Knowra W. C. Fields W. C. Fields W. C. Fields (1880–1946) was an American comedian, actor, and writer whose vaudeville routines and films made his misanthropic, hard-drinking persona a comic signature.
The Bank Dick : A 1940 comedy film starring W. C. Fields as a shiftless man who accidentally becomes a bank guard. Fields’s hapless Egbert Sousé is among his best-known screen characters.
Vaudeville : A popular form of variety entertainment built from successive acts of comedy, music, dance, and specialty performance. Fields honed his act before live vaudeville audiences for decades.
Mae West : An American actor, playwright, and screenwriter known for witty, sexually suggestive stage and film roles. She co-starred with Fields in My Little Chickadee.
W. C. Fields's stage persona : The theatrical character Fields fashioned from comic hostility, self-interest, drink, and disdain for convention. His screen roles adapted this persona while sharpening its verbal and visual traits.
My Little Chickadee : A 1940 comedy film starring W. C. Fields and Mae West in a story of frontier deception. Its dueling comic styles paired Fields with another major vaudeville-born star.
Juggling : The performance skill of keeping objects in motion through repeated throws and catches. Fields began as a juggler, and his precision shaped his stage routines.
Mack Sennett : An American film producer and director who helped establish slapstick comedy in early Hollywood. Sennett hired Fields for films that introduced his stage persona to movie audiences.
W. C. Fields's radio appearances : Fields’s broadcasts and guest appearances, including comic exchanges with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Radio let his antagonistic character play against performers beyond the film set.
It's a Gift : A 1934 comedy film in which W. C. Fields plays a harried grocer seeking a quieter life in California. Its domestic and roadside set pieces exemplify Fields’s escalating exasperation.
San Francisco : A major California city on the Pacific coast, founded during the Spanish colonial period. Fields was born there in 1880.
Show all 21