W. C. Fields

W. C. Fields (1880-1946), American actor and comedian, known for his role of the gravel-voiced, disreputable-looking, rapier-witted misanthrope who loathed children and animals and fought bankers, landladies, and the police. Born William Claude Dukenfield in Philadelphia, he left home at the age of 11 and entered show business at the age of 14. He played the vaudeville circuit in the United States and Europe as a comic juggler. Developing into a comedian, he became the star of several editions of the Ziegfeld Follies on the New York City stage from 1915 to 1921 and later of such silent films as Sally of the Sawdust (1925). Fields scored his greatest popular success in a series of sound films, including four short Mack Sennett comedies, and David Copperfield (1935), My Little Chickadee (1940), and The Bank Dick (1940). Beloved by audiences for acting out their own contempt for authority, he became perhaps even more popular after his death. An autobiographical work, W. C. Fields by Himself, was published posthumously in 1973.