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Marie Dressler (born November 9, 1868; died July
28, 1934) was a Canada|Canadian actress.  

Born Leila Marie Koerber in Cobourg, Ontario, she
became a leading comedienne during the silent film
era. At the age of 14, she began her acting career
in theatre, and in 1892 she made her debut on
Broadway. At first she hoped to make a career of
singing light Opera, but then gravitated to
Vaudeville.

During the early 1900s, she became a major
vaudeville star. In 1902, she met fellow Canadian,
Mack Sennett, and helped him get a job in the
theater. In addition to her stage work, Dressler
recorded for Edison Records in 1909 and 1910.
After Sennett became the owner of his namesake
motion picture studio, he convinced Dressler to
star in his 1914 film Tillie's Punctured Romance
opposite Sennett’s newly discovered actor,
Charlie Chaplin. Dressler appeared in two more
"Tillie" sequels plus other comedies until 1918
when she returned to work in vaudeville.

In 1919, during the Actors' Equity strike in New
York city, the Chorus Equity Association was
formed and voted Dressler its first president.

In 1927, she had been secretly blacklisted by the
theater production companies due to her strong
stance in a labor dispute. It would turn out to be
another Canadian who gave her the opportunity to
return to motion pictures, Metro Goldwyn Mayer|MGM
studio boss Louis B. Mayer who called her "the
most adored person ever to set foot in the
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio."

A robust woman of very plain features, Marie
Dressler’s comedy films were very popular with
the movie-going public and an equally lucrative
investment for MGM. Although past sixty years of
age, she quickly became Hollywood’s number one
box office attraction and stayed on top for four
straight years. In addition to her comedic genius,
she also demonstrated her considerable talents by
taking on serious roles. For her starring
portrayal in Min and Bill she won the 1931 Academy
Award for Best Actress.  Dressler was nominated
again for Best Actress for her 1932 role as Emma. 
With that film, Dressler demonstrated her profound
generosity to other performers: Dressler
personally insisted that her studio bosses cast a
friend of hers and then largely unknown young
actor, Richard Cromwell (actor)|Richard Cromwell,
in the lead opposite her. It was a break that
helped launch his career.

Dressler followed these successes with more hits
in 1933 and made the cover of the August 7, 1933
issue of Time magazine. However, her career came
to an abrupt end when she was diagnosed with
terminal cancer. In all, Marie Dressler appeared
in more than 40 films. Always seeing herself as
physically unattractive, she wrote an
autobiography, The Life Story of an Ugly Duckling.

Marie Dressler died in Santa Barbara, California
and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Cemetery in  Glendale, California. 

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at
1731 Vine Street.. Each year the Marie Dressler
Film Festival is held in her home town of Cobourg,
Ontario.

More recently, another biography was published
entitled:  Marie Dressler: The Unlikliest Star  by
Ontario resident and writer Betty Lee.

==Partial filmography==
*Going Hollywood  -  (1933) 
*Christopher Bean  -  (1933) 
*Dinner at Eight  -  (1933)
*Tugboat Annie  -  (1933)
*Prosperity  -  (1932)
*Emma  -  (1932)
*The Christmas Party  -  (1931) 
*Politics (movie)|Politics   -  (1931)
*Reducing  -  (1931) 
*Min and Bill  -  (1931)
*The March of Time - (1930)
*Anna Christie (1930)
*Derelict  -  (1930)
*Let Us Be Gay  -  (1930) 
*Caught Short  -  (1930)
*One Romantic Night  -  (1930)
*The Girl Said No  -  (1930)
*Chasing Rainbows  -  (1930)
*Voice of Hollywood   -  (1929)
*The Vagabond Lover  -  (1929)
*Dangerous Females   -   (1929)
*The Hollywood Revue of 1929   -  (1929)
*The Divine Lady  -  (1929)
*The Patsy  -   (1928)
*Bringing Up Father   -   (1928) 
*Breakfast at Sunrise   -  (1927)
*The Joy Girl  -   (1927)
*The Callahans and the Murphys  -  (1927)
*The Red Cross Nurse  -  (1918)
*The Agonies of Agnes  -   (1918)
*The Scrub Lady   -  (1917)
*Tillie Wakes Up  -   (1917)
*Tillie's Tomato Surprise   -   (1915) 
*Tillie's Punctured Romance   -   (1914)

==See also==
*Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood|Other
Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

==External links==

*imdb name|id=0237597|name=Marie Dressler