Harpo Marx

Harpo was a “confirmed bachelor” when he met actress Susan Fleming at a party. The lady fell madly in love with his warm and charming persona and pursued him for years before he finally accepted her proposal. They were married in 1936. The couple adopted four children.

He suffered from a heart attack in 1964 and was advised to have an open-heart surgery. He died shortly after the surgery at the age of 75.

Harpo Marx was born to Jewish parents in New York. His father, Sam Marx was a tailor who could hardly earn enough to feed his large family. His mother Minnie Marx, though poor was a very ambitious woman who motivated her sons to achieve great success in life.

He did not acquire much formal education as he had dropped out of school early. Being the only Jew in class, he was constantly tormented by his classmates until he could not take it anymore and left the school for good.

Coming form a poor family, Harpo and his brothers started doing odd jobs from a young age to make ends meet.

In 1910, Harpo and two of his bothers formed a singing group called ‘The Three Nightingales’. Initially Harpo was also given a speaking part though he could not speak his lines as effectively as his brothers did. This motivated him to develop himself as a mime artist instead.

He was musically very talented and could play six different instruments. His stage roles often had him playing a harp, and therefore he gained the name ‘Harpo’.

The brothers brought in more family members into their group which was then renamed as ‘The Four Nightingales’. The group also shifted their focus from singing to comedy, and finally decided on the name ‘Marx Brothers’.

By the mid-1910s, the brothers began to develop their own unique style of comedy and their distinctive character traits. Harpo began wearing a huge wig of curly red hair, a top hat, and a raincoat. He never spoke on stage and honked a horn to communicate.

The Marx Brothers became America’s most loved comedy act due to their witty sarcasm and bizarre sense of humour.

The comedy film ‘Monkey Business’ (1931) was a huge hit at the time of its release and was regarded as the Marx Brothers’ most financially successful film. The movie had a famous scene in which each of the brothers tries to masquerade as a famous film star.

The Marx Brothers’ anarchic comedy film ‘Duck Soup’ (1933) was a box office disappointment at the time of its release. However, the opinion of the critics evolved over the years, and today it is considered to be one of the brothers’ best films.

He starred as Punchy in the movie ‘At the Circus’ (1939) where he helps to rescue a circus from the hands of unscrupulous elements. The film was described as "a veritable riot of hilarity" by the newspapers.