Groucho Marx's Biography

Dedicated to the wit and comedy of Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and Gummo

Groucho Marx

Birth name
Julius Henry Marx
Date of birth (location)
October 2, 1890 New York, NY
Date of death (details)
August 19, 1977 Los Angeles, CA (pneumonia)
Height
5' 8"
Married
Eden Hartford (July 17, 1954-Dec 4, 1969)Divorced
Katherine Marvis Gorcey (Feb 24, 1945- May 12, 1951)Divorced; 1 daughter Melinda
Ruth Johnstone (Feb 4, 1920-July 15, 1942) Divorced; 1 son Arthur, 1 Daughter Miriam
Bio
The bushy-browed, cigar-smoking, wisecraker with the painted on mustache and stooped walk was the leader of the Marx Brothers. With one-liners that were many times full of sexual innuendo, Groucho never used profanity in any of his performances, and said he never wanted to be known as a dirty comic. With a great love of music and singing, (the Marx Brothers started as a singing group), one of the things Groucho was best known for was his rendition of the song "Lydia the Tattooed Lady". During the forties and fifties, he was the highly successful host of You bet your life a quiz show on radio and television. His son, Arthur Marx, is a successful writer of biographies and TV scripts. Arthur complained about his father always being "on". If he asked Groucho about something serious or personal, Groucho would reply with one-liners. He is best known for playing characters who were wisecracking sharpies who always sported a cigar, a mustache made of dark greasepaint and walked with a half crouch. After The team split up Groucho made a few films on his own, such as Copacabana (1947), Double Dynamite (1951), A Girl in Every Port(1952), and Skidoo (1968), and had a lengthy career in radio, ultimately leading to the sort-of game show "You Bet Your Life" in 1947, which moved to TV in 1950 for 11 years (and decades more in reruns). Groucho lived long enough to see the team rediscovered and adored anew, even performing a oneman show near the end of his life and receiving a special Oscar in 1973.

Trivia

Was told by studio executive Walter Wanger to lose the greasepaint moustache as it was an "obvious fake". (Source: Joseph Adamson III in his book Groucho, Harpo, Chico and sometimes Zeppo (1973)
Groucho was to have played the title role in a TV movie of L. Frank Baum's _The Magical Monarch of Mo_, with a teleplay by Gore Vidal, which was never produced.
Died three days after Elvis Unfortunately, due to the furore over Elvis's death, the media paid little attention to the passing of this comic genius.
Interred at Eden Memorial Park, San Fernando, California, USA.
When talking about Margaret Dumont the actress who frequently played the inept dowager who acted as a punching bag for Groucho's verbal insults, he claimed the secret to their chemistry is that she never understood what he was saying.
Once during the run of "I'll Say She Is" (The brothers' first Broadway play) Harpo tried to play a practical joke on Groucho by chasing a chorus girl onto the stage while Groucho was in the middle of his act. Not to be outdone, he simply pulled out his watch and said "The Five Fifteen is right on schedule".
Had a fourth brother, Gummo, who performed with the other brothers in Vaudville He left the act before the brothers started to make movies. He none the less remained close to Groucho for the rest of his life.
He suffered from insomnia, which he claimed was due to a financial loss in the stock market. When he suffered from insomnia, he used to call people up in the middle of the night and insult them.
The FBI had a file on him after he made some jokes about communism.
Shortly after his death, his children found a gag letter written by Groucho that stated that he wanted to be buried on top of Marilyn Monroe.
A famous gag toy was modeled after his face - the dark black glasses with big orange nose and mustache "disguise" toy.
There are at least two versions of how Julius Henry Marx got his more famous nickname. One is that it came from his general disposition. The other, that, during the Marx Brothers' early days in Vaudville, he was the keeper of the act's "grouchsack," or money purse. Groucho, himself, said, on one occasion, "my own name, I never did understand."
George Fenneman, Groucho's announcer on "You Bet Your Life," was once asked if Groucho ever embarassed him on the air. "Each and every show," Fenneman replied.
Nephew of actor Al Shean
In the 1950s Groucho was invited to take a tour of the New York Stock Exchange. While in the observation booth, he grabbed the public address system handset and began singing "Lydia the Tattooed Lady". Upon hearing silence coming from the trading floor, he walked into view, was given a loud cheer by the traders, and shouted, "Gentlemen, in 1929 I lost eight hundred thousand dollars on this floor, and I intend to get my money's worth!" For fifteen minutes, he sang, danced, told jokes, and all this time, the Wall Street stock ticker was running blank.

More Biographical Information at: www.marx-brothers.org

Groucho Marx appeared in the following movies:

Film Title	Character name
Humorisk - 1920/21 c.	(Villain)
The Cocoanuts - 1929	Mr. Hammer
Animal Crackers - 1930	Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding
Monkey Business - 1931	A Stowaway
The House That Shadows Built - 1931
Horse Feathers - 1932	Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff
Hollywood on Parade No.5 - 1932
Duck Soup - 1933	Rufus T. Firefly
A Night at the Opera - 1935	Otis P. Driftwood
Yours For the Asking - 1936	Sunbather (extra)
A Day at the Races - 1937	Doctor Hugo Z. Hackenbush
Room Service - 1938	Gordon Miller
At the Circus - 1939	J. Cheever Loophole
Go West - 1940	S. Quentin Quale
The Big Store - 1941	Wolf J. Flywheel
Instatanes - 1943
Screen snapshot No. 110 - 1943
A Night in Casablanca - 1946	Ronald Kornblow
Copacabana - 1947	Lionel Q. Deveraux
Love Happy - 1949	Sam Grunion
Mr. Music - 1950	Himself
Double Dynamite - 1951	Emile J. Keck
A Girl in Every Port - 1952	Benjamin Linn
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? - 1957	George Schmidlap
The Story of Mankind - 1957	Peter Minuit
Skidoo - 1968	God

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