"would be surrounded by adoring fans. Marx and his brothers respected his opinions and asked him on several occasions to write some material for them. Minnie Marx did not have an entertainment industry career but had intense ambition for her sons to go on the stage like their uncle. While pushing her eldest son Leonard (Chico Marx) in piano lessons, she found that Julius had a pleasant soprano voice and the ability to remain on key. Julius's early career goal was to become a doctor, but the family's need for income forced him out of school at the age of"
"since he did not join the act until Gummo had departed. As with Groucho, three explanations exist for Herbert's name ""Zeppo"": Maxine Marx reported in ""The Unknown Marx Brothers"" that the brothers listed their ""real"" names (Julius, Leonard, Adolph, Milton, and Herbert) on playbills and in programs, and only used the nicknames behind the scenes, until Alexander Woollcott overheard them calling one another by the nicknames. He asked them why they used their real names publicly when they had such wonderful nicknames, and they replied, ""That wouldn't be dignified."" Woollcott answered with a belly laugh. Woollcott did not meet the"
"Groucho Marx Julius Henry ""Groucho"" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, writer, stage, film, radio, and television star. A master of quick wit, he is widely considered one of America's greatest comedians. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born. He also had a successful solo career, most notably as the host of the radio and television game show ""You Bet Your Life"". His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as an exaggerated stooped posture, glasses, cigar, and"
"Captain Spaulding""—done entirely in French. Groucho Marx Julius Henry ""Groucho"" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, writer, stage, film, radio, and television star. A master of quick wit, he is widely considered one of America's greatest comedians. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born. He also had a successful solo career, most notably as the host of the radio and television game show ""You Bet Your Life"". His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as an exaggerated"
"Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) as among the top 100 comedy films, with two of them (""Duck Soup"" and ""A Night at the Opera"") in the top twelve. They are widely considered by critics, scholars, and fans to be among the greatest and most influential comedians of the 20th century. The brothers were included in AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list of the 25"
"a great straight woman who never understood any of his jokes. The Marx Brothers were collectively named #20 on AFI's list of the Top 25 American male screen legends of Classic Hollywood. They are the only group to be so honored. The ""Sweathogs"" of the ABC-TV series ""Welcome Back Kotter"" (John Travolta, Robert Hegyes, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, and Ron Palillo) patterned much of their on-camera banter in that series after the Marx Brothers. Series star Gabe Kaplan was reputedly a big Marx Brothers fan. Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on"
"Marx Brothers until the premiere of ""I'll Say She Is"", which was their first Broadway show, so this would mean that they used their real names throughout their vaudeville days, and that the name ""Gummo"" never appeared in print during his time in the act. Other sources reported that the Marx Brothers went by their nicknames during their vaudeville era, but briefly listed themselves by their given names when ""I'll Say She Is"" opened because they were worried that a Broadway audience would reject a vaudeville act if they were perceived as low class. The Marx Brothers' stage shows became"
"Marx Brothers were born in New York City, the sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany and France. Their mother Miene ""Minnie"" Schoenberg (professionally known as Minnie Palmer, later the brothers' manager) was from Dornum in East Frisia, and their father Samuel (""Sam""; born Simon) Marx was a native of Alsace and worked as a tailor. (His name was changed to Samuel Marx, and he was nicknamed ""Frenchy"".) The family lived in the poor Yorkville section of New York City's Upper East Side, centered in the Irish, German and Italian quarters. The brothers are best known by their stage names: Another"
"the Marx Brothers’ ""A Night in Casablanca"". Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Glenn Ford, Fredric March and Erich von Stroheim were among the stars who worked on the lot in the pre-World War II years. James Cagney made several films on the lot at a time when his brother William was a part owner. With the advent of television, production on the lot changed dramatically. In 1952, the lot made history when Stage 2 became home to ""I Love Lucy"", the first prime-time comedy shot on film and produced before a live audience"
"Marx Brothers to live past early childhood (first-born Manfred Marx had died in infancy). In addition to his work as a performer, he played an important role in the management and development of the act in its early years. He was born on March 22, 1887. Billing himself as Chico, he used an Italian persona for his onstage character; stereotyped ethnic characters were common with vaudevillians. His non-Italian-ness was specifically referred to three times on film. In their second feature, ""Animal Crackers"", he recognizes someone he knows to be a shady character impersonating a respected art collector: Ravelli (Chico): ""How"
"Ronald Stanley Leonard Ronald Stanley Leonard (August 23, 1923 – October 5, 1998) was a Canadian entertainer, artist, and entrepreneur. Best known as a talented magician and illusionist, he was also an accomplished painter. He used oils and watercolours to paint landscapes. His brother was the ventriloquist Cy Leonard. He was a trained MC, a singer, and an actor who appeared on the same bill as Robert Goulet, Cab Calloway, Rich Little, and Jane Morgan. For 16 years, he was the featured magician known as Mr. Magic on ""Uncle Bobby"", a children’s show on CFTO that ran in the 1960s"
"Harpo were the funny guys, Zeppo was the Everyman, the loser who'd come running out of the grocery store only to find the meter maid sticking the parking ticket on his Hungadunga. Zeppo performances produced this tribute from a prominent fan, written in Marc Eliot's 2005 biography of Cary Grant. Grant, a teenager performing in vaudeville under his real name, Archie Leach, loved the Marx Brothers. And as Eliot put it, While the rest of the country preferred Groucho, Zeppo, the good-looking straight man and romantic lead, was Archie's favorite, the one whose foil timing he believed was the real"
"Zeppo Marx Herbert Manfred ""Zeppo"" Marx (February 25, 1901 – November 30, 1979) was an American actor, comedian, theatrical agent, and engineer. He was the youngest of the five Marx Brothers. He appeared in the first five Marx Brothers feature films, from 1929 to 1933, but then left the act to start his second career as an engineer and theatrical agent. Zeppo was born in Manhattan, New York City on February 25, 1901. His parents were Sam Marx (called ""Frenchie"" throughout his life), and his wife, Minnie Schönberg Marx. Minnie's brother was Al Shean. Marx's family was Jewish. His mother"
"and Marx, was a literal ""who's who"" of American entertainment of the time. They included film stars Ethel Barrymore, Charles Boyer, Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Carmen Miranda, Bob Hope, Martin and Lewis, Ginger Rogers, George Sanders, and Gloria Swanson; musical/comedy stage stars Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante, Judy Holliday and Gordon MacRae; opera stars Lauritz Melchior and Robert Merrill; and, jazz and popular music titans Andrews Sisters, Louis Armstrong, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, The Ink Spots, Frankie Laine, Judy Garland, Édith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, Rudy Vallée and Sarah Vaughan. The show also"
"way. As the Marx Brothers, he and his brothers starred in a series of popular stage shows and movies. Their first movie was a silent film made in 1921 that was never released, and is believed to have been destroyed at the time. A decade later, the team made two of their Broadway hits—""The Cocoanuts"" and ""Animal Crackers""—into movies. Other successful films were ""Monkey Business"", ""Horse Feathers"", ""Duck Soup"", and ""A Night at the Opera"". One quip from Marx concerned his response to Sam Wood, the director of ""A Night at the Opera"". Furious with the Marx Brothers' ad-libs and"
"Margaret Dumont Margaret Dumont (October 20, 1882 – March 6, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. She is best remembered as the comic foil to the Marx Brothers in seven of their films. Groucho Marx called her ""practically the fifth Marx brother"". Dumont was born Daisy Juliette Baker in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of William and Harriet Anna (née Harvey) Baker. She trained as an operatic singer and actress in her teens, and began performing on stage in the U.S. and in Europe, at first under the name Daisy Dumont and later as Margaret (or Marguerite) Dumont."
"role of Lenin, Michael Palin played Guevara and Terry Gilliam in yellowface acted as Mao. While the sketch mostly follows the same pattern as in the TV broadcast there are some notable differences. Idle's final question to the four guests is the name of Jerry Lee Lewis' biggest hit, to which Mao correctly answers ""Great Balls of Fire"", albeit in an Engrish accent. When Idle shows Marx the lounge suit he might win he adds that it is a ""beautiful non-materialistic lounge suite."" While Marx didn't say anything after losing in the TV sketch he does react to his loss"
"Famous"", his semi-autobiographical film of 2000. He was the uncle of Dean Martin (being the brother of Dean Martin's mother Angela). The 77-year-old Leonard Barr suffered a stroke on October 28, 1980, in his hotel room in West Hollywood and died on November 22, 1980, in a hospital in Burbank, California. Leonard Barr Leonard Barr (born Leonard Barra; September 27, 1903 – November 22, 1980) was an American stand-up comic, actor, and dancer. Barr appeared several times with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis when they hosted the Colgate Comedy Hour. He had a brief role in ""The Sting"", appropriately as"
"Lewis Russell Lewis Lord Russell (born George Lewis Lord, September 10, 1889 – November 12, 1961) was an American actor of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s who starred in a number of vaudeville shows, Broadway dramas and Hollywood films, including the Academy Award winning ""The Lost Weekend"" (1945) and the Marx Brothers film, ""A Night in Casablanca"" (1946). Russell was born in Farmington, Illinois to British immigrants Samuel and Martha Jane (Wood) Lord, he was the only child of nine born in the United States and, curiously, the only one who developed an English accent. His father was an Illinois"
"Leonard Barr Leonard Barr (born Leonard Barra; September 27, 1903 – November 22, 1980) was an American stand-up comic, actor, and dancer. Barr appeared several times with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis when they hosted the Colgate Comedy Hour. He had a brief role in ""The Sting"", appropriately as a burlesque comic. That is also the way his character is listed in the credits—as an anonymous comedian. However, in the wings of the stage just before the comic's entrance, he has a brief conversation with Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford), who addresses him as ""Leonard"". He is perhaps best remembered internationally"
"Rockliffe Fellowes Rockliffe Fellowes (March 17, 1883 – January 28, 1950), born Rockliffe St. Patrick Fellowes, was a Canadian actor born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. After following a business career for some years, he gave it up to go onto the stage in 1907 and later made his entry into films as the redemptive hero of Raoul Walsh's 1915 silent gangster film ""Regeneration"". He appeared mostly in silent films and is probably best known today for his role as gangster Joe Helton in ""Monkey Business"" (1931) starring the Marx Brothers. At one time he was married to the stage actress"
"Robert Z. Leonard Robert Zigler Leonard (October 7, 1889 – August 27, 1968) was an American film director, actor, producer, and screenwriter. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. At one time, he was married to silent star Mae Murray with the two forming Tiffany Pictures to film eight motion pictures that were released by MGM. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for ""The Divorcee"" and ""The Great Ziegfeld"". Both were also nominated for Best Picture, and the latter won. Known by his nickname, ""Pop,"" Leonard was brought in late by MGM as a reliable director who"
"is named in honor of actor/producer Sheldon Leonard and Nobel Prize Laureate Leon Cooper. Chuck Lorre originally intended Johnny Galecki to play the role, but Galecki thought he would be ""better suited"" for the character of Leonard. Lorre said that when Jim Parsons auditioned for the role, he was ""so startlingly good"" that he was asked to reaudition ""to make sure he hadn't gotten lucky"". Sheldon is one of four characters to appear in every episode of the series, along with Leonard, Howard, and Raj. Sheldon was raised in Galveston, Texas along with his elder brother, George Jr., and fraternal"
"Mockingbird"". From 2013 to 2014, Leonard had a recurring role as Dr. Roger Kadar on the television series ""Falling Skies"". Leonard was born in Westwood, New Jersey, the son of Joyce Patricia (née Peterson), a nurse, and Robert Leonard, a teacher at Collier High School. He grew up in Ridgewood, where he attended Ridgewood High School before moving on to Fordham University and later the Columbia University School of General Studies. Because he shares his birth name with another actor, Leonard uses the name of his brother Sean for his Screen Actors Guild membership. Leonard is a three-time Tony Award"
"and 1970s. He was given life membership to the Society of Canadian Magicians and the Toronto Hat and Rabbit Club, Ring 17. He toured a comedic illusionist act called “Funzafizzen Magic a Go-Go” in Toronto, Niagara Falls, and internationally. He called himself a comedian who happened to use magic as his vehicle. Ronald Stanley Leonard Ronald Stanley Leonard (August 23, 1923 – October 5, 1998) was a Canadian entertainer, artist, and entrepreneur. Best known as a talented magician and illusionist, he was also an accomplished painter. He used oils and watercolours to paint landscapes. His brother was the ventriloquist Cy"
"Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter in the American sitcom ""The Big Bang Theory"", as the writers are fans of his work. Actor Producer Director Sheldon Leonard Sheldon Leonard Bershad (February 22, 1907 – January 11, 1997) was an American film and television actor, producer, director, and writer. Sheldon Leonard Bershad was born in Manhattan, New York City, the son of middle class Jewish parents Anna Levit and Frank Bershad. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1929. As an actor, Leonard specialized in playing supporting characters, especially gangsters or ""heavies"", in films such as ""It's a Wonderful Life"" (1946; as bartender"
"Night at the Opera"".) Sam Marx died on May 10, 1933, from complications due to kidney failure. He was 73. Sam Marx Samuel Marx (born Simon Marx; October 23, 1859 – May 10, 1933) was the husband of Minnie Marx, and father of the Marx Brothers. According to his birth certificate, Marx was born as Simon Marx in Alsace, France. Due to his place of birth, he was known as ""Frenchie"". He met Minnie in New York where he was working as a dance teacher. They married in 1884 and had six sons. Their first son, Manfred, born 1885, died"
"later the same band membership, Trillion (name changed for legal reasons), featuring future Toto singer Dennis ""Fergie"" Frederiksen on lead vocals. His early career also featured short stints as a keyboardist in Frank Zappa’s band in 1976 and The Allman Brothers Band in 1980. He went on to act as musical director and lead keyboardist for the Jackson Victory Tour in 1984. Patrick Leonard Patrick Ray Leonard (born March 14, 1956) is an American songwriter, keyboardist, film composer, and music producer, best known for his longtime collaboration with Madonna. """"The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"", ""Dark Side of the Moon"","
"office boy. In January 1910, Harpo joined two of his brothers, Julius (later ""Groucho"") and Milton (later ""Gummo""), to form ""The Three Nightingales"", later changed to simply ""The Marx Brothers"". Multiple stories—most unsubstantiated—exist to explain Harpo's evolution as the ""silent"" character in the brothers' act. In his memoir, Groucho wrote that Harpo simply wasn't very good at memorizing dialogue, and thus was ideal for the role of the ""dunce who couldn't speak"", a common character in vaudeville acts of the time. Harpo gained his stage name during a card game at the Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg, Illinois. The dealer (Art"
"Bernard Watson Bernard Watson (born David Weinstein, 1967) was the opening act at the American leg of the Live Aid concert in JFK Stadium, Philadelphia on July 13, 1985. An 18-year-old from Miami Beach, he had just graduated from high school and had no professional musical experience. After sleeping outside the stadium for a week, he persuaded the concert's producer Bill Graham, in the spirit of charity, to let him perform. Graham relented, and Watson (who took his stage name from Bernard Marx and Helmholz Watson, two characters from Aldous Huxley's ""Brave New World"") took the stage at 8:51am (EDT)."
"several years. After ending his regular acting career in 1992, Lisle went on to teach Vocal Techniques, to up and coming Broadcasters at the Academy of Radio and Television Broadcasting in Huntington Beach, California. His parents were Lisle Wilson, Sr. and Cecile (Ross) Wilson. Lisle Wilson Lisle Astor Wilson (September 2, 1943 – March 14, 2010), born 'Lisle Astor Wilson Jr.', was an American actor known for playing Leonard Taylor on the ABC sitcom ""That's My Mama"" which ran from 1974 to 1975. His film roles included appearances in Brian De Palma's horror film ""Sisters"" (1972) and ""The Incredible Melting"
"Brother Theodore Brother Theodore (born Theodore Gottlieb; November 11, 1906 – April 5, 2001) was a German-born American actor and comedian known for rambling, stream-of-consciousness monologues which he called ""stand-up tragedy"". He was a man described as ""Boris Karloff, surrealist Salvador Dalí, Nijinsky and Red Skelton…simultaneously"". Gottlieb was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Düsseldorf, in the Rhine Province, where his father was a magazine publisher. He attended the University of Cologne. At age 32, under Nazi rule, he was imprisoned at the Dachau concentration camp until he signed over his family's fortune for one Reichsmark. After being deported"
"Herbert B. Leonard Herbert Breiter Leonard (October 8, 1922 – October 14, 2006) was an American producer and writer. Leonard was a production manager at Screen Gems for many years. Leonard produced and was the production manager for many of the television shows produced for Screen Gems which included ""The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin"", ""Circus Boy"", ""Naked City"", and ""Route 66"". Herbert Breiter Leonard was born on October 8, 1922 in New York, New York, the youngest of two sons of Morton and Rhoda Leonard. His brother was named Kallman. His parents were both of Jewish descent. He went"