Margaret Dumont
Actor
Biography
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).
Filmography
A Night at the Opera
as Mrs. Claypool 1935
Animal Crackers
as Mrs. Rittenhouse 1930
A Day at the Races
as Emily Upjohn 1937
The Cocoanuts
as Mrs. Potter 1929
Auntie Mame
as Noblewoman in Play (uncredited) 1958
What a Way to Go!
as Mrs. Foster 1964
At the Circus
as Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury 1939
The Big Store
as Martha Phelps 1941
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage) 1976
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
as Mrs. Hemogloben 1941
Tales of Manhattan
as Mme. Langehanke (uncredited) 1942
Bathing Beauty
as Mrs. Allenwood 1944
The Dancing Masters
as Louise Harlan 1943
Little Giant
as Mrs. Hendrickson 1946
The Horn Blows at Midnight
as Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder 1945
Zotz!
as Persephone Updike 1962