Marie Dressler

Marie Dressler was born Leila von Koerber on November 9, 1868, in Cobourg, Ontario. Following a difficult, impoverished childhood with a temperamental father, she left home at age fourteen to perform regularly with amateur companies and traveling troupes. Her professional debut was as a chorus girl named Cigarette in a play called Under Two Flags. She remained with the company for three years before joining the Robert Grau Opera Company, where she earned $8 per week.

 

By 1892, she changed her name and headed for New York, where she used her singing talents to complement her comedy. She became a major Broadway star, achieving her greatest stage success in the 1910 production of Tillie's Nightmare. This massive stage hit led to her landmark screen debut in the 1914 film Tillie's Punctured Romance alongside Charlie Chaplin, which became the first highly successful full-length screen comedy

​

Despite her early success Dressler's career suffered significantly for much of the 1920s. Dressler's passionate advocacy for Actors' Equity got her blacklisted in New York. She was left with so few prospects that she penned her memoir, The Life Story of an Ugly Duckling, in 1924. However, in 1927, her friend and legendary screenwriter Frances Marion helped her secure a role at MGM, sparking an incredible career resurgence. 

​

Dressler defied the odds to become the highest-paid MGM star and the top film star of 1932 and 1933 while in her sixties. She delivered a string of legendary performances, earning tremendous acclaim for Min and Bill (1930) and receiving a second Academy Award nomination in 1932 for her poignant dramatic role in Emma. Although she was secretly battling cancer, she delivered a famously scene-stealing comedic performance in 1933's Dinner at Eight before her death in 1934 at the very height of her career

​

Yet even at the height of her fame, Dressler never lost sight of the struggles that had defined her early years in the industry. In 1919, she became a passionate advocate for Actors' Equity Association, using her platform and influence to champion fair treatment and better working conditions for her fellow performers. It was a cause deeply personal to her and it reflected the same grit and generosity of spirit that had carried her from a difficult childhood in Cobourg to the very pinnacle of Hollywood.