Classic Film Club

Awards

AWARDS

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

OSCAR NOMINEE
WINNER

Min and Bill

  • Oscar iconActressOscar icon
Min and Bill
  • Min and Bill
  • 1930
  • Comedy

Emma

  • Oscar iconActress
Emma
  • Emma
  • 1932
  • Romantic Comedy

MARIE DRESSLER

Marie Dressler

Marie Dressler (1914)

Biography

BIO

Marie Dressler was born Leila Marie Koerber in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada in 1868.   Her parents were both musicians.

A singer by training, Dressler found her comedic side and gravitated to vaudeville.   She made her Broadway debut in a musical comedy in 1897, at the age of 29.   Dressler continued building her stage career in New York with Broadway revues and vaudeville performances.   She appeared in 19 productions through 1923, including directing and performing in the hit A Mix-up (1914-1915).   She also recorded for Edison Records in 1909 and 1910.

In 1914, her friend, producer/director Mack Sennett, convinced her to star in her first film, based on her 1910 stage play Tillie's Nightmare, opposite Keystone film comedian Charles Chaplin. The film, Tillie’s Punctured Romance, was a hit and additional sequels were made.

In 1919, during the Actors' Equity strike in New York city, the Chorus Equity Association was formed and voted Dressler its first president.   In retaliation, the Producing Managers' Association blacklisted her and she found it impossible to get an acting job on Broadway after 1923.

Dressler left for Hollywood in 1927 and re-ignited her film career. She was paired with Wallace Beery in Min and Bill (1930) and won the Academy Award for Actress.   The film was a success and Dressler vaulted to become Hollywood’s top box office attraction for the next two years.   She co-starred that same year with Greta Garbo in her first ‘talking picture’, Anna Christie.

She was nominated for another Actress Academy Award for her role in 1932’s Emma.

Dressler married George Hoeppert in 1894.   They had one child and were quickly divorced in 1896.

Dressler was diagnosed with terminal cancer, in 1933, near the height of her fame.   She died in Santa Barbara, California, in 1934, at the age of 66.


Other Pictures

Marie Dressler (1933)

Films

NOTED FILMS

Tillie's Punctured Romance

Tillie's Punctured Romance
  • Tillie's Punctured Romance
  • 1914
  • A woman with few prospects falls for a cad with none.   He only finds interest when he realizes she is sole heir to a multi-million dollar estate.   Marie Dressler stars.

Anna Christie

Anna Christie
  • Anna Christie
  • 1930
  • A young woman, escaping her sordid past, flees the Midwest to live on a coal barge with a father she barely knows. Greta Garbo stars in her first "talking" picture.

Emma

Emma
  • Emma
  • 1932
  • A housekeeper and nursemaid puts all her heart into raising four children, especially after the mother dies during childbirth.

    Clarence Brown directs Marie Dressler.

Dinner at Eight

Dinner at Eight
  • Dinner at Eight
  • 1933
  • A socialite tries to arrange a dinner party and we get to know the guests before the dinner starts. George Cukor directs Marie Dressler, John and Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow and Billie Burke.
Complete filmography at: