Fields, W. C.

Fields, W. C. (1880-1946), American actor and comedian, known for his role of the gravel-voiced, rapier-witted misanthrope who loathed children and dogs and opposed all figures of authority. Born William Claude Dukenfield in Philadelphia, Fields did not, contrary to his own self-invented myth, run away from his harsh father, an English immigrant, to live in poverty on the street. Inspired by the vaudeville shows of the day, he began his life as a professional juggler at the age of 18, and played the variety circuits in the United States, Europe, South Africa, and Australia between 1901 and 1914. Between 1915 and 1925 he appeared in several versions of the Ziegfeld Follies, and starred in nine silent film features, beginning with Sally of the Sawdust, directed by D. W. Griffith, in 1925. Fields achieved his greatest success, however, in the 25 talking pictures he starred in from 1930, including 4 short Mack Sennett comedies, as well as David Copperfield (1935), My Little Chickadee, and The Bank Dick (both 1940). He encouraged the mistaken belief, widely held after his death, that his curmudgeonly anti-authoritarian character was the same off-screen as on. In 1973 an “autobiographical” collection of his unpublished essays, letters, and vaudeville sketches was published by his grandson under the title W. C. Fields by Himself.