Groucho Marx

Overview

Born
October 2, 1890 · New York City, New York, USA
Died
August 19, 1977 · Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia)
Birth name
Julius Henry Marx
Height
5′ 7½″ (1.71 m)

Biography

The bushy-browed, cigar-smoking wise-cracker with the painted-on moustache and stooped walk was the leader of The Marx Brothers. With one-liners that were often double entendres, Groucho never cursed 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."
- IMDb mini biography by: John Nehrenz

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

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.
In Marx Brothers movies, he almost always played characters with unusual first names, a middle initial and unlikely last names; i.e.: Rufus T. Firefly, Hugo Z. Hackenbush and Otis B. Driftwood.
Smoking a cigar
His thick eyebrows, glasses, big nose and (often painted-on) moustache
Quirkily High-Pitched Voice

Trivia

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.
His son Arthur Marx was once smoking a corncob pipe in his room when he heard his father coming down the hall. In a panic, he stuffed the still-lit pipe into a drawer. Groucho came in, sniffed the air and left without a word. A moment later he was back with a briar pipe and a pouch of tobacco. "This will be better than that corncob you're using," he said. Arthur asked if his father was angry and Groucho said, "Nonsense. Smoking won't hurt you. I've been smoking for years, and aside from the fact that I feel terrible all the time it hasn't hurt me, either!".
Died three days after Elvis Presley. Unfortunately, due to the furor over the former's death, the media paid little attention to the passing of this comic genius.
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.
Was in attendance at The Beatles 1964 Hollywood Bowl concert, and there is existing footage of him applauding.

Quotes

[on resigning from the Friars Club] I do not care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.
[when told that a swimming pool was off-limits to Jews] My son is half-Jewish; can he wade in up to his knees?
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
Marriage is a wonderful institution. But who wants to live in an institution?
I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.