W. C. Fields by Himself", it was shown that Fields was married (and subsequently estranged from his wife), and financially supported their son and loved his grandchildren. Fields was born William Claude Dukenfield in Darby, Pennsylvania, the oldest child of a working-class family. His father, James Lydon Dukenfield (1840–1913), was from an English family that emigrated from Sheffield, England in 1854. James Dukenfield served in Company M of the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War and was wounded in 1863. Fields' mother, Kate Spangler Felton (1854–1925), was a Protestant of British ancestry. The 1876 "Philadelphia City Directory "lists James Dukenfield
Claude Mérelle Claude Mérelle Claude Mérelle (17 May 1888 – 16 December 1976) was a French stage and film actress who appeared in numerous films during the silent film era of the early 1910s through the late 1920s. Born Lise Henriette Marie Laurent in Colombes, France in 1888, she made her film debut in the 1912 short "Les noces siciliennes", directed by Louis Feuillade. She would go on to appear in numerous film serials throughout the 1910s under the name Lise Laurent and directed by filmmakers such as Feuillade, Henri Pouctal and Henri Diamant-Berger before using the stage name Claude Mérelle beginning