Sidney Fields

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Sidney Fields
Sidney Fields (left) with Lou Costello
Born	February 5, 1898 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Died	September 28, 1975 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Sidney Fields (February 5, 1898 to September 28, 1975) was a comedy actor and writer best known for his featured role on The Abbott and Costello Show in the early 1950s. He was sometimes credited as "Sid Fields."

Fields was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and began his career by working in local theaters as a boy. As a teenager he was working in carnivals and tent shows in the Midwest, and he 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 when Fields headed for Hollywood to work on a feature film.

In the ensuing years, Fields performed on stage, radio, and occasionally in movies. He worked with Eddie Cantor as a writer and actor, and then with Ben Blue, Rudy Vallee, Fred Allen and Milton Berle.

Fields appeared in small roles in 1930s film comedies, and sometimes received screen credits as a writer and assistant director. Fields remained obscure until his appearance as the "landlord" in The Abbott and Costello Show, which ran from 1952 and 1954 and was syndicated for years afterwards.

Fields was part of an ensemble cast that included Hillary Brooke as a neighbor and sometime love interest, Gordon Jones as Mike the Cop, a dim-witted foil for the boys, Joe Besser as Stinky, a 40-year-old man dressed in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit, and Joe Kirk as Mr. Bacciagalupe, an Italian immigrant caricature.

Fields played the most prominent supporting role as "Mr. Fields," the hot-tempered, bald-headed landlord of the rooming house where Abbott and Costello lived. He was a frequent target of gags and schemes foisted by the two main characters. Like other cast regulars, Fields played other roles as well, usually wearing a wig or other disguise. (These characters were often described as relatives of Mr. Fields.) He also wrote some episodes.

After the show ended, Fields played occasional small roles in Jackie Gleason and His American Scene Magazine and other television programs. He retired to Las Vegas and died there in 1974.