Dagwood Bumstead is a main

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

in cartoonist

Chic Young Murat Bernard "Chic" Young (January 9, 1901March 14, 1973) was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip ''Blondie (comic strip), Blondie''. His 1919 ''William McKinley High School Yearbook'' cites his nickname as Chicken, source of hi ...

's long-running

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

'' Blondie''. He debuted in the first strip on September 8, 1930. He was originally heir to the Bumstead Locomotive fortune, but was disowned when he married Blondie

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Boopadoop, a

flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptab ...

whom his family saw as below his

class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...

. He has since worked hard at J. C. Dithers Construction Company as

office manager Office management is a profession involving the design, implementation, evaluation, and maintenance of the process of work within an office or other organization, in order to sustain and improve efficiency and productivity. Office management i ...

to support his family. The Bumsteads' first baby, Alexander, was originally named Baby Dumpling. The name of his daughter, Cookie, was chosen by readers in a national contest. The family circle is rounded out by Daisy the dog. The origin of both Dagwood's last name and Daisy's name came from Chic Young's long-time friend Arthur Bumstead and his dog, Daisy.

Characteristics

His favorite things in life include his wife Blondie, his kids, naps on the sofa, long baths, and food. Dagwood is famous for concocting tall, multilayered sandwiches topped with an olive on a toothpick, and the term "

Dagwood sandwich A Dagwood sandwich is a tall, multilayered sandwich made with a variety of meats, cheeses, and condiments. It is named after Dagwood Bumstead, a central character in the comic strip '' Blondie'', who is frequently illustrated making enormous sand ...

" has entered American English. Dagwood often made these sandwiches late at night. Dagwood frequently has problems with door-to-door salesmen, rude telemarketers and store salespeople, crashing into the mailman (Mr. Beasley) as he rushes from home, getting ready before the

carpool Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people usi ...

leaves without him, getting to work on time, his boss J.C. Dithers, and Cookie's many dates. He is often suspicious of her dates and keeps a close watch on them when they come to the house. Other characters in his universe include Elmo Tuttle, a pesky little neighborhood kid who wanders in and out of the Bumstead house, next-door neighbors Herb and Tootsie Woodley, Lou, the sarcastic cook in a local diner, and Mr. Dithers' domineering wife, Cora. Dagwood's birthday is July 20, and/or April 21.

Appearances in other media

Over the years, Dagwood has appeared not only in daily newspapers, but also in

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

s, Big Little Books, Whitman novels for children and other print materials, as well as radio, film, and television. Arthur Lake played Dagwood in the ''Blondie'' film series (1938–50),

radio series A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...

and the short-lived 1957 TV series.

Hal Le Roy Hal Le Roy (born John LeRoy Schotte, December 10, 1913 – May 2, 1985) was an American dancer, actor, and singer appearing on stage, in film, and on television. Life and career Le Roy was born John LeRoy Schotte in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Decemb ...

portrayed Dagwood in the pilot for the 1957 series.

Will Hutchins Will Hutchins (born Marshall Lowell Hutchason; May 5, 1930) is an American actor most noted for playing the lead role of the young lawyer Tom Brewster, in the Western television series ''Sugarfoot'', which aired on ABC from 1957 to 1961 for ...

played him in the 1968 TV series. He made several

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

s in ''

Garfield Gets Real ''Garfield Gets Real'' (also known as ''Garfield 3D'' in some regions) is a 2007 American direct-to-video computer-animated comedy film based on the comic strip ''Garfield''. It was produced by Paws, Inc. in cooperation with Davis Entertainment ...

'', alongside Grimmy from ''

Mother Goose and Grimm ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gesta ...

''. Dagwood and his wife also made a cameo appearance in a ''Garfield'' strip originally published April 1, 1997. In a

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

break, Garfield refers to this as "moving to a different comic strip". Dagwood made another appearance in ''Garfield ''comic strips on August 20, 2005, to invite Jon and Garfield for Blondie and his anniversary party. Dagwood also made a cameo appearance in the 1946 cartoon ''

Hollywood Canine Canteen ''Hollywood Canine Canteen'' is a 1946 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on April 20, 1946. The cartoon features various caricatures of Hollywood film celebrities and famous jazz musician ...

'', where his wife Blondie and he (named Dogwood in this short) are portrayed as anthropomorphic dogs working in a snack bar.

Penny Singleton Penny Singleton (born Mariana Dorothy McNulty, September 15, 1908 – November 12, 2003) was an American actress, singer, dancer and labor leader. During her 60-year career on stage, screen, radio and television, Singleton appeared as the ...

and Arthur Lake voiced these characters, respectively. In the song "Homemade Mummy", alternative rapper

Aesop Rock Ian Matthias Bavitz (born June 5, 1976), better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American rapper and producer from Long Island, New York. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emer ...

briefly refers to Dagwood.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bumstead, Dagwood American comics characters Blondie (comic strip) Comics characters introduced in 1933 Fictional managers Male characters in comics