Daisy Juliette (Baker) Dumont (1882 - 1965)

Born 20 Oct 1882 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Wife of John Moller — married 22 Sep 1910 in Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

Died 6 Mar 1965 at age 82 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Biography

Margaret (Baker) Dumont is Notable.

Margaret Dumont (October 20, 1882 – March 6, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. She is best remembered as the comic foil to the Marx Brothers in seven of their films. Groucho Marx called her "practically the fifth Marx brother."

The daughter of William Baker & Harriet Anna Harvey, she spent many years of her childhood with her godfather, Joel Chandler Harris, in Atlanta, GA.

Dumont trained as an operatic singer and actress in her teens and began performing on stage in the US and Europe, at first under the name Daisy Dumont and later as Margaret (or Marguerite) Dumont. Her theatrical debut was in Sleeping Beauty and the Beast at the Chestnut Theater in Philadelphia; in August 1902, two months before her 20th birthday, she appeared as a singer/comedian in a vaudeville act in Atlantic City. The dark-haired soubrette, described by a theater reviewer as a "statuesque beauty," attracted notice later that decade for her vocal and comedic talents in The Girl Behind the Counter (1908), The Belle of Brittany (1909), and The Summer Widower (1910).

In 1910, she married millionaire sugar heir and industrialist John Moller Jr and retired from stage work; the marriage was without issue.

With the Marx Brothers, Dumont played wealthy high-society widows whom Groucho alternately insulted and romanced for their money. Her role as the hypochondriacal Mrs. Upjohn in A Day at the Races brought her a Best Supporting Actress Award from the Screen Actors Guild.

Dumont died from a heart attack on March 6, 1965. She was cremated and her ashes were interred in the vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSV4-4T9 : accessed 12 August 2021), Daisey Demount in household of Robert Levison, Borough of Manhattan, Election District 10 New York City Ward 11, New York County, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 259, sheet 6B, family 158, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,092.

• "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJYG-5W6 : 2 February 2021), Daisy Moller, 1920.

• "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPKL-BRV : 26 November 2014), Margaret Dumont, 06 Mar 1965; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.

• "California Deaths and Burials, 1776-2000", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HGWB-QDT2 : 4 February 2020), Margaret Dumont, 1965.

• Find A Grave: Memorial #8775 for Margaret Dumont (20 Oct 1882–6 Mar 1965) citing Chapel Of The Pines Crematory, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, USA.

• Wikipedia contributors. “Wikipedia: Margaret Dumont.” 30 July 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Dumont. Accessed 12 Aug. 2021.