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Groucho Marx and Margartet Dumont in Animal Crackers (1930)
Margaret Dumont appeared with many comedians, including Jack Benny, Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, and W. C. Fields - but she is best known for her recurring role as the stodgy dowager straight man to Groucho Marx in many of the Marx Brothers‘ most popular films.

Margaret Dumont was born on October 20, 1882 as Daisy Juliette Baker, and as a girl she sang on the stage in both America and Europe under the name of Daisy Dumont. A trained singer, she moved onto the stage as an actress in 1907, but after her marriage to John Muller Jr. in 1910, she retired from the stage to devote herself to her wealthy husband.

She returned to the stage only after the death of her husband, where in 1925 she was cast in a very popular Broadway production titled The Cocoanuts, appearing alongside four brothers named Julius, Leonard, Adolph and Milton - who would soon be better known as Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Gummo, the Marx Brothers.

In addition to their zany antics and madcap comedy, the Marx Brothers were well known for their improvisation and departing from the script on a whim - making it difficult for Margaret Dumont to deliver her lines properly. Even so, she enjoyed working with the Marx Brothers - for the most part.

After several years of performing The Cocoanuts, the Marx Brothers starred in another Broadway hit, Animal Crackers—and again, they used Margaret Dumont to play straight man to Groucho. As the era of sound films began, she reprised her roles for the movie versions of The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers as well in 1929 and 1930.

Margaret Dumont went on to co-star with the Marx Brothers in many (not all) of their films, including Duck Soup (1933), A Night at the Opera (1935), A Day at the Races (1937), At the Circus (1939), and The Big Store (1941). As much as she enjoyed the fame that her appearances with the Marx Brothers, she said "It was fun while it lasted. I wouldn’t take $1,000,000 for the experience and I wouldn’t give a cent to do it again. Making pictures with the Marx Brothers is really the strenuous life."

In addition, she appeared in several other movies in this time frame, including Anything Goes with Bing Crosby, The Women with Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russel, and the classic W. C. Fields movie Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.

Margaret Dumont continued making classic comedies with the leading comedians of the day, such as The Dancing Masters (1943) with Laurel and Hardy, Up in Arms (1944) with Danny Kaye, Bathing Beauty (1944) with Red Skelton, The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945) with Jack Benny, and Little Giant (1946) with Abbott and Costello. However, most of these were small parts, with Margaret playing the same stereotypical role that she had made popular with Groucho Marx—that of the staid, rich dowager.

Margaret Dumont’s film appearances slowed down, but she continued her career through the 1940’s, 1950’s, and 1960’s. In 1964, the year of her death, she appeared in a film with Shirley McLaine titled, ironically enough What a Way to Go. Only days before her death, she appeared on the television show The Hollywood Palace with guest-host Groucho Marx. She died on March 6, 1965 in Hollywood, California of a heart attack.

Trivia about Margaret Dumont

Last appearance of any kind was on the TV show "The Hollywood Palace" (1964) in 1965, reprising her role as Groucho Marx’s straight woman. She died just days later.
She was bald and wore wigs for several years on and off camera.
Her screen persona was that of a stolid, wealthy society matron, which is exactly what she was: her husband, John Moller, was a millionaire industrialist, and she often commuted to filming locations from her mansions in Palm Springs, California, and Paris, France.
Started on stage in 1907
She was the god-daughter of author Joel Chandler Harris.
Biography in: "Who’s Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 143-144. New York: Facts on File, 1992.
Groucho Marx called her "practically the fifth Marx Brother".
Offstage, she usually called Groucho Marx "Julie", which is short for Julius, Groucho’s given name.
Some have argued that her image of the refined lady who did not understand the Marx Brothers’ humor was an artificial one since she had a long career being a comedic foil in comedy stage productions years before her more famous work.