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Marie Dressler
Leila Marie Koerber, known professionally as Marie Dressler, was a Canadian-born stage and screen actress, script editor, writer, and comedian. She was popular in Hollywood in early silent and Depression-era film.
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entertainment · Canadian-American actress (1868–1934) · film actor · film producer · stage actor · screenwriter · film director · actor · comedian · writer · editor · also Marie Dressler, Leila Marie Koerber, Dressler
Born 9 November 1868 · Died 28 July 1934 · Q253282
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2026· 1 entry
2024· 1 entry
BroadwayWorld: Marie Dressler
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2022· 1 entry
BroadwayWorld: Who Played Performer in Marie Dressler's "All Star Gambol"
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2020· 1 entry
“If ants are such busy workers, how come they find time to go to all the picnics?”
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2016· 1 entry
Northumberland County: Cobourg’s Marie Dressler House gets a Hollywood-style makeover
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2012· 1 entry
Toronto Star: Cobourg actors follow in Marie Dressler’s famous footsteps
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2005· 1 entry
insider.si.edu: Marie Dressler in "Dinner at Eight"
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1937· 1 entry
And operated as a restaurant until 1989, when it was damaged by fire
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1936· 1 entry
Named after the night club in Los Angeles
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1934· 2 entries
Died 1934-07-28.
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“A rut is like a grave – it's only a question of depth.”
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1933· 1 entry
Including the comedy Dinner at Eight, in which she received top billing over John and Lionel Barrymore, Jean Harlow, Billie Burke, and Wallace Beery
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1932· 1 entry
A home which she bought from the estate of King C
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1931· 3 entries
Awarded Academy Award for Best Actress for Min and Bill (1931).
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Was followed by a later lawsuit by Du Brey, who had been trained as a nurse, claiming back wages as Dressler's nurse
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To use the services of a "body sculptor to the stars", Sylvia of Hollywood, to keep herself at a steady weight
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1930· 1 entry
Dressler joined Edward Everett Horton's theater troupe in Los Angeles to play a princess in Ferenc Molnár's The Swan, but after one week, she quit the troupe
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1929· 1 entry
Moved to Los Angeles to 6718 Milner Road in Whitley Heights, then to 623 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills, both rentals
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1927· 2 entries
Rented a home in Hollywood on Hillside Avenue
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Returned to films at the age of 58 and experienced a remarkable string of successes
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1925· 2 entries
Dressler filmed a pair of two-reel short movies in Europe for producer Harry Reichenbach
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Was able to perform as part of the cast of a vaudeville show which went on a five-week tour, but still could not find any work back in New York City
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1923· 1 entry
Dressler received a small part in a revue at the Winter Garden Theatre, titled The Dancing Girl, but was not offered any work after the show closed
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1922· 1 entry
After her husband's death, Dressler and writers Helena Dayton and Louise Barrett tried to sell a script to the Hollywood studios, but were turned down
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1919· 2 entries
Helped organize the first union for stage-chorus players
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During the Actors' Equity strike in New York City, the Chorus Equity Association was formed and voted Dressler its first president
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1917· 1 entry
And in return, Marion used her influence with MGM's production chief Irving Thalberg to return Dressler to the screen
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1914· 1 entry
Played the title role in the first full-length screen comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), opposite Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand
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1909· 1 entry
With members of the Weber organization, she staged a modified production of Higgeldy Piggeldy at the Aldwych Theatre, renaming the production Philopoena after her own role
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1907· 1 entry
Dressler met a Maine businessman, James Henry "Jim" Dalton, who became her companion until his death on November 29, 1921, at the Congress Hotel in Chicago from diabetes
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1904· 4 entries
Signed a three-year, $50,000 contract with the Weber and Fields Music Hall management, performing lead roles in Higgledy-Piggledy and Twiddle Twaddle
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Dressler adopted an incubator baby girl and named her Marie Dressler
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In 1904, Dressler adopted an incubator baby girl and named her Marie Dressler.
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However, according to Dressler's U.S. passport application, the couple married in May 1904 in Italy.
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1902· 1 entry
Had met fellow Canadian Mack Sennett and helped him get a job in the theater
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1901· 1 entry
Starred as Anna of Austria, Queen of Spain in the Broadway musical comedy The King's Carnival
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1896· 1 entry
Dressler landed her first starring role as Flo in George Lederer's production of The Lady Slavey at the Casino Theatre on Broadway, co-starring British dancer Dan Daly
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1894· 2 entries
In Grace Church Rectory, Greenville, New Jersey, as biographer Matthew Kennedy wrote, under her birth name, Leila Marie Koerber
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The couple married on May 6, 1894, in Grace Church Rectory, Greenville, New Jersey, as biographer Matthew Kennedy wrote, under her birth name, Leila Marie Koerber.
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1893· 1 entry
Was cast as the Duchess in Princess Nicotine, where she met and befriended Lillian Russell
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1892· 2 entries
Dressler made her debut on Broadway at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in Waldemar, the Robber of the Rhine, which only lasted five weeks
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Started a career on Broadway that lasted into the 1920s, performing comedic roles that allowed her to improvise to get laughs
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1868· 1 entry
Born 1868-11-09.
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