"greatest male stars of Classic Hollywood cinema, the only performers to be inducted collectively. The group is almost universally known today by their stage names: Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo, and Zeppo. There was a 6th brother, the first born, named Manfred (Mannie), who died aged 7 months; Zeppo was given the middle name Manfred in his memory. The core of the act was the three elder brothers: Chico, Harpo, and Groucho, each of whom developed a highly distinctive stage persona. After the group essentially disbanded in 1950, Groucho went on to begin a successful second career in television, while Harpo"
"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"
"Gummo Marx Milton ""Gummo"" Marx (October 23, 1893 – April 21, 1977) was an American vaudevillian performer, actor, comedian and theatrical agent. He was the second youngest of the five Marx Brothers. Born in Manhattan, New York City, he worked with his brothers on the vaudeville circuit, but left acting when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War I (years before his brothers, Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Zeppo, began their film careers). Marx was born in Manhattan, New York City, on October 23, 1893. His parents were Sam Marx (called ""Frenchie"" throughout his life), and his wife,"
"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 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"
"of his brothers to whom he was closest, Groucho replied, ""Gummo. He's a nice man, and that's more than I can say for Zeppo"". Gummo Marx Milton ""Gummo"" Marx (October 23, 1893 – April 21, 1977) was an American vaudevillian performer, actor, comedian and theatrical agent. He was the second youngest of the five Marx Brothers. Born in Manhattan, New York City, he worked with his brothers on the vaudeville circuit, but left acting when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War I (years before his brothers, Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Zeppo, began their film careers). Marx"
"special material for the show, but the script for the classic ""Napoleon Scene"" was probably supplied by Groucho. On January 16, 1977, the Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame. With the deaths of Gummo in April 1977, Groucho in August 1977, and Zeppo in November 1979, the brothers were gone. But their impact on the entertainment community continues well into the 21st century. Many television shows and movies have used Marx Brothers references. ""Animaniacs"" and ""Tiny Toons"", for example, have featured Marx Brothers jokes and skits. Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) on ""M*A*S*H"" occasionally put on"
"and renamed it ""Fun In Hi Skule"". The Marx Brothers would perform variations on this routine for the next seven years. For a time in vaudeville, all the brothers performed using ethnic accents. Leonard, the oldest, developed the Italian accent he used as Chico Marx to convince some roving bullies that he was Italian, not Jewish. Arthur, the next oldest, donned a curly red wig and became ""Patsy Brannigan"", a stereotypical Irish character. His discomfort when speaking on stage led to his Uncle Al Shean's suggestion that he stop speaking altogether and play the role in mime. Julius Marx's character"
"work predated their Hollywood career. By the time the Marxes made their first movie, they were already major stars with sharply honed skills; and by the time Groucho was relaunched to stardom on ""You Bet Your Life"", he had been performing successfully for half a century. Groucho Marx made 26 movies, 13 of them with his brothers Chico and Harpo. Marx developed a routine as a wisecracking hustler with a distinctive chicken-walking lope, an exaggerated greasepaint mustache and eyebrows, and an ever-present cigar, improvising insults to stuffy dowagers (often played by Margaret Dumont) and anyone else who stood in his"
"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"
"films. He and Gallagher also made an early sound film at the Theodore Case studio in Auburn, New York, in 1925. He died on 12 August 1949. Shean's son, also named Al Shean, worked on ""The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show"". Al Shean Abraham Elieser Adolph Schönberg (12 May 1868 – 12 August 1949), known as Al Shean, was a comedian and vaudeville performer. Other sources give his birth name variously as Adolf Schönberg, Albert Schönberg, or Alfred Schönberg. He is most remembered for being half of the vaudeville team Gallagher and Shean, and as the uncle of the Marx Brothers."
"Chico Marx Leonard ""Chico"" Marx (March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was an American comedian, musician, actor and film star. He was a member of the Marx Brothers (with Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, and Zeppo Marx). His persona in the act was that of a charming, uneducated but crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat. On screen, Chico is often in alliance with Harpo, usually as partners in crime, and is also frequently seen trying to con or outfox Groucho. Leonard was the oldest of the"
"sell more ad time, putting his job on the line. In ""Everyone Says I Love You"" (1996), Woody Allen and Goldie Hawn dress as Groucho for a Marx Brothers celebration in France, and the song ""Hooray for Captain Spaulding"", from ""Animal Crackers"", is performed, with various actors dressed as the brothers, striking poses famous to Marx fans. (The film itself is named after a song from ""Horse Feathers"", a version of which plays over the opening credits.) Harpo Marx appeared as himself in a sketch on ""I Love Lucy"" in which he and Lucille Ball reprised the mirror routine from"
"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"
"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."
"undistinguished vaudeville singing group billed as ""The Four Nightingales"". The brothers Julius, Milton (Gummo Marx) and Arthur (originally Adolph, but Harpo Mark from 1911) and another boy singer, Lou Levy, traveled the U.S. vaudeville circuits to little fanfare. After exhausting their prospects in the East, the family moved to La Grange, Illinois, to play the Midwest. After a particularly dispiriting performance in Nacogdoches, Texas, Julius, Milton, and Arthur began cracking jokes onstage for their own amusement. Much to their surprise, the audience liked them better as comedians than as singers. They modified the then-popular Gus Edwards comedy skit ""School Days"""
"Arthur Marx Arthur Julius Marx (July 21, 1921April 14, 2011) was an American author, a nationally ranked amateur tennis player, and son of entertainer Groucho Marx, and his first wife, Ruth Johnson. He was named after Groucho's brother Arthur ""Harpo"" Marx. Marx spent his early years accompanying his father around vaudeville circuits in the United States and abroad. When he was 10, the family moved to Southern California, where the Marx Brothers continued their film careers. Marx was a nationally ranked tennis player before he was 18. While he was attending the University of Southern California, he won the National"
"of the same name (featuring a foreword by Groucho) which focuses on the minutiae of the Marx Brothers' routines. The duck is a recurring reference throughout the Marxes' and especially Groucho's career. His signature walk was called ""the duck walk"" and on Groucho's television program ""You Bet Your Life"" a stuffed duck made up to resemble Groucho would drop from the ceiling to give contestants money if they said the day's secret word. Ducks are the only animals that perform lines in the song ""Everyone Says I Love You"" in the Marx Brothers' fourth film, ""Horse Feathers"". Their fifth film"
"who never understood any of his jokes. On the television series ""Cheers"", Lilith Crane said Zeppo was her favorite Marx brother. A third season episode of the television series ""Buffy the Vampire Slayer"" was titled ""The Zeppo"". This episode focuses on the perspective of the character Xander Harris; his position as ostensibly the least impressive or capable member of the cast is compared to Zeppo Marx. 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"
"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"
"attraction. On July 16, 1905, the Leroy Trio, made up of drag performer Gene Leroy, and two teenage singers, Johnnie Morris and Julius Marx, performed at the Ramona Theatre, which was Groucho Marx's professional debut. Many Vaudeville acts performed there during the 1920s and 1930s. Celebrities such as Edgar Bergen, the Marx Brothers, Jimmy Durante, Joan Davis, Jack Benny, Fred Allen and Will Rogers plied their talents here, along with Buster Keaton, Fanny Brice, and many others. The A.B. Marcus shows were extremely popular during the 1930s and 1940s. Troupes of beautiful girls sang and danced at stage shows that"
"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"
"Marx Brothers movie ""Horse Feathers"" (1932). Allen is a well-known Groucho Marx fan. Marx's theme song from ""Animal Crackers"" (1930) ""Hooray for Captain Spaulding"" is featured, sung in French by a chorus of Groucho Marx's. The film was released theatrically in North America on December 8, 1996 on three screens. Its opening weekend gross was $131,678 ($43,892 per screen). It ended its North American run with $9,759,200. The film was well received. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 79% ""fresh"" rating, based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's consensus states: ""A likable, infectious musical,"
"Horse Feathers Horse Feathers is a 1932 Pre-Code comedy film starring the Marx Brothers. It stars the four Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo) and Thelma Todd. It was written by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, S. J. Perelman, and Will B. Johnstone. Kalmar and Ruby also wrote some of the original music for the film. Several of the film's gags were taken from the Marx Brothers' stage comedy from the 1900s, ""Fun in Hi Skule"". The term ""horse feathers"" was a colloquial American expression for ""nonsense"" in the 1920s and 1930s but is now archaic. The film revolves around"
"both his parents had been surnamed ""Gonzalez"" before being married. So Marx asked: ""What does your wife call you: Ramiro or Gonzalez?"" He replied ""She calls me 'Pedro'"", triggering audience laughter. After Gonzalez performed a 15-second comic dance to strong applause, Marx complimented his guest's comedic skill, saying: ""Pedro, we could do a great act together. We could make a fortune in vaudeville, you and I. What -- what would we call our act, you know, if we went out together? 'The Two Hot Tamales'?"" After Pedro deadpanned ""Gonzalez Gonzalez and Marx"", Groucho made an aside: ""That's nice billing. Two"
"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"
"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"
"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"
"from ""Fun In Hi Skule"" was an ethnic German, so Julius played him with a German accent. After the sinking of the in 1915, public anti-German sentiment was widespread, and Marx's German character was booed, so he quickly dropped the accent and developed the fast-talking wise-guy character that became his trademark. The Marx Brothers became the biggest comedic stars of the Palace Theatre in New York, which billed itself as the ""Valhalla of Vaudeville"". Brother Chico's deal-making skills resulted in three hit plays on Broadway. No other comedy routine had ever so infected the Broadway circuit. All of this stage"
"as a ""terrible movie"", while speaking of the lasting impression Marilyn Monroe made during her screen test. Love Happy Love Happy is a 1949 American musical comedy film, released by United Artists, directed by David Miller, starring the Marx Brothers. It was the 14th (including ""Humor Risk"") and last film starring feature for the Marx Brothers. The film, produced by former silent film star Mary Pickford, stars Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, and, in a smaller role than usual, Groucho Marx, plus Ilona Massey, Vera-Ellen, Paul Valentine, Marion Hutton, Raymond Burr, Bruce Gordon (in his film debut), and Eric Blore, with"
"the first to die. He is entombed in a crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Chico's younger brother Gummo is in a crypt across the hall from him. Many actors have portrayed Chico in stage revivals of Marx Brothers works, including Peter Slutsker, Les Marsden and Matt Roper. Chico Marx Leonard ""Chico"" Marx (March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was an American comedian, musician, actor and film star. He was a member of the Marx Brothers (with Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, and Zeppo Marx). His persona in the act was that of a charming, uneducated"