W.C. Fields
Biography
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 Dist...
Known For
Top 40 Movies
Janice Meredith
1924
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1983
The Fatal Glass of Beer
1933
Alice in Wonderland
1933
Two Flaming Youths
1927
Fools for Luck
1928
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
1990
The Circus: Premiere
1928
Tales of Manhattan
1942
David Copperfield
1935
The Movie Orgy
1968
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940
If I Had a Million
1932
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
1997
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
1939
Going Hollywood: The '30s
1984
Hooray for Hollywood
1976
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
1941
Million Dollar Legs
1932
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
1982
Show-Business at War
1943
Man on the Flying Trapeze
1935
The Old-Fashioned Way
1934
It's the Old Army Game
1926
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
1999
The Dentist
1932
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
1934
International House
1933
Mississippi
1935
Song of the Open Road
1944
Her Majesty, Love
1931
Down Memory Lane
1949
It's a Gift
1934
The Bank Dick
1940
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975
Follow the Boys
1944
Sensations of 1945
1944
Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her
1994
The Hollywood Clowns
1979