W. C. Fields Summary

Fields, W. C. (1879-1946) One of film comedy's best-loved performers, W. C. Fields has inspired countless impersonators but few imitators. In more than forty films over three decades, the bulbo... Read more

The American comedian W. C. Fields (1879-1946) appeared in many of the classic early motion picture comedies.The son of an immigrant Cockney vegetable peddler, W. C. Fields was born William Claude Duk... Read more

In the following essay, Broun offers his appraisal of Fields's performance in the film Ballyhoo. To me this seems a year in which the musical comedies distinctly show the way to so-called le... Read more

In the following essay, Gehring equates Fields's persona with that of Shakespeare's Falstaff. In writing a book on America's greatest native-born comedian (see W. C. Fields: A ... Read more

In the following essay, Priestly eulogizes Fields. So now there is another cold gap, for W. C. Fields is dead. I wrote the rough treatment of a film for him once—and kept my family all winte... Read more

In the following essay, Kenner presents Fields as a critic of the society in which he lived. "The buyer tries to come back with a lower counter-offer. "You're crazy!' r... Read more

In the following excerpt, Maltin contrasts Fields's popularity with 1970s audiences to the often disapproving response he received in his own day. In the 1920s and 1930s, one of the most int... Read more

In the following essay, Sheed presents Fields in an unsentimental light, and faults Ronald Fields for his attempts to sanitize his grandfather's autobiography. Of all the subjects that don&#... Read more