Margaret Dumont(1882-1965)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Margaret Dumont would not 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). It is a popular myth that she never understood their jokes (offscreen and on); restored footage of Groucho's "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" shows her laughing at his ad libs. 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
Noix de coco (1929) and L'explorateur en folie (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).
