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Acting
October 19, 1882
March 6, 1965
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).
Self (archiveFootage)
1999
(archive footage)
1982
(archive footage)
1979
(archive footage)
1976
Self (archive footage)
1975
Self (archive footage)
1972
Mrs. Foster
1964
Persephone Updike
1962
Noblewoman in Play (uncredited)
1958
1958
as Self (archiveFootage)
as (archive footage)
as (archive footage)
as (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Mrs. Foster
as Persephone Updike
as Noblewoman in Play (uncredited)
as Georgianna Fitzdingle
as Self
as Mrs. Whitelaw
as Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne
as Self
as Mrs. Hendrickson
as Aunt Dolly / Aunt Arabella
as Mrs. Standish
as Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder
as Mrs. Allenwood
as Mrs. Croxton-Lynch
as Mrs. Willoughby
as Louise Harlan
as Ophelia MacDougal
as Mme. Langehanke (uncredited)
as Mrs. Culpepper
as Flo Faulkner - Landlady
as Mrs. E. V. Lawson
as Mrs. Hemogloben
as Martha Phelps
as Mrs. Franklin Evans
as Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury
as Pantomime Teacher
as Mrs. Bell-Rivington
as Martha Arlington
as Mrs. Abernathy
as Mrs. Penner
as Emily Upjohn
as Woman Outside (uncredited)
as Mrs. Whitney
as Mrs. Wentworth
as Mrs. Claypool
as Mrs. Hendricks (uncredited)
as Woman in Audience Yelling 'Get Off the Stage' (uncredited)
as Mrs. Van Updyke
as Mrs. Murchison (uncredited)
as Mrs. Baxter
as Mrs. Fields
as Sybilla Crum
as Wedding Guest (uncredited)
as Gloria Teasdale
as Duchess Sophie (uncredited)
as Self
as The Queen of Deleria (uncredited)
as Blanche Ledyard
as Mrs. Rittenhouse
as Mrs. Potter
as French Beauty
as Aristocrat (uncredited)