Marie Dressler

Dressler's father was Alexander Rudolph Koerber, a German-born former officer in the Crimean War. Her mother was Anna "Annie" Henderson. She had an elder sister, Bonita Louise Koerber (1864-1939) wed playwright Richard Ganthony, and lived in Richmond, Surrey, England. The family lived at 212 King Street West, Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. The house is an historical site and museum.

According to most census sources and the document as to the history of the house, Dressler was born in 1868. Other sources have traditionally cited 1869. The year 1871 is given as her year of birth on her gravestone in in Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale, California).

Once you saw her, you would not forget her. Despite her age and weight, she became one of the top box office draws of the sound era. She was 14 when she joined a theater group and she went on to work on stage and in light opera. By 1892, she was on Broadway and she later became a star comedienne on the vaudeville circuit.

In 1910, she had a hit with 'Tillie's Nightmare' which Mack Sennett adapted to film as Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) with Charles Chaplin.

Her role in the chorus girls' strike of 1917 had her blacklisted from the theaters.

Marie took top billing over a young Chaplin, but her film career never took off and by 1918, she was out of films and out of work.

In 1919, during the Actors' Equity strike in New York City, the Chorus Equity Association was formed and voted Dressler its first president. Dressler was blacklisted by the theater production companies due to her strong stance. Dressler found it difficult to find work during the 1920s. She left New York for Hollywood in search of work in films.

In the late 1920s she had been largely forgotten and reduced to near-poverty. Despite her last film being a financial disaster, Irving Thalberg, somewhat incredibly, sensed her potential was determined to re-build her into a star. It was a slow return in films but her popularity continued to grow. But it was sound that made her a star again.

In 1927, MGM screenwriter Frances Marion got her a small part in The Joy Girl (1927) and then a co-starring lead with Polly Moran in The Callahans and the Murphys (1927) (which was abruptly withdrawn from circulation thanks to objections of Irish-American groups over its depiction of gin-guzzling Irish). Her career stalled and the 59-year old actress found herself no longer in demand.

Anna Christie (1930) was the movie where Garbo talks, but everyone noticed Marie as Marthy. In an era of Harlow, Garbo and Crawford, it was homely old Marie Dressler that won the coveted exhibitor's poll as the most popular actress for three consecutive years.

In another film from the same year, Min and Bill (1930) she received a best actress Oscar for her dramatic performance.

Dressler won the 4th Academy Award for Best Actress (for her very serious performance in the dramatic film Min and Bill (1930)) and received the statuette at the ceremony held on November 10, 1931, the day after her 63rd birthday.

She received another Academy Award nomination for Emma (1932).

She had more success with Dinner at Eight (1933) and Tugboat Annie (1933).

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 141-143. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Of the first four Academy Awards for Best Actress, after Janet Gaynor, the following three consecutive winners were all Canadian-born Americans: Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer, and Dressler. No Canadian-born actress has won an Oscar as Best Actress since Dressler. Canadian-born New Zealand-reared Anna Paquin won the 1993 Best Supporting Actress Award, however, for The Piano (1993).

Profiled in book "Funny Ladies" by Stephen Silverman. [1999]

She is commemorated on a 2008 Canadian postage stamp, one of four stamps honoring the achievements of Canadians in Hollywood. The other stamps depict Norma Shearer, Chief Dan George, and Raymond Burr.