
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).

The Donna Reed Show
TV • 1958

The Colgate Comedy Hour
TV • 1950

The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
TV • 1956

Racket Squad
TV • 1951

What a Way to Go!
MOVIE • 1964

Bathing Beauty
MOVIE • 1944

Auntie Mame
MOVIE • 1958

The Big Store
MOVIE • 1941

A Night at the Opera
MOVIE • 1935

Tales of Manhattan
MOVIE • 1942

Song and Dance Man
MOVIE • 1936

Duck Soup
MOVIE • 1933

Zotz!
MOVIE • 1962

The Girl Habit
MOVIE • 1931

About Face
MOVIE • 1942

At the Circus
MOVIE • 1939

A Day at the Races
MOVIE • 1937

Rendezvous
MOVIE • 1935