuck in it" is unsubstantiated.[62]

On movie sets Fields famously shot most of his scenes in varying states of inebriation. During the filming of Tales of Manhattan (1942), he kept a vacuum flask with him at all times and frequently availed himself of its contents. Phil Silvers, who had a minor supporting role in the scene featuring Fields, described in his memoir what happened next:

One day the producers appeared on the set to plead with Fields: "Please don't drink while we're shooting — we're way behind schedule" ... Fields merely raised an eyebrow. "Gentlemen, this is only lemonade. For a little acid condition afflicting me." He leaned on me. "Would you be kind enough to taste this, sir?" I took a careful sip — pure gin. I have always been a friend of the drinking man; I respect him for his courage to withdraw from the world of the thinking man. I answered the producers a little scornfully, "It's lemonade." My reward? The scene was snipped out of the picture.[63]

In a testimonial dinner for Fields in 1939, the humorist Leo Rosten remarked of the comedian that "any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad".[64] The line—which Bartlett's Familiar Quotations later erroneously attributed to Fields himself—became famous, and reinforced the popular perception that Fields hated children and dogs. In reality, Fields was somewhat indifferent to dogs, but occasionally owned one.[65] He was fond of entertaining the children of friends who visited him, and doted on his first grandchild, Bill Fields III, born in 1943.[66] He sent encouraging replies to all of the letters he received from boys who, inspired by his performance in The Old Fashioned Way, expressed an interest in juggling.[67]

Illness and career sideline

In 1936, Fields' heavy drinking precipitated a significant decline in his health. By the following year he recovered sufficiently to make one last film for Paramount, The Big Broadcast of 1938, but his troublesome behavior discouraged other producers from hiring him. In 1938 he was chronically ill, and suffering from delirium tremens.[68]

Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy with W.C. Fields on The Chase and Sanborn Hour

Physically unable to work in films, Fields was off the screen for more than a year. During his absence he recorded a brief speech for a radio broadcast. His familiar, snide drawl registered so well with listeners that he quickly became a popular guest on network radio shows.[69] Although his radio work was not as demanding as motion-picture production, Fields insisted on his established movie-star salary of $5,000 per week. He joined ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and Bergen's dummy Charlie McCarthy on The Chase and Sanborn Hour for weekly insult-comedy routines.

Fields would twit Charlie about his being made of wood:

Fields: "Tell me, Charles, is it true your father was a gate-leg table?"
McCarthy: "If it is, your father was under it!"

When Fields would refer to McCarthy as a "woodpecker's pin-up boy" or a "termite's flophouse," Charlie would fire back at Fields about his drinking:

McCarthy: "Is it true, Mr. Fields, that when you stood on the corner of Hollywood and Vine, 43 cars waited for your nose to change to green?"
Bergen: "Why, Bill, I thought you didn't like children."[70]
Fields: "Oh, not at all, Edgar, I love children. I can remember when, with my own little unsteady legs, I toddled from room to room."
McCarthy: "When was that, last night?"

During his recovery from illness Fields reconciled with his estranged wife, and he established a close relationship with his son after Claude's marriage in 1938.[71]

Return to films

At Universal

Fields' renewed popularity from his radio broadcasts with Bergen & McCarthy earned him a contract with Universal Pictures in 1939. His first feature for Universal, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, carried on the Fields–McCarthy rivalry. In 1940, Fields made My Little Chickadee, with Mae West, and The Bank Dick, perhaps his best-known film, in which he has the following exchange with bartender Shemp Howard:

Fields: "Was I in here last night, and did I spend a $20 bill?"
Shemp: "Yeah."
Fields: "Oh boy, what a load that is off my mind... I thought I'd lost it!"

Fields fought with studio producers, directors, and writers over the content of his films. He was determined to make a movie his way, with his own script and staging, and his choice of supporting players. Universal finally gave him the chance, and the resulting film, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), is a masterpiece of absurd humor in which Fields appeared as himself, "The Great Man". Universal's singing star Gloria Jean played opposite Fields, and his cronies Leon Errol and Franklin Pangborn served as his comic foils. But the film Fields delivered was so surreal that Universal recut and reshot parts of it, then quietly released both the film and Fields. Sucker was Fields' last starring film.

Final years

Fields often fraternized at his home with actors, directors, and writers who shared his fondness for good company and good liquor. John Barrymore, Gene Fowler, and Gregory La Cava were a few of his intimates. On March 15, 1941 while Fields was out of town, Christopher Quinn, the two-year-old son of his neighbors, actor Anthony Quinn and his wife Katherine DeMille, drowned in a lily pond on Fields' property. Grief-stricken over the tragedy, he had the pond filled in.[72]

Fields had a substantial library in his home. Although a staunch atheist—or perhaps because of it—he studied theology and owned several volumes on the subject.[73] According to a popular story (possibly apocryphal, according to biographer James Curtis), Fields once told someone who caught him reading a Bible that he was "looking for loopholes".[73]

In a 1994 episode of the Biography television series, Fields' 1941 co-star Gloria Jean recalled her conversations with Fields at his home. She described him as kind and gentle in personal interactions, and believed he yearned for the family environment he never experienced as a child.[74]

During the 1940 presidential campaign, Fields wrote a book entitled Fields for President, consisting of humorous essays in the form of a campaign speech. Dodd, Mead and Company published it in 1940, with illustrations by Otto Soglow.[75] In 1971, when Fields was seen as an anti-establishment figure, Dodd, Mead issued a reprint, illustrated with photographs of Fields.

Fields' film career slowed considerably in the 1940s. His illnesses confined him to brief guest-star appearances in other people's films. An extended sequence in 20th Century Fox's Tales of Manhattan (1942) was cut from the original release of the film and later reinstated for some home video releases.[76] The scene features a temperance meeting with society people at the home of a rich woman, played by Margaret Dumont, in which Fields finds that the punch has been spiked, resulting in a room full of drunken guests and a very happy Fields.

He performed his famous billiard table routine one more time for Follow the Boys, an all-star entertainment revue for the Armed Forces. (Despite the charitable nature of the movie, Fields was paid $15,000 for his appearance; he was never able to perform in person for the armed services.) In Song of the Open Road (1944), Fields juggled for a few moments, remarking, "This used to be my racket."[77] His last film, the musical revue Sensations of 1945, was released in late 1944. Fields' vision and memory had deteriorated to the point that he read his lines from large-print blackboards.[78]

He guested occasionally on radio as late as 1946, often with Edgar Bergen. Shortly before his death that year, Fields recorded a spoken-word album, including his "Temperance Lecture" and "The Day I Drank a Glass of Water", at Les Paul's studio, where Paul had installed his new multi-track recorder. The session was arranged by Paul's old Army pal Bill Morrow, one of Fields' radio writers. It was Fields' last performance.

Listening to one of Paul's experimental multi-track recordings, Fields remarked "The music you're making sounds like an octopus. Like a guy with a million hands. I've never heard anything like it." Paul was amused, and named his new machine OCT, short for octopus.[79]

Death

Fields spent the last 22 months of his life at the Las Encinas Sanatorium in Pasadena, California. In 1946, on Christmas Day—the holiday he said he despised—he suffered an alcohol-related gastric hemorrhage and died, at the age of 66.[80] Carlotta Monti wrote that in his final moments, she used a garden hose to spray water onto the roof over his bedroom to simulate his favorite sound, falling rain.[81] According to a 2004 documentary, he winked and smiled at a nurse, put a finger to his lips, and died.[82] This poignant depiction is uncorroborated and "unlikely", according to biographer James Curtis.[83] Fields' funeral took place on January 2, 1947, in Glendale, California.[84]

Cremation of Fields' remains, as directed in his will, was delayed pending resolution of an objection filed by Hattie and Claude Fields on religious grounds.[83] They also contested a clause leaving a portion of his estate to establish a "W. C. Fields College for Orphan White Boys and Girls, where no religion of any sort is to be preached".[85][86] After a lengthy period of litigation his remains were cremated on June 2, 1949,[87] and his ashes interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale.

Gravestone

Niche of W. C. Fields in the Columbarium of Nativity in the Great Mausoleum, Forest Lawn Glendale.

A popular bit of Fields folklore maintains that his grave marker is inscribed, "I'd rather be in Philadelphia"—a line similar to one he used in My Little Chickadee when a lynch mob asks if he has any last words: "I'd like to see Paris before I die ... Philadelphia will do ..."[10] Fields was known to disparage his native city on occasion; his mock epitaph for a 1925 Vanity Fair article, "A Group of Artists Write Their Own Epitaphs", reads, "Here Lies / W.C. Fields / I Would Rather Be Living in Philadelphia."[88] In reality, his interment marker bears only his stage name, and the years of his birth and death.[10]

Comic persona and style

In 1937, in an article in Motion Picture magazine, Fields analyzed the characters he played:

You've heard the old legend that it's the little put-upon guy who gets the laughs, but I'm the most belligerent guy on the screen. I'm going to kill everybody. But, at the same time, I'm afraid of everybody—just a great big frightened bully .... I was the first comic in world history, so they told me, to pick fights with children. I booted Baby LeRoy ... then, in another picture, I kicked a little dog .... But I got sympathy both times. People didn't know what the unmanageable baby might do to get even, and they thought the dog might bite me.[89]

In features such as It's a Gift and Man on the Flying Trapeze, he is reported to have written or improvised more or less all of his own dialogue and material, leaving story structure to other writers.[90] He frequently incorporated his stage sketches into his films—e.g., the "Back Porch" scene he wrote for the Follies of 1925 was filmed in It's the Old Army Game (1926) and It's a Gift (1934);[91] the golf sketch he performed in the lost film His Lordship's Dilemma (1915) was re-used in the Follies of 1918, and in the films So's Your Old Man (1926), The Golf Specialist (1930), and You're Telling Me (1934).[92]

Fields' most familiar characteristics included a distinctive drawl, which was not his normal speaking voice.[93] His manner of muttering deprecatory asides was an inheritance from his mother, who in Fields' childhood would sit on the porch and mumble sly comments about neighbors who passed by.[94] He delighted in provoking the censors with double entendres and the near-profanities "Godfrey Daniels" and "mother of pearl". A favorite bit of "business", repeated in many of his films, involved his hat going astray—either caught on the end of his cane, or simply facing the wrong way— as he attempts to put it onto his head.[95]

In several of his films, he played hustlers, carnival barkers, and card sharps, spinning yarns and distracting his marks. In others, he cast himself as a victim: a bumbling everyman husband and father whose family does not appreciate him.[96]

Fields often reproduced elements of his own family life in his films. By the time he entered motion pictures, his relationship with his estranged wife had become acrimonious, and he believed she had turned their son Claude—whom he seldom saw—against him.[97] James Curtis says of Man on the Flying Trapeze that the "disapproving mother-in-law, Mrs. Neselrode, was clearly patterned after his wife, Hattie, and the unemployable mama's boy played by [Grady] Sutton was deliberately named Claude. Fields hadn't laid eyes on his family in nearly twenty years, and yet the painful memories lingered."[98]

Unusual names

Although lacking formal education, Fields was well read and a lifelong admirer of author Charles Dickens, whose characters' unusual names inspired Fields to collect odd names he encountered in his travels, to be used for his characters.[99] Some examples are:

Fields often contributed to the scripts of his films under unusual pseudonyms. They include the seemingly prosaic "Charles Bogle", credited in four of his films in the 1930s; "Otis Criblecoblis", which contains an embedded homophone for "scribble"; and "Mahatma Kane Jeeves", a play on Mahatma and a phrase an aristocrat might use when about to leave the house: "My hat, my cane, Jeeves".[101]

Supporting players

Fields had a small cadre of supporting players that he employed in several films:

Unrealized film projects

W. C. Fields was (with Ed Wynn) one of the two original choices for the title role in the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz. Fields was enthusiastic about the role, but ultimately withdrew his name from consideration so he could devote his time to writing You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.[104]

Fields figured in an Orson Welles project. Welles's bosses at RKO Radio Pictures, after losing money on Citizen Kane, urged Welles to choose as his next film a subject with more commercial appeal. Welles considered an adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers which would have starred Fields and John Barrymore, but Fields' schedule would not permit it. The project was shelved, and Welles went on to adapt The Magnificent Ambersons.

During the early planning for his film It's a Wonderful Life, director Frank Capra considered Fields for the role of Uncle Billy, which eventually went to Thomas Mitchell.[105]

Influence and legacy

A best-selling biography of Fields published three years after his death, W.C. Fields, His Follies and Fortunes by Robert Lewis Taylor, was instrumental in popularizing the idea that Fields' real-life character matched his screen persona.[106] In 1973, the comedian's grandson, Ronald J. Fields, published the first book to significantly challenge this idea, W. C. Fields by Himself, His Intended Autobiography, a compilation of material from private scrapbooks and letters found in the home of Hattie Fields after her death in 1963.[107]

According to Woody Allen (in a New York Times interview from January 30, 2000), W. C. Fields is one of six "genuine comic geniuses" he recognized as such in movie history, along with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Groucho and Harpo Marx, and Peter Sellers.[108]

The United States Postal Service issued a W.C. Fields commemorative stamp on the comedian's 100th birthday, in January 1980.[109]

Caricatures and imitations

Filmography

Information for this filmography is derived from the book, W. C. Fields: A Life on Film, by Ronald J. Fields. All films are feature length except where noted.

Release date Title Role Director Notes
1915 (untitled film) Himself Ed Wynn Short film presented as part of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1915; lost film
September 19, 1915 Pool Sharks The pool shark Edwin Middleton One reel; story by W.C. Fields; extant
October 3, 1915 His Lordship's Dilemma Remittance man William Haddock One reel; extant? (print with French title cards found in 2006)
October 27, 1924 Janice Meredith A British sergeant E. Mason Hopper extant
August 2, 1925 Sally of the Sawdust Professor Eustace P. McGargle D. W. Griffith extant
October 7, 1925 That Royle Girl Daisy Royle's father D. W. Griffith lost film
May 24, 1926 It's the Old Army Game Elmer Prettywillie A. Edward Sutherland Story by J.P. McEvoy and W.C. Fields; extant
October 26, 1926 So's Your Old Man Samuel Bisbee Gregory La Cava extant
January 31, 1927 The Potters Pa Potter Fred C. Newmeyer lost film
August 20, 1927 Running Wild Elmer Finch Gregory La Cava extant
October 17, 1927 Two Flaming Youths J. G. "Gabby" Gilfoil John S. Waters lost film
March 3, 1928 Tillie's Punctured Romance The Ringmaster A. Edward Sutherland extant?
May 7, 1928 Fools for Luck Richard Whitehead Charles F. Reisner extant?
August 22, 1930 The Golf Specialist J. Effingham Bellwether Monte Brice Two reels; story by W.C. Fields (uncredited)
October 26, 1931 Her Majesty, Love Bela Toerrek William Dieterle
July 8, 1932 Million Dollar Legs President of Klopstokia Edward Cline
October 2, 1932 If I Had a Million Rollo La Rue Norman Taurog
October 9, 1932 The Dentist Himself Leslie Pearce Two reels; story by W.C. Fields (uncredited)
March 3, 1933 The Fatal Glass of Beer Mr. Snavely Clyde Bruckman Two reels; story by W.C. Fields (uncredited)
April 21, 1933 The Pharmacist Mr. Dilweg Arthur Ripley Two reels; story by W.C. Fields (uncredited)
June 2, 1933 International House Professor Quail A. Edward Sutherland
June 24, 1933 Hip Action Himself George Marshall One reel
July 28, 1933 The Barber Shop Cornelius O'Hare Arthur Ripley Two reels; story by W.C. Fields (uncredited)
September 8, 1933 Hollywood on Parade No. B-2 Himself Louis Lewyn One reel
October 13, 1933 Tillie and Gus Augustus Q. Winterbottom Francis Martin Fields as contributing writer (uncredited)
October 22, 1933 Alice in Wonderland Humpty Dumpty Norman McLeod
February 9, 1934 Six of a Kind Sheriff "Honest John" Hoxley Leo McCarey
April 6, 1934 You're Telling Me! Sam Bisbee Erle C. Kenton Fields as contributing writer (uncredited)
April 27, 1934 Hollywood on Parade No. B-10 Himself Louis Lewyn One reel
July 13, 1934 The Old Fashioned Way The Great (Marc Antony) McGonigle William Beaudine Story by "Charles Bogle" (W.C. Fields)
October 19, 1934 Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch Mr. C. Ellsworth Stubbins Norman Taurog
November 30, 1934 It's a Gift Harold Bissonette Norman McLeod Original story by "Charles Bogle" (W.C. Fields)
October 13, 1935 David Copperfield Wilkins Micawber George Cukor
March 22, 1935 Mississippi Commodore Orlando Jackson A. Edward Sutherland
July 26, 1935 Man on the Flying Trapeze Ambrose Wolfinger Clyde Bruckman Story by "Charles Bogle" (W.C. Fields)
June 19, 1936 Poppy Professor Eustace P. McGargle A. Edward Sutherland
February 18, 1938 The Big Broadcast of 1938 T. Frothingill Bellows
S. B. Bellows		 Mitchell Leisen
February 17, 1939 You Can't Cheat an Honest Man Larson E. Whipsnade George Marshall Story by "Charles Bogle" (W.C. Fields)
February 9, 1940 My Little Chickadee Cuthbert J. Twillie Edward Cline Bar scene written by W.C. Fields
November 29, 1940 The Bank Dick Egbert Sousè Edward Cline Story by "Mahatma Kane Jeeves" (W.C. Fields)
October 10, 1941 Never Give a Sucker an Even Break The Great Man Edward Cline Original story by "Otis Criblecoblis" (W.C. Fields). Final starring film.
unreleased The Laziest Golfer Himself (unknown) Footage shot but never assembled
October 30, 1942 Tales of Manhattan Professor Postlewhistle Julien Duvivier Guest sequence with Fields cut from original release, restored for home video., (uncredited)
May 5, 1944 Follow the Boys Himself (Guest sequence) A. Edward Sutherland Fields revived his old trick pool table routine
June 21, 1944 Song of the Open Road Himself (Guest sequence) S. Sylvan Simon Fields juggled for a few moments
June 30, 1944 Sensations of 1945 Himself (Guest sequence) Andrew L. Stone Fields revived part of his old "Caledonian Express" sketch (last appearance)

References

  1. ↑ "Fields always observed his birthday on January 29, and his death certificate confirms this .... When Fields married Harriet Veronica Hughes in San Francisco, on April 8, 1900, he was twenty years old and, under California law, could not enter into a marriage without parental consent. He therefore gave his birthdate as April 9, 1879, and often used this date thereafter. However, when he applied for a passport later that same year, he swore under oath that his correct birthdate was January 29, 1880." Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 525
  2. ↑ Obituary Variety, January 1, 1947, page 46.
  3. ↑ Simon Louvish, Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W. C. Fields, 1997, pp. 29–30.
  4. ↑ "The Myth Of W.c.". Sun Sentinel.
  5. ↑ Muster roll of 72nd PA, which did not fight at Lookout Mountain! A photo of James in a Civil War period uniform, c. 1900, shows him missing his right index finger. Reproduced p. 29, Louvish.
  6. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 8.
  7. 1 2 Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 31.
  8. ↑ 1880 census, Philadelphia, p. 129A
  9. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 14; Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 42.
  10. 1 2 3 Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 34.
  11. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 12.
  12. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 16–17.
  13. 1 2 "W.C. Fields Biography". The Biography Channel. UK.
  14. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, pp. 10, 42.
  15. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 24, 26.
  16. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 69.
  17. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 68–69.
  18. ↑ Trav, S.D. No Applause—Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, 1965, p. 146.
  19. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 26.
  20. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 30.
  21. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 46–47.
  22. ↑ "W.C. Fields Biography". The Biography Channel. UK.
  23. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 488.
  24. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 54.
  25. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p, 72.
  26. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 85.
  27. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 87.
  28. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 495.
  29. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 99–100.
  30. ↑ "Ally Sloper: The First Comics Superstar?". imageandnarrative.be.
  31. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 103–105.
  32. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 106, 166.
  33. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 272.
  34. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, pp. 274–275.
  35. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, pp. 280, 282, 286.
  36. ↑ Everson, William K. The Art of W.C. Fields. 1967, New York: Bonanza Books. p. 44.
  37. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, pp. 205, 312.
  38. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, pp. 340–341.
  39. ↑ Everson, William K. The Art of W.C. Fields. 1967, New York: Bonanza Books. p. 85.
  40. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 362.
  41. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 259.
  42. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, pp. 389–390.
  43. ↑ "W. C. Fields' Widow Wins. Entitled to Half $771,000, Though Long Estranged, Judge Rules.". New York Times. July 8, 1949.
  44. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 48.
  45. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 50.
  46. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 82.
  47. ↑ Canby, Vincent (February 19, 1966). "Son of W. C. Fields Toasts Him in Tea. Comic's Namesake, Here for Festival, Is a Teetotaler.". New York Times. William Claude Fields, Jr., the only child of the man who once said that anybody who hates children cannot be all bad, sat somewhat uncomfortably late yesterday afternoon in the eighth-floor lounge at the Gallery of Modern Art, sipping a cup of tea, a beverage his father might have chosen only in extremis.
  48. ↑ Jordan, S. C. (2008). Hollywood's original rat pack The bards of Bundy Drive. Lanham, Maryland [u.a.]: Scarecrow Press. p. 151. ISBN 0-8108-6032-5
  49. ↑ Claude W. Dukenfield, age 30 at 3920 North Marshall Street, Philadelphia, age 30, an actor, in the tenth year of his first marriage. His wife is not present in the household.
  50. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 178, 474.
  51. ↑ Gehring, W. D. (1994). Groucho and W.C. Fields Huckster comedians. Jackson, Miss: University Press of Mississippi. p. 70. ISBN 0-585-19049-6
  52. ↑ "FINAL TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM REXFORD FIELDS MORRIS: 1917 - 2014 - Facebook". facebook.com.
  53. ↑ "An Interview with WC Fields' 94 year old son.". YouTube. May 29, 2012. The son had four children.
  54. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 121.
  55. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 203.
  56. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 215.
  57. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 347.
  58. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, pp. 364–365, 472–473.
  59. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 116–117.
  60. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 260, 263.
  61. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 264, 300.
  62. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 230.
  63. ↑ Silvers, P. This Laugh Is on Me: The Phil Silvers Story. Prentice-Hall (1973), p. 116. ISBN 0139191003
  64. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 392.
  65. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 393.
  66. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 464.
  67. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 293–294.
  68. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 355–70.
  69. ↑ W.C. Fields Radio recordings Archived June 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  70. ↑ Fields was known among his friends as "Bill". Fields played himself in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, and his "niece" called him "Uncle Bill". (In one scene he introduced himself: "I'm W.C., uh, Bill Fields").
  71. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p.426.
  72. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 434–435.
  73. 1 2 Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 472.
  74. ↑ "W. C. Fields: Behind the Laughter". Biography. August 8, 1994. A&E.
  75. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 415–416.
  76. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 454–456.
  77. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 466.
  78. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 471.
  79. ↑ The Early Years of the Les Paul Legacy, 1915-1963 By Robb Lawrence. Hal Leonard Books, New York NY
  80. ↑ "W.C. Fields, 66, Dies. Famed as Comedian. Mimicry Star of the Films Since 1924 Got Start as a $5-a-Week Juggler. Rarely Followed Script. Raspy Remarks and 'Know-It-All' Perspective Made Him Nation-Wide Character.". New York Times. December 26, 1946. Pasadena, California, December 25, 1946 (Associated Press) W.C. Fields, the comedian whose deadpan gestures, raspy remarks and "never give a sucker an even break" characterizations made him a showman beloved the nation over, died today at the age of 66.
  81. ↑ Monti, C. W. C. Fields & Me. Prentice-Hall (1971), p. 218. ISBN 0139444548
  82. ↑ Adamson, J (dir.) W.C. Fields - Straight Up. ASIN 1559746777.
  83. 1 2 Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 481.
  84. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 481–482.
  85. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p.474.
  86. ↑ Buscombe, Edward, and Rob White. (2003). British Film Institute film classics. T. 1. London: Fitzroy Dearborn. p. 269. ISBN 1579583288.
  87. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 486.
  88. ↑ Lines 1 and 3 are in small caps in the original. The article is reprinted in Vanity Fair: Selections from America's Most Memorable Magazine, edited by Cleveland Amory and Frederic Bradlee, pages 102–103. Viking Press, 1960
  89. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 3–4.
  90. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 303–307, 331–332.
  91. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, pp. 247, 495.
  92. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, pp. 190, 205, 312.
  93. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 313.
  94. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, pp. 31, 346.
  95. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 211.
  96. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 3.
  97. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 191.
  98. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 329.
  99. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 300.
  100. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 378.
  101. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 424.
  102. ↑ Everson, William K. (1967). The Art of W.C. Fields. New York: Bonanza Books. p. 81. ISBN 0-517-01232-4.
  103. ↑ Jan Duggan (actress). omnilexica.com. Retrieved September 26, 2013.
  104. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 373–376.
  105. ↑ Mell, Eila (2005). Casting might-have-beens: a film by film directory of actors considered for roles given to others. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. p. 132. ISBN 0786420170.
  106. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, p. 487.
  107. ↑ Louvish, Simon. Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, 1999, Faber & Faber, p. 11.
  108. ↑ "Here A Comic Genius, There A Comic Genius". nytimes.com. January 30, 2000.
  109. ↑ Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: A. Knopf, 2003, pp. 491–492.
  110. ↑ "Lucky Luke - Ballad Of the Daltons (1978) - English 4/8". YouTube. October 17, 2009.
  111. ↑ Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's television, the first thirty-five years, 1946–1981. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. p. 199. ISBN 0810815575.

Further reading

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