William Claude Dukenfield
E519925
William Claude Dukenfield, better known as W. C. Fields, was a famed American comedian, actor, and writer renowned for his misanthropic persona, distinctive drawl, and influential work in early 20th-century vaudeville and film comedy.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| William Claude Dukenfield canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5433446 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: William Claude Dukenfield Context triple: [W. C. Fields, givenName, William Claude Dukenfield]
-
A.
Edward Theodore Riley
Edward Theodore Riley is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer best known as a pioneer of the new jack swing genre in R&B and hip-hop.
-
B.
Christopher Hodgkin
Christopher Hodgkin is a person notable enough to be recognized as a bearer of the Hodgkin surname, though specific widely known achievements or roles are not clearly documented.
-
C.
Edward Darley Boit
Edward Darley Boit was a 19th-century American lawyer and art collector best known today as the father of the four girls depicted in John Singer Sargent’s famous painting "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit."
-
D.
Lancelot Hodgkin
Lancelot Hodgkin is a person notable enough to be recognized as a bearer of the Hodgkin surname, though specific widely known achievements or biographical details are not well documented.
-
E.
Philip Christison
Philip Christison was a British Army general who held senior commands in World War II, particularly in Southeast Asia.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: William Claude Dukenfield Target entity description: William Claude Dukenfield, better known as W. C. Fields, was a famed American comedian, actor, and writer renowned for his misanthropic persona, distinctive drawl, and influential work in early 20th-century vaudeville and film comedy.
-
A.
Edward Theodore Riley
Edward Theodore Riley is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer best known as a pioneer of the new jack swing genre in R&B and hip-hop.
-
B.
Christopher Hodgkin
Christopher Hodgkin is a person notable enough to be recognized as a bearer of the Hodgkin surname, though specific widely known achievements or roles are not clearly documented.
-
C.
Edward Darley Boit
Edward Darley Boit was a 19th-century American lawyer and art collector best known today as the father of the four girls depicted in John Singer Sargent’s famous painting "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit."
-
D.
Lancelot Hodgkin
Lancelot Hodgkin is a person notable enough to be recognized as a bearer of the Hodgkin surname, though specific widely known achievements or biographical details are not well documented.
-
E.
Philip Christison
Philip Christison was a British Army general who held senior commands in World War II, particularly in Southeast Asia.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American
ⓘ
comedian ⓘ film actor ⓘ human ⓘ screenwriter ⓘ silent film actor ⓘ stage actor ⓘ |
| activeIn |
radio
ⓘ
silent film ⓘ sound film ⓘ vaudeville ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
W. C. Fields
ⓘ
W.C. Fields ⓘ
linked to:
W. C. Fields
|
| birthDate | 1880-01-29 ⓘ |
| birthPlace |
Darby, Pennsylvania, United States
ⓘ
linked to:
Darby, Pennsylvania
|
| burialPlace | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California ⓘ |
| causeOfDeath | alcohol-related illness ⓘ |
| child | William Claude Fields Jr. ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| deathDate | 1946-12-25 ⓘ |
| deathPlace |
Pasadena, California, United States
ⓘ
linked to:
Pasadena
|
| era | early 20th-century American entertainment ⓘ |
| familyName | Dukenfield ⓘ |
| genre |
slapstick comedy
ⓘ
vaudeville comedy ⓘ |
| givenName | William ⓘ |
| influenced |
American film comedy
ⓘ
later stand-up comedians ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| middleName | Claude ⓘ |
| notableCharacteristic |
distinctive nasal drawl
ⓘ
fondness for alcohol as a comic motif ⓘ misanthropic comic persona ⓘ |
| notableQuoteTheme | cynicism about children and dogs ⓘ |
| notableWork |
International House
ⓘ
It’s a Gift ⓘ My Little Chickadee ⓘ The Bank Dick ⓘ You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man ⓘ |
| occupation |
actor
ⓘ
comedian ⓘ juggler ⓘ writer ⓘ |
| religion | agnosticism ⓘ |
| spouse | Harriet Hughes ⓘ |
| workedFor |
Paramount Pictures
ⓘ
Universal Pictures ⓘ |
| yearsActive | 1898–1945 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: William Claude Dukenfield Description of subject: William Claude Dukenfield, better known as W. C. Fields, was a famed American comedian, actor, and writer renowned for his misanthropic persona, distinctive drawl, and influential work in early 20th-century vaudeville and film comedy.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.