Margaret Dumont 10/19/1882 , (142 years old) in Brooklyn, New York, USA

Known for department

Acting

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).

poster Duck Soup (1933)

Gloria Teasdale

poster Animal Crackers (1930)

Mrs. Rittenhouse

poster Reckless (1935)

Woman in Audience Yelling 'Get Off the Stage' (uncredited)

poster At the Circus (1939)

Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury

poster The Big Store (1941)

Martha Phelps

poster Bathing Beauty (1944)

Mrs. Allenwood

poster Little Giant (1946)

Mrs. Hendrickson

poster Hollywood: The Dream Factory (1972)

Self (archive footage)

poster About Face (1942)

Mrs. Culpepper

poster The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)

Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder

poster Anything Goes (1936)

Mrs. Wentworth

poster Wise Girl (1937)

Mrs. Bell-Rivington

poster Rendezvous (1935)

Mrs. Hendricks (uncredited)

poster Up in Arms (1944)

Mrs. Willoughby

poster High Flyers (1937)

Martha Arlington

poster Dramatic School (1938)

Pantomime Teacher

poster Youth on Parole (1937)

Mrs. Abernathy

poster Fifteen Wives (1934)

Sybilla Crum

poster Sing Your Worries Away (1942)

Flo Faulkner - Landlady

poster The Hollywood Clowns (1979)

(archive footage)

poster Three for Bedroom C (1952)

Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne

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