Margaret Dumont

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Margaret Dumont (* 20th October 1882 as Daisy Juliette Baker in New York ; † 6. March 1965 in Hollywood , California ) was an American actress who primarily by their comic roles on the side of the Marx Brothers is remembered .

Life

Margaret Dumont was born in New York under the name Daisy Juliette Baker, but grew up in the southern states under her godfather - the writer Joel Chandler Harris . After trying her hand at being an opera singer with moderate success in her youth, she soon switched to acting at the beginning of the century. In her youth she was considered a beauty and played comic roles in vaudeville theaters. In 1910 she married the rich industrialist John Moller Jr. and initially retired from the stage. But after her husband died of the Spanish flu in 1918 , the widow returned to show business. The actress remained unmarried for the rest of her life.

In the 1920s, Dumont had several hits with comic character roles on Broadway . A turning point in her career came in 1925 when writer George S. Kaufman cast the actress in The Cocoanuts alongside the Marx Brothers . Then a long partnership developed between the four brothers and Dumont, so she played the role of Mrs. Rittenhouse in the film Animal Crackers in 1928 . During the 1930s and 1940s, she played in seven of the 13 Marx Brothers films as a counterpart to Groucho, who tried to flirt with her in every film and insulted her at the same time. Dumont's role was always the widowed, rich grand lady of the world; thus she was always a mockery of the brothers. Since she also presented herself as a lady of the world outside of the screen, she became a victim of her jokes there too, despite the friendship with the brothers. Groucho reported that they stole the wig of their bald colleague while on tour, so that Dumont had to leave the train with a scarf around his head.

Dumont also played apart from the Marx Brothers in 50 other movies, where she mostly played the high society lady in comical supporting roles. She starred alongside other comedians such as WC Fields in Don't Give a Fool a Chance (1941), Laurel and Hardy in Die Tanzmeister , Danny Kaye in Up In Arms (1944), and Abbott and Costello in Little Giant (1946). Dumont was on television with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis during the 1950s . She remained active into old age, playing her last role as the mother of Shirley MacLaine in the 1964 comedy Always With Another. The following year, she died of a heart attack at the age of 82.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Margaret Dumont at Moviefanfare ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.moviefanfare.com
  2. ↑ Margaret Dumont
personal data
SURNAME Dumont, Margaret
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baker, Daisy Juliette (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York , United States
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1965
Place of death Hollywood , Los Angeles , California , United States