W. C. Fields was one of America's greatest comedians, a master of comic timing whose persona of a hard-drinking, child-hating, fast-talking misanthrope made him a beloved star of vaudeville, Broadway, and film. Born William Claude Dukenfield near Philadelphia, he ran away from a troubled home as a boy and taught himself to juggle, becoming, in his youth, one of the finest comic jugglers in the world.
His silent juggling act carried him from vaudeville to the Ziegfeld Follies and Broadway, where he gradually added the muttered asides and put-upon dignity that became his trademark. With the coming of sound films, Fields found his ideal medium; his distinctive raspy drawl and superb comic delivery made him a Hollywood star.
In a string of classic comedies — among them It's a Gift, The Bank Dick, and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break — Fields perfected his screen character: a cynical, put-upon everyman beset by nagging wives, bratty children, and the petty indignities of life, muttering memorable lines often of his own invention.
Much of his off-screen reputation — the heavy drinking, the comic disdain for dogs and children — was real, and he cultivated it as part of his legend. A genuine original whose influence on American comedy endured long after him, he died, fittingly enough on Christmas Day, in 1946.