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Margaret Dumont (born Daisy Juliette Baker; October 20, 1882 – March 6, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. She is best remembered as the double act to the Marx Brothers in seven of their films; Groucho Marx called her "practically the fifth Marx brother."
In 1910, she married millionaire sugar heir and industrialist John Moller Jr and retired from stage work, although she had a small uncredited role as an aristocrat in a 1917 film adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities. The marriage was childless.
After her husband's sudden death during the 1918 influenza pandemic, Dumont reluctantly returned to the Broadway stage, and soon gained a strong reputation in musical comedies. She never remarried. Her Broadway career included roles in the musical comedies and plays The Fan (1921), Go Easy, Mabel (1922), The Rise of Rosie O'Reilly (1923/24), and The Fourflusher (1925); she had an uncredited role in the 1923 film Enemies of Women.
In the Marx Brothers films, Dumont invariably portrayed rich widows whom Groucho would alternately insult and romance for their money:
Her role as the excitable, hypochondriacal Mrs. Upjohn in A Day at the Races brought her a Best Supporting Actress Award from the Screen Actors Guild; film critic Cecilia Ager suggested that a monument be erected in honor of Dumont's courage and steadfastness in the face of the Marx Brothers' antics. Groucho once said that because of their frequent movie appearances, many people believed they were married in real life.
An exchange from Duck Soup:
Dumont also endured dialogue about her characters' (and thus her own) stout build, as with these lines also from Duck Soup:
and:
Or her age (in their last film pairing, The Big Store):
Dumont's character would usually give a short, startled or confused reaction to these insults, but always appeared to forget them quickly.
In his one-man show at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1972, Groucho mentioned Dumont's name and got a burst of applause. He falsely informed the audience that she rarely understood the humor of their scenes and would ask him, "Why are they laughing, Julie?" ("Julie" being her nickname for Julius, Groucho's birth name). Dumont was so important to the success of the Marx Brothers films that she was one of the few people Groucho mentioned in his short acceptance speech for an honorary Oscar in 1974. (The others were Harpo Marx and Chico Marx, their mother Minnie, and Groucho's companion Erin Fleming. Zeppo Marx and Gummo Marx, who were both alive at the time, were not mentioned, though Jack Lemmon, who introduced Groucho, mentioned all four brothers who appeared with Dumont on film.)
In most of her interviews and press profiles, Dumont preserved the myth of her on-screen character: the wealthy, regal woman who never quite understood the jokes. However, in a 1942 interview with the World Wide Features press syndicate, Dumont said, "Scriptwriters build up to a laugh but they don't allow any pause for it. That's where I come in. I ad lib—it doesn't matter what I say—just to kill a few seconds so you can enjoy the gag. I have to sense when the big laughs will come and fill in, or the audience will drown out the next gag with its own laughter. ... I'm not a stooge, I'm a straight lady. There's an art to playing straight. You must build up your man, but never top him, never steal the laughs from him."McMurtry, World Wide Features (March 1, 1942). "Straight Lady Explains Art of Timed Ad Libs. Margaret Dumont (Don't Call Her a Stooge) Can Sense Laughs, Save Them." New York Herald Tribune,E-4
For decades, film critics and historians have theorized that because Dumont never broke character or smiled at Groucho's jokes, she did not "get" the Marxes' humor. On the contrary, Dumont, a seasoned stage professional, maintained her "straight" appearance to enhance the Marxes' comedy. In 1965, shortly before Dumont's death, The Hollywood Palace featured a recreation of "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" (from the Marxes' 1930 film Animal Crackers) in which Dumont can be seen laughing at Groucho's ad-libs—proving that she got the jokes.
Writing about Dumont's importance as a comic foil in 1998, film critic Andrew Sarris wrote "Groucho's confrontations with Miss Dumont seem much more the heart of the Marxian matter today than the rather loose rapport among the three brothers themselves."Sarris, Andrew, You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet, Oxford University Press, 1998, pg. 445
Dumont's acting style, especially in her early films, reflected the classic theatrical tradition of projecting to the back row (for example, trilling the "r" for emphasis). She had a classical operatic singing voice that screenwriters eagerly used to their advantage.
Dumont, usually playing her dignified dowager character, appeared with other film comedians and actors, including Wheeler and Woolsey and George "Spanky" McFarland ( Kentucky Kernels, 1934); Joe Penner ( Here, Prince 1932, and The Life of the Party 1937); Lupe Vélez ( High Flyers, 1937); W.C. Fields ( Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, 1941, and Tales of Manhattan 1942); Laurel and Hardy ( The Dancing Masters, 1943); Red Skelton ( Bathing Beauty, 1944); Danny Kaye ( Up in Arms, 1944); Jack Benny ( The Horn Blows at Midnight, 1945); George "Gabby" Hayes ( Sunset in El Dorado, 1945); Abbott and Costello ( Little Giant, 1946); and Tom Poston ( Zotz!, 1962).
Turner Classic Movies’ website says of High Flyers: "The surprise... is seeing Dumont play a somewhat daffy matron, more Billie Burke than typical Margaret Dumont. As the lady who's into crystal gazing and dotes on her kleptomaniac bull terrier, she brings a discreetly screwball touch to the proceedings."
She also appeared on television with Martin and Lewis in The Colgate Comedy Hour (December 1951).
Dumont played dramatic parts in films including Youth on Parole (1937), Dramatic School (1938), Stop, You're Killing Me (1952), Three for Bedroom C (1952), and Shake, Rattle & Rock! (1956).
Her last film role was that of Shirley MacLaine's mother, Mrs. Foster, in What a Way to Go! (1964).
On February 26, 1965, eight days before her death, Dumont made her final acting appearance on the television program The Hollywood Palace, where she was reunited with Groucho, the week's guest host. They performed material from Captain Spaulding's introductory scene in Animal Crackers, including the song "Hooray for Captain Spaulding." The show was videotaped and broadcast by ABC on April 17, 1965.
In 2023, Dumont's cremains were removed from non-public storage in the basement of the Chapel of the Pines after 58 years to a publicly accessible niche with a new bronze plaque in the chapel columbarium.
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