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Margaret Dumont

Margaret Dumont

Actor · 1882 – 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).

Movies24

  • Movie7.1

    What a Way to Go!

    1964 · 109 votes

  • Movie7.4

    A Night at the Opera

    1935 · 573 votes

  • Movie7.3

    Duck Soup

    1933 · 880 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Bathing Beauty

    1944 · 33 votes

  • Movie6.4

    At the Circus

    1939 · 99 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Auntie Mame

    1958 · 129 votes

  • Movie7.1

    A Day at the Races

    1937 · 240 votes

  • Movie6.5

    The Cocoanuts

    1929 · 130 votes

  • Movie7.0
  • Movie6.3

    The Big Store

    1941 · 77 votes

  • Movie6.3
  • Movie7.2
  • Movie6.4

    Tales of Manhattan

    1942 · 39 votes

  • Movie6.9

    Animal Crackers

    1930 · 270 votes

  • Movie6.2

    The Life of the Party

    1937 · 5 votes

  • Movie7.1

    Wise Girl

    1937 · 7 votes

  • Movie4.9

    Rendezvous

    1935 · 12 votes

  • Movie5.3

    Little Giant

    1946 · 23 votes

  • Movie7.7
  • Movie5.9
  • Movie8.0

    The Girl Habit

    1931 · 1 votes

  • Movie5.7

    Up in Arms

    1944 · 11 votes

  • Movie10.0
  • Movie9.0

Series4

  • TV6.5

    The Donna Reed Show

    1958 · 19 votes

  • TV6.4
  • TV6.9

    The Colgate Comedy Hour

    1950 · 13 votes

  • TV6.5

    Racket Squad

    1951 · 4 votes