Margaret Dumont
AKA: Daisy Juliette Baker
Birthday: 1882-10-19
Died: 1965-03-06
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
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
Character: Gloria Teasdale
Character: Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury
Character: (archive footage)
Character: Mrs. Rittenhouse
Character: Mrs. Hemogloben
Character: Mrs. Hendrickson
Character: Mrs. Allenwood
Character: Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder
Character: (archive footage)
Character: Mrs. Hendricks (uncredited)
Character: Self (archive footage)
Character: Mrs. Culpepper
Character: Mrs. Willoughby
Character: Mrs. Bell-Rivington
Character: Mrs. Wentworth
Character: Pantomime Teacher
Character: Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne
Character: Mrs. Abernathy
Character: Woman in Audience Yelling 'Get Off the Stage' (uncredited)
Character: Flo Faulkner - Landlady
Character: Martha Arlington
Character: Mrs. Croxton-Lynch
Character: Mrs. E. V. Lawson
Character: Duchess Sophie (uncredited)
Character: Persephone Updike
Character: Georgianna Fitzdingle
Character: Mrs. Murchison (uncredited)
Character: Ophelia MacDougal
Character: The Queen of Deleria (uncredited)
Character: Self (archiveFootage)
Character: Wedding Guest (uncredited)
Character: Mrs. Van Updyke
Character: Aunt Dolly / Aunt Arabella
Character: Mme. Langehanke (uncredited)
Character: Self (archive footage)
Character: Aristocrat (uncredited)
Character: (archive footage)
Character: Mrs. Franklin Evans
Character: Noblewoman in Play (uncredited)
Character: Blanche Ledyard