Margaret Dumont
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Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
Margaret Dumont would probably consider it a tragedy that she is best-known for her performances as the ultimate straight woman in seven of the Marx Brothers' films (including most of their best). By all accounts she never understood their jokes (offscreen and on), which is of course a major reason why she's so funny. Apart from a small role in a 1917 Dickens adaptation, she spent her early career on the stage, ending up with the Marxes in the late 1920s in the stage versions of The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930), and was given a Paramount contract at the same time they were. She played similar roles alongside other great comedians, including W.C. Fields, Laurel & Hardy and Jack Benny and also played straight dramatic parts (her chief love), but few of them made much impact - it is as Groucho Marx's foil that she ranks among the immortals, and she died shortly after being reunited with him on "The Hollywood Palace" (1964).
Known for
Credits
What a Way to Go! (1964)
as Mrs. Foster
Bathing Beauty (1944)
as Mrs. Allenwood
A Night at the Opera (1935)
as Mrs. Claypool
A Day at the Races (1937)
as Emily Upjohn
Duck Soup (1933)
as Gloria Teasdale
Auntie Mame (1958)
as Noblewoman in Play (uncredited)
The Big Store (1941)
as Martha Phelps
That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)
as (archive footage)
At the Circus (1939)
as Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury
The Cocoanuts (1929)
as Mrs. Potter
Hollywood: The Dream Factory (1972)
as Self (archive footage)
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)
as Mrs. Hemogloben
Tales of Manhattan (1942)
as Mme. Langehanke (uncredited)
About Face (1942)
as Mrs. Culpepper
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1975)
as Self (archive footage)
Animal Crackers (1930)
as Mrs. Rittenhouse
Around the World with Nellie Bly (1960)
as Dowager #1
A Tale of Two Cities (1917)
as Aristocrat (uncredited)
Song and Dance Man (1936)
as Mrs. Whitney
Stop, You're Killing Me (1952)
as Mrs. Whitelaw
The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)
as Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder
Shake, Rattle and Rock! (1956)
as Georgianna Fitzdingle
The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell (1982)
as (archive footage)
Wise Girl (1937)
as Mrs. Bell-Rivington
The Dancing Masters (1943)
as Louise Harlan
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults (1999)
as (archive footage)
The Life of the Party (1937)
as Mrs. Penner
Sunset in El Dorado (1945)
as Aunt Dolly / Aunt Arabella
Little Giant (1946)
as Mrs. Hendrickson
The Girl Habit (1931)
as Blanche Ledyard
Up in Arms (1944)
as Mrs. Willoughby
Reckless (1935)
as Woman in Audience Yelling 'Get Off the Stage' (uncredited)
For Beauty's Sake (1941)
as Mrs. Franklin Evans
Born to Sing (1942)
as Mrs. E. V. Lawson
Storm at Daybreak (1933)
as Duchess Sophie (uncredited)
Kentucky Kernels (1934)
as Mrs. Baxter
Three for Bedroom C (1952)
as Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne
Anything Goes (1936)
as Mrs. Wentworth
Susie Steps Out (1946)
as Mrs. Starr
Sing Your Worries Away (1942)
as Flo Faulkner - Landlady
Zotz! (1962)
as Persephone Updike
Rendezvous (1935)
as Mrs. Hendricks (uncredited)
Seven Days Ashore (1944)
as Mrs. Croxton-Lynch
Dramatic School (1938)
as Pantomime Teacher
After Office Hours (1935)
as Mrs. Murchison (uncredited)
The Hollywood Clowns (1979)
as (archive footage)
High Flyers (1937)
as Martha Arlington
Gridiron Flash (1934)
as Mrs. Fields
Diamond Horseshoe (1945)
as Mrs. Standish
Fifteen Wives (1934)
as Sybilla Crum
Youth on Parole (1937)
as Mrs. Abernathy
Enemies of Women (1923)
as French Beauty
Wonderland of California (1933)
as Self
Arbor Day (1936)
as Woman Outside (uncredited)
Rhythm Parade (1942)
as Ophelia MacDougal
Here, Prince (1932)
as The Queen of Deleria (uncredited)
Gypsy Sweetheart (1935)
as Mrs. Van Updyke