W.C. Fields
W.C. Fields , of its true name William Claude Dukenfield , is a Jongleur, Humoriste of light comedy, Scénariste and American Acteur born the January 29th 1880 in Darby, in Banlieue of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, E. - U.) and deceased the December 25th 1946 with Pasadena (California, the USA) of the continuations of a stomachic Hémorragie. It is buried in Glendale (California).
Young skilful teenager Juggler and player of Billiards, it is made engage in a theater and carries out a few years later rounds in all the country like in Europe at the beginning of the century. Equipped voluntarily with dépenaillés clothes, of extravagant top hats which will return it celebrates, of a false moustache of black color (whereas it is fair), its original feats of skill are worth an international success to him. In 1915 it settles with New York and begins in a cabaret and in parallel its career from Acteur to the Silent film. It joined Hollywood in 1931 after its first talking film and has four years to later play its more famous part in David Copperfield carried out by George Cukor. Weakened by several diseases worsened by its leaning alcoholic, it must stop some time. It is then with the radio that one can hear it and success that it meets propels it there again on the boards where it still makes some films of which it writes the scenarios, before the diseases do not catch up with it.
Eccentric character, with the characteristic aggressive voice, the paces of clown with his clothes and his swollen nose, it likes to play of the caricatural characters who escape with the hands of the Réalisateur S and producing. Travelling acrobat-born, it often includes in its roles with the cinema its feats of skill which made its fame at its beginnings and remains in the memories as a charismatic figure of the beginnings of the cinema which will influence many caricaturists, imitateurs and even scenario writers as for example Woody Allen for its film Prends the sorrel and draws .
Biography
Wire of James Dukenfield, immigrating English, and from Kate Felton, native from Philadelphia, the William young person spends only four years to the school before having to help his/her father, commercial travelling of fruit and vegetables, to provide for the financial needs for the household. Thereafter it accepts in parallel of other small employment: deliveryman of ice, newsvendor, in a store of cigars and a room of Billiards S where he learns this discipline and becomes a skilful player thereafter. It is also the time during which it develops its capacities of Jongleur after having attended a representation of a Master of the kind. Involving itself first of all with the fruit and vegetables of the display of his father, it comes from there thereafter to use all that is with range of its hands. But the family climate is heavy and the brawls with his/her father frequent. At 11 years, considering to be a better juggler than all those which it can see in the city, it is made engage in an amusement park of the suburbs with Norristown for weekly wages of 5 $ which do not even enable him to return to Philadelphia every evening. During the summer of this year 1891, it learns that talents are required with Atlantic City on the coast and there takes down an engagement in a theater. When the customers are done rare, it takes part in shows of drowning on the beach in front of the establishment: alleged victims, taken along in the room, invariably trailing with their continuation the crowd curious and assoiffée by the event. To diversify its representations and to make gravitational its spectacle (the turns of jugglers are very popular at the time), he imagines to pretend of the failures and catches up with the objects with his feet or with the rebound, by movements of legs which can appear them-even accidental to the spectator. The difficulty and the control of execution of its turns make that criticism is unanimous as for its qualities of juggler and will be worth to him later to enter to the Pantheon of the discipline. It is the same with billiards as it assiduously practices at the point to create turns there too there, as that to strike the ball so that it jumps behind, high above the table, then rebounds on part of its body before entering the pocket and this, with several alternatives. Presenting itself initially under the pseudonym of Wm. C. Felton , it takes its final name of scene quickly: W.C. Fields .
In 1899 it integrates a troop of light comedy in rounds through the country during which, in addition to implementing his talents of juggler and with billiards (which it will have opportunity of beginning again with the screen), it also pours in burlesques representations. During these displacements, perhaps with fear of being stolen, it starts to open bank accounts in each crossed city, at the point to have some, seems it, several hundreds. It is as during this period as it meets Harriet Hughes, member of the troop, that it marries the August 8th 1900 and of which it makes his assistant. In 1901, they carry out their first round in Europe and one can see it in the years which follow to the De luxe hotel of London or in famous the Cabaret Paris IEN, the Folies Shepherdess, the same night as Charlie Chaplin and Maurice Chevalier. He has as the badge honor to be invited the same evening as Sarah Bernhardt to carry out a representation with Buckingham Palace for the king Edouard VII.
The July 28th 1904 sees the birth of his/her son W.C. “Claude” Fields. Whereas Harriet remains in Philadelphia, Fields continues the rounds but its long absences, allied with the conversion of his wife to a enthusiastic Catholicisme (it does not hold in very great regard the Religion S), gradually involve differences in opinion and incomprehension then a distance within the couple. Harriet, from its convictions, refuses the divorce to him and in front of its refusal to find a stable job, starts to discredit it near his/her son.
In 1915 it is fixed at New York and takes part until in 1921 in the Ziegfeld Follies, a spectacle inspired by that of the Madnesses Shepherdess, which proposes a succession of various representations (Trapéziste strong S, men, jugglers,…) intersected with musical female reviews to the Danse use vêtues very slightly. It is as this year as it begins with the Cinéma in a dumb produces by Gaumont, Pool Sharks of which it also takes part in the development of the scenario. Á to start from 1924 it plays during one year in the Musical comedy Poppy from which the following year a film adaptation will be drawn, Sally off the Sawdust , realized by D.W. Griffith and in which it holds a role. It turns 12 dumb men before his first speaking in 1930, The Golf Specialist and the revelation with the public of its so characteristic voice. The following year, with the decline of the light comedy due to the success of the radio, it settles close to Hollywood and signs a contract at Paramount Pictures with which it turns the majority as of its films. In 1935 it is contacted by MGM to interpret what will be its most famous role, Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield drawn from the Romance of Dickens, when Charles Laughton which was had a presentiment of for the character did not give satisfaction to the studio and was isolated.
Already for some time, Fields, by its squeaking humor, its nonconformism (it with the reputation not to follow the directives of only one of its roles) and its chronic alcoholism, gives birth to towards him from animosities within Paramount. In 1936, seriously patient, it must stop turning during one year and leaves even alcohol during this convalescence, but its contract, newcomer in the term, are not renewed. It turns then a moment to the radio and takes part in spontaneous shows which, to its surprise, return it again fameux.
For its return to the stage in You Can' T Cheat year Honest Man , in 1939, it signs at Universal and plays in films which are mainly written by and for him like The Bank Dick (1940) or Never Give has Sucker year Even Break (1941) and which took part in its fame until our days.
But the calls to moderation on behalf of its doctor do there nothing and W.C. Fields persists in its exaggerated alcohol consumption, of gin in particular. In the middle of the Years 1940, suffering several diseases (crises of Pneumonia, Cirrhosis,…) worsened by its excesses, it does not appear any more but sporadically until having to integrate a Sanatorium in 1945. During December 1946 it sinks in the Coma and awakes only briefly before dying the day of Christmas.
The man
Nonconformism, the sour tone and the caustic remarks of W.C. Fields are not a legend and are worth to him throughout its life few sympathies, irrefutable fact which it seems to seek with remarks of this quality: “I do not have prejudices. I hate everyone pareillement. ”. One in addition lends to him to hide microphones along the pavement in front of his residence which enable him to listen to the comments of its guests to leaving the dinners, comments to which it takes a malicious pleasure to refer when those are désobligeants the following time which it meets their author. Its chronic alcoholism also is famous, so much so that a medical syndrome which characterizes a rosacée associated with alcoholism bears today its name, but contrary to the common belief, its swollen red nose which gives him the air of a clown due to the alcohol but to this is not rosacée, a chronic skin trouble which can evolve/move at the man (as in his case) in a Rhinophyma, a puffiness of the nose. And a clown, it is indeed one: he will always keep a foot in the time of his beginning of career of travelling acrobat by often taking again with the screen his turns of antan or his style of light comedy, but when that joins drink, the effects can be devastating about it and certainly not with the tastes of everyone.
It is during a turning with Baby LeRoy that, benefitting from a temporary absence of the nurse, it pours an amount of gin in the feeding-bottle of the baby who will spend one day with dessoûler, incompetent to play. Acts as this one can well-sure only irritate the Paramount which will have however never to blame it for its immoderate consumption, because he will never be seen in a state of intoxication or out of him because of alcohol on a film set.
This rotten trick, as some of the roles that he interprets (in You Can' T Cheat year Honest Man or It' S.A. Gift ), sentences which he expresses in public (answering the question if he loves the children: “Ah yes… boiled or fried. ”) or what say of him his/her friends (“Somebody who hates the dogs and the children cannot be completely bad. ”) make it resemble a monster, but actually its acts prove all the opposite. Thus, when his Harriet wife openly discredits it near her son, Fields prefers to move away to avoid the spectacle afflicting with family scenes to him, relying on the reasoned judgment of the child to see with the passing of years where the truth in the remarks of his/her mother is. Besides it provides the needs of its family even after having left the residence of it, like it does it until the majority of the illegitimate son, William Rexford Fields Morris, who is born the August 15th 1917 from her connection with the dancer Bessie Poole, without to admit it nor agreeing to see it once this one become adult. In the same way, it gives to funds for a charity work to the profit “of white boys and girls orphan, in whom the religion would not be taught, of some type that it is”. The restriction on the orphan white coming from an unhappy combination of circumstance since it had just been stolen by one of its employees black, although it is known to treat all the races of the same level and to be publicly expressed many times in favor of the racial equality.
This avarice which is sometimes reproached to him is thus unjustified because it in addition always liberally helped his friends fallen into the need, but it is not less sparing since after her death and a surging legal battle between her family, her amante 14 years the actress Carlotta Monti and her illegitimate son, her heirs to right will have win and only keep her fortune estimated at 700 000 $.
As one can see it in the episode of the orphanage, the religion is not its cup of tea, which will have an influence in the rupture with his wife, and it enjoys to inform it its entourage. Shingling as with its practice, he answers a criticism made against Never Give has Sucker year Even Break by the Christian Science Monitor , showing film to have a “typical atmosphere of ideas scrambled by alcohol” by a sentence without call: “Wouldn't this be terrible if I quoted statistics worthy of confidence which proved that more people are made insane by religious hysteria that by the alcohol consumption? ”. Its relation with God is not less ambiguous since it will be surprised towards the end of its life with a Bible in the hands and will answer with a feature of humor, like being excused: “I looked at only if there were gaps. ”
W.C. Fields will traverse its life with the image of its roles, making fun of much things and this without kindness. He will survive the dumb man thanks to his voice which supports its sometimes burlesque style, heritage of his beginnings, playing with the words as for better putting the finger on the defects of the others (and them his). Eccentric with wish, being disguised with incredible clothes but which seem to belong to the one second nature, Fields is an icon impossible to circumvent of the cinema, witness one time old when excesses of any kind, even badly accepted, were still tolerated.
Rewards
- star on the Walk off Famed (cinema category) on Hollywood Boulevard with Hollywood (Los Angeles, California, E. - U.)
- quoted in the Juggling Hall off Famed , the Pantheon of the jugglers
Catalog of films
Actor
- 1915 : Pool Sharks of Edwin Middleton
- 1915: His Lordship' S Dilemma of William F. Haddock
- 1924: Janice Meredith of E. Mason Hopper
- 1925: Sally off the Sawdust ( Sally, girl of circus ) of D.W. Griffith
- 1926 : It' S the Old Army Range of A. Edward Sutherland
- 1926: So' S Your Old Man ( IEA, my aïeux! ) of Gregory Undermined It
- 1927: The Potters of Fred C. dumb Newmeyer
- 1927: Running Wild ( In the skin of the lion ) of Gregory Undermined It
- 1927: Two Flaming Youths of John Waters
- 1928: Tillie' S Punctured Lovesong of A. Edward Sutherland
- 1928: Fools for Luck of Charles dumb Reisner
- 1930: The Golf Specialist of Assembles Brice
- 1931: Her Majesty, Coils William Dieterle
- 1932: Million Dollar Legacy ( Olympic Madnesses ) of Edward F. Cline
- 1932: If I Had has Million ( If I had a million ) of James Cruze, H. Bruce Humberstone, Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Z. McLeod, Lothar Mendes, Stephen Roberts, William A. Seiter and Norman Taurog
- 1932: The Dentist of Leslie Pearce
- 1933: Fatal The Knell off Beer of Clyde Bruckman
- 1933: The Pharmacist of Arthur Ripley
- 1933: International House of A. Edward Sutherland
- 1933: To bore Shop Arthur Ripley
- 1933: Tillie and Gus of Francis Martin
- 1933: Alice in Wonderland ( Alice with the country of the wonders ) of Norman Z. McLeod
- 1933: Hip Action of George Marshall
- 1934: Six off has Kind ( Poker party ) of Leo McCarey
- 1934: You' Re Telling Me! of Erle C. Kenton
- 1934: The Old Fashioned Way of William Beaudine
- 1934: Mrs. Wiggs off the Cabbage Patch of Norman Taurog
- 1934 : It' S.A. Gift ( a rich person business ) of Norman Z. McLeod
- 1935: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiment, and Observation off David Copperfield, the Younger ( David Copperfield ) of George Cukor
- 1935: the Mississippi of A. Edward Sutherland
- 1935: Man one the Flying Trapezoid ( Joy of the family ) of Clyde Bruckman
- 1936: Poppy of A. Edward Sutherland
- 1938: The Big Broadcast off 1938 of Mitchell Leisen
- 1939 : You Can' T Cheat year Honest Man of George Marshall
- 1940: My Little Chickadee ( My small chick cherished ) of Edward F. Cline
- 1940: The Bank Dick of Edward F. Cline
- 1941: Never Give has Sucker year Even Break of Edward F. Cline
- 1942: off Bruise Manhattan ( Six destinies ) of Julien Duvivier
- 1944: Follow the Servant boys of A. Edward Sutherland
- 1944: Song off the Open Road of S. Sylvan Simon
- 1944: Feelings off 1945 of Andrew L. musical Stone
Realizer
- 1935 : Man one the Flying Trapezoid of Clyde Bruckman
Scenario writer
- 1915 : Pool Sharks of Edwin Middleton
- 1926: It' S the Old Army Range of A. Edward Sutherland
- 1930: The Golf Specialist of Assembles Brice
- 1932: The Dentist of Leslie Pearce
- 1933: Singing Boxer of Leslie Pearce
- 1933: Too Many Highballs of Clyde Bruckman
- 1933: Fatal The Knell off Beer of Clyde Bruckman
- 1933: To bore Shop Arthur Ripley
- 1934: The Old Fashioned Way of William Beaudine
- 1934 : It' S.A. Gift ( a rich person business ) of Norman Z. McLeod
- 1935: Man one the Flying Trapezoid ( Joy of the family ) of Clyde Bruckman
- 1939: You Can' T Cheat year Honest Man of George Marshall
- 1940: My Little Chickadee ( My small chick cherished ) of Edward F. Cline
- 1940: The Bank Dick of Edward F. Cline
- 1941: Never Give has Sucker year Even Break of Edward F. Cline
Sentences
- “never work with an animal or a child. ”
- “One should never re-examine or hear of his/her children. Never. ”
- “It is a woman who pushed me to drink. I never had the courtesy to thank it. ”
- Questionné on the fact that he never drinks water: “Because the fish procreate inside. ” is
- “Which the demon which put pineapple juice in my pineapple juice? ”
- “always Take along with you a bottle of Bourbon in the event of bite of snake, in addition always take along a small snake. ”
- “Once… in the wild regions of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were constrained to live only of food and water lasting of the days. ”
- “Good blood, I never vote for anybody. I vote always against. ”
- “the only thing which a lawyer does not call into question is the legitimacy of his/her mother. ”
- Its wish of epitaph: “As a whole, I will be better in Philadelphia. ”
- If I drink, it is to return the other interesting ones.
- Plus men drowned in alcohol than in the sea.
Anecdotes
- One rather often finds mentions relative to its year of birth which indicate in an erroneous way 1879, which is amongst other things contradicted by the inscription on its tomb.
- It often signs its scenarios under whimsical names: Charles Bogle, Otis Criblecoblis or Mahatma Kane Jeeves, a word game of its beginning of career based on “My hat, my duck, Jeeves” ( My hat, my cane, Jeeves ).
- a stamp of 15 hundreds is made with its effigy and is published the January 29th 1980 to celebrate the centenary of its birth.
- has a representation waxes some in Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, in the South-east of Hollywood.
- Appears on the small pocket of the album of the Beatles Sgt Pepper' S Lonely Hearts Club Band .
- It is caricatured by Morris and Rene Goscinny in the album Western Circus of Lucky Luke under the features of Erasmus Mulligan, the director of the circus. The Cartoon appears in the review Pilote as from 1969.
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