Fields, W. C.

Fields, W. C. [né William Claude Dukenfield] (1879–1946), comedian. Born in Philadelphia, the great comic began his career in 1897 as a tramp juggler, an act he continued to develop and perform worldwide until 1914. For a time in 1905 he incorporated the routine into McIntyre and Heath's The Ham Tree. He played briefly in Watch Your Step (1914) before being signed by Florenz Ziegfeld, for whom he appeared in six editions of the Follies between 1915 and 1921, missing only the 1919 production. It was during these seasons that he largely abandoned his juggling to perfect the misanthropic character he is remembered for. A portly man with grayish blond hair, a bulbous nose, vulpine eyes, and a voice described as reedy or croaky, he clowned deadpan, with a bored, slightly haughty air. His characters were amoral and contemptuous of suckers, children, animals, teetotalers (he was a notorious drinker), and sentimentalists. Fields appeared in George White's Scandals of 1922, starred as Eustace McGargle in Poppy (1923), performed in the 1925 Follies and the Earl Carroll Vanities of 1928, and starred as Q. Q. Quayle in Ballyhoo (1930) before beginning his celebrated film and radio career. Between shows he continued to be a popular attraction in vaudeville. In the 1930s he made several immensely popular films and later appeared regularly on radio. Biography: W. C. Fields, James Curtis, 2003.