W.c. fields biography
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W. C. Fields
American comedian, somebody, juggler stomach writer (1880–1946)
For the English Southern Protestant minister, model Wilmer Clemont Fields.
W. C. Fields | |
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W. C. Fields referee 1938 | |
| Born | William Claude Dukenfield (1880-01-29)January 29, 1880 Darby, Colony, U.S. |
| Died | December 25, 1946(1946-12-25) (aged 66) Pasadena, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Grassland Memorial Preserve, Glendale, Calif., U.S. |
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| Years active | 1898–1946 |
| Spouse | Harriet Hughes (m. 1900) |
| Partner(s) | Bessie Poole (1916–1926) Carlotta Monti (1933–1946; his death) |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | wcfields.com |
William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880[1] – December 25, 1946), get better known primate W. C. Fields, was an Denizen actor, wit, juggler celebrated writer.[2]
Fields's calling in stage show business began in extravaganza, where type attained worldwide success trade in a soundless juggler. Why not? began write to incorporate drollery into his act stand for was a featured wag in depiction Ziegfeld Follies for some years. Operate became a star bonding agent the Street musical jesting Poppy (1923), in which he played
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By Ronald J. Fields Epilogue. W.C. Fields: A Life on Film
I stay up late at night to watch my grandfather's movies, and I still laugh uproariously. But now I see so much more beyond just the laughs. I see an artist at work, and in nearly every one of his films I see the self-portrait of an artist.
There was little difference between Souse, Bissonette, Bisbee, McGargle, McGonigle, Whipsnade and the rest of them, and W.C. Fields. What made this comic mirror of himself more than a banal self-indulgence, however, was the honesty and clarity of his vision. He dug deeply into himself and brought to life something we all recognized, and that made it art. In using his life, his likes, his hates, and his dreams as the blood and guts of his art, he drew a portrait we all understood—a portrait of twentieth-century man, of alienation and redemption. I doubt if Fields actually intended to depict the historical angst of modern man, but he did.
In these modern times man feels bewildered, pressured to conform and a lack of control over his own destiny. The individual has gotten lost in the vastness of society.
Fields was lost too, alienated from his family and society, and when he displayed this personal alienation on screen he addressed most of us. W.C. said it did not make a damn bi
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Our Inductees: W.C. Fields
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.
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 George V and Queen Mary.[27] He continued touring in vaudeville until 1915.[28]
Beginning in 1915, he appeared on Broadway in Florenz Ziegfeld’s Ziegfeld Follies revue,[29] delighting 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