Fields was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 5, 1898. He began his career when he was a boy, by working in local theaters. As a teenager, he worked in carnivals and tent shows in the Midwest, and later became partner in a comedy team with vaudeville and burlesque performer Jack Greenman. The team was cast by Harold Minsky in his family's celebrated burlesque theater. The team split up in Hollywood when Fields was hired to work on a feature film with Eddie Cantor, "Strike Me Pink" (1936).