Margaret Dumont

Margaret Dumont

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).

Known For: Acting

Born: Brooklyn, New York, USA, 1882-10-19

Died: 1965-03-06

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1917	A Tale of Two Cities	Aristocrat (uncredited)	48
2	1923	Enemies of Women	French Beauty	52
3	1929	The Cocoanuts	Mrs. Potter	64
4	1930	Animal Crackers	Mrs. Rittenhouse	69
5	1931	The Girl Habit	Blanche Ledyard	0
6	1932	Here, Prince	The Queen of Deleria (uncredited)	0
7	1933	Wonderland of California	Self	0
8	1933	Storm at Daybreak	Duchess Sophie (uncredited)	58
9	1933	Duck Soup	Gloria Teasdale	73
10	1934	We're Rich Again	Wedding Guest (uncredited)	40
11	1934	Fifteen Wives	Sybilla Crum	10
12	1934	Gridiron Flash	Mrs. Fields	33
13	1934	Kentucky Kernels	Mrs. Baxter	61
14	1935	After Office Hours	Mrs. Murchison (uncredited)	64
15	1935	Gypsy Sweetheart	Mrs. Van Updyke	10
16	1935	Reckless	Woman in Audience Yelling 'Get Off the Stage' (uncredited)	53
17	1935	Rendezvous	Mrs. Hendricks (uncredited)	48
18	1935	A Night at the Opera	Mrs. Claypool	74
19	1936	Anything Goes	Mrs. Wentworth	53
20	1936	Song and Dance Man	Mrs. Whitney	0
21	1936	Arbor Day	Woman Outside (uncredited)	60
22	1937	A Day at the Races	Emily Upjohn	71
23	1937	The Life of the Party	Mrs. Penner	52
24	1937	Youth on Parole	Mrs. Abernathy	28
25	1937	High Flyers	Martha Arlington	70
26	1937	Wise Girl	Mrs. Bell-Rivington	70
27	1938	Dramatic School	Pantomime Teacher	62
28	1939	At the Circus	Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury	63
29	1941	For Beauty's Sake	Mrs. Franklin Evans	0
30	1941	The Big Store	Martha Phelps	62
31	1941	Never Give a Sucker an Even Break	Mrs. Hemogloben	69
32	1942	Born to Sing	Mrs. E. V. Lawson	50
33	1942	Sing Your Worries Away	Flo Faulkner - Landlady	55
34	1942	About Face	Mrs. Culpepper	60
35	1942	Tales of Manhattan	Mme. Langehanke (uncredited)	63
36	1942	Rhythm Parade	Ophelia MacDougal	0
37	1943	The Dancing Masters	Louise Harlan	60
38	1944	Up in Arms	Mrs. Willoughby	60
39	1944	Seven Days Ashore	Mrs. Croxton-Lynch	45
40	1944	Bathing Beauty	Mrs. Allenwood	58
41	1945	The Horn Blows at Midnight	Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder	58
42	1945	Diamond Horseshoe	Mrs. Standish	40
43	1945	Sunset in El Dorado	Aunt Dolly / Aunt Arabella	42
44	1946	Little Giant	Mrs. Hendrickson	53
45	1952	Three for Bedroom C	Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne	0
46	1952	Stop, You're Killing Me	Mrs. Whitelaw	50
47	1956	Shake, Rattle and Rock!	Georgianna Fitzdingle	46
48	1958	Auntie Mame	Noblewoman in Play (uncredited)	70
49	1962	Zotz!	Persephone Updike	57
50	1964	What a Way to Go!	Mrs. Foster	71
51	1972	Hollywood: The Dream Factory	Self (archive footage)	60
52	1975	Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?	Self (archive footage)	57
53	1976	That's Entertainment, Part II	(archive footage)	69
54	1979	The Hollywood Clowns	(archive footage)	0
55	1982	The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell	(archive footage)	0
56	1999	Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults	Self (archiveFootage)	0

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1950	The Colgate Comedy Hour	Self	68
2	1951	Racket Squad		60
3	1956	The Dinah Shore Chevy Show	Self	60
4	1958	The Donna Reed Show		62

Margaret Dumont

Film

Television