Marie Dressler

Lore & Background

Dressler was born Leila Marie Koerber in Cobourg, Ontario, one of two daughters of Anna Henderson and Alexander Rudolph Koerber, a German-born former officer in the Crimean War. Her father worked as a music teacher and organist. She left home at age 14 to join the Nevada Stock Company, telling them she was 18, and adopted the name of an aunt as her stage name. She made her professional debut as a chorus girl in Under Two Flags. She later performed with various touring companies, including the Robert Grau Opera Company and the Starr Opera Company, and made her Broadway debut in 1892 in Waldemar, the Robber of the Rhine. Maurice Barrymore convinced her to focus on comedy roles. In 1896, she starred in The Lady Slavey, a great success that ran two years at the Casino Theatre. She formed her own theatre troupe in 1900, which failed, leading to bankruptcy. In 1904, she signed a three-year, $50,000 contract with Weber and Fields Music Hall. She moved to London in 1907, performing at the Palace Theatre of Varieties, but a West End production failed, costing her $40,000. She returned to Broadway and vaudeville.

Reader's Guide

Marie Dressler's career spanned stage and screen, with notable resilience through financial setbacks and a late-career resurgence. She helped organize the first union for stage-chorus players in 1919. After a decline in the 1920s, she returned to films at age 58 in 1927 and achieved a string of successes. Her Academy Award for Min and Bill (1930) marked a high point. She died of cancer in 1934. Her legacy includes her role in the first full-length screen comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), opposite Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, and her work selling Liberty bonds during World War I. Her career illustrates the transition from stage to film and the challenges faced by performers in early Hollywood.

Did You Know?

• She played the title role in the first full-length screen comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), opposite Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand.
• She helped organize the first union for stage-chorus players in 1919.
• She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Min and Bill (1930).
• During World War I, she helped sell Liberty bonds.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Leila Marie Koerber (November 9, 1868 – July 28, 1934), known by her stage name Marie Dressler, was a Canadian stage and screen actress, comedienne, and early silent film and Depression-era film star." — Marie Dressler "... poor had no terror for me! It was pie for me! My whole life had been a fight!" — Marie Dressler "I was born serious and I have earned my bread making other people laugh." — Marie Dressler "There is a vast difference between success at twenty-five and success at sixty. At sixty, nobody envies you. Instead, everybody rejoices generously, sincerely, in your good fortune." — Marie Dressler