Movies List
TV Show List
What a Way to Go!

as Mrs. Foster

1964
Zotz!

as Persephone Updike

1962
Shake, Rattle and Rock!

as Georgianna Fitzdingle

1956
The Horn Blows at Midnight

as Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder

1945
Sunset in El Dorado

as Aunt Dolly / Aunt Arabella

1945
The Dancing Masters

as Louise Harlan

1943
Born to Sing

as Mrs. E. V. Lawson

1942
Rhythm Parade

as Ophelia MacDougal

1942
The Big Store

as Martha Phelps

1941
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break

as Mrs. Hemogloben

1941
At the Circus

as Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury

1939
A Day at the Races

as Emily Upjohn

1937
Anything Goes

as Mrs. Wentworth

1936
Song and Dance Man

as Mrs. Whitney

1936
A Night at the Opera

as Mrs. Claypool

1935
Fifteen Wives

as Sybilla Crum

1934
Duck Soup

as Gloria Teasdale

1933
Animal Crackers

as Mrs. Rittenhouse

1930
Margaret Dumont Margaret Dumont

Birthday

1882-10-20

Place of Birth

Brooklyn, New York, USA

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).
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