Biography: Marie Dressler

Marie Dressler (November 9, 1868 – July 28, 1934) was an Academy Award-winning Canadian actress.

Biography

Born Leila Marie Koerber in Cobourg, Ontario to parents Alexander Rudolph Koerber (who was Austrian) and Anna Henderson, the young Dressler was able to hone her talents to make other people laugh, and began her acting career when she was fourteen. In 1892 she made her debut on Broadway. At first she hoped to make a career of singing light opera, but then gravitated to vaudeville. In vaudeville she was known for her corporal body and had rotund contemporaries such as her friend Lillian Russell, Fay Templeton, May Irwin & Trixie Friganza.

Career

During the early 1900s she became a major vaudeville star. In 1902, she met fellow Canadian Mack Sennett and helped him get a job in the theater. In addition to her stage work, Dressler recorded for Edison Records in 1909 and 1910. After Sennett became the owner of his namesake motion picture studio, he convinced Dressler to star in his highly successful 1914 film "Tillie's Punctured Romance" opposite Sennett’s newly discovered actor, Charlie Chaplin. Dressler appeared in two more "Tillie" sequels and other comedies until 1918, when she returned to vaudeville.

In 1919, during the Actors' Equity strike in New York City, the Chorus Equity Association was formed and voted Dressler its first president.

In 1927, Dressler was secretly blacklisted by the theater production companies due to her strong stance in a labor dispute. Another Canadian gave her the opportunity to return to motion pictures - MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer, who called her "the most adored person ever to set foot in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio."

In 1929, Marie Dressler found herself once again out of work, so she joined Edward Everett Horton's theater troupe in L.A.. Soon after this, however, Dressler once again found herself in demand due to the arrival of talkies and the need for stage-trained performers. She proceeded to leave Horton flat, much to his indignation.

After several supporting roles in unsuccessful talkies, Frances Marion, an MGM screenwriter and personal friend of Irving Thalberg, came to Dressler's rescue. Dressler had shown great kindness to Marion during the filming of "Tillie Wakes Up" in 1917, and in return, Marion used her influence with Thalberg to get Dressler a number of supporting roles, including the queen in "Breakfast at Sunrise" and a snappy maid in "Chasing Rainbows." She was then established as a funny supporting woman. Marion persuaded Thalberg to give Dressler the role of Marthy, the old harridan who welcomes Greta Garbo home after the search for her father, in the 1930 film "Anna Christie." Both Garbo and the critics were impressed by Dressler's acting ability, and so was MGM, who quickly signed Dressler to a $500-per-week contract.

A robust, full-bodied woman of very plain features, Dressler’s ensuing comedy films were very popular with the movie-going public and an equally lucrative investment for MGM. Although past sixty years of age, she quickly became Hollywood’s number one box-office attraction, and stayed on top until her death. In addition to her comedic genius and her natural elegance, she demonstrated her considerable talents by taking on serious roles. For her starring portrayal in "Min and Bill," co-starring Wallace Beery, she won the 1931 Academy Award for Best Actress. Dressler was nominated again for Best Actress for her 1932 starring role in "Emma." With that film, Dressler demonstrated her profound generosity to other performers. Dressler personally insisted that her studio bosses cast a friend of hers, a largely unknown young actor named Richard Cromwell, in the lead opposite her. This break helped launch his career.

Dressler followed these successes with more hits in 1933, including the comedy "Dinner at Eight," in which she played an poor, aging former stage actress, and was the first woman to be featured on the cover of Time magazine for the August 7, 1933 issue. However, her career came to an abrupt end when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. MGM head Louis B. Mayer learned of Dressler's illness from her doctor and asked that she not be told. To keep her home, he ordered her not to travel on her vacation because he wanted to put her in a new film. Dressler was furious but complied.

Dressler appeared in more than 40 films but only achieved superstardom near the end of her life. Always seeing herself as physically unattractive, she wrote an autobiography, "The Life Story of an Ugly Duckling."

Death

Marie Dressler died in Santa Barbara, California and is interred in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Legacy

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1731 Vine Street. Each year the Marie Dressler Film Festival is held in her home town of Cobourg, Ontario.

In the late 1990s, two biographies of Dressler were published. One was entitled: Marie Dressler: The Unlikeliest Star by Ontario resident and writer Betty Lee. The other was by Matthew Kennedy, and is the more comprehensive source except that only Lee had access to the diary of an intimate friend of Dressler's.

Canada Post Corporation, as part of its Canada in Hollywood Series, issued a stamp on June 30, 2008 to honour Marie Dressler.

Filmography and awards

See also

• List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees
• Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

References

External links

• Marie Dressler at the Internet Broadway Database
• Marie Dressler at the Internet Movie Database
• Marie Dressler cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
• Web site dedicated to Marie Dressler
• Marie Dressler Web site
• Marie Dressler at Find A Grave

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Marie Dressler main page.