Samuel Marx (born Simon Marx; October 23, 1859 – May 10, 1933) was the father of American entertainment group (the)
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) ...
, stars of
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
,
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
and film, and the husband of
Minnie Marx
Minnie Marx (born Miene Schönberg, 9 November 1864 – 13 September 1929) was the mother and manager of the Marx Brothers, a family of vaudevillains, Broadway and film actors and was also the sister of comedian and vaudeville star Al Shean.
Ear ...
, who served as the group's manager.
Life and career
According to his birth certificate, Marx was born as Simon Marx in
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
, then part of the
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Empire, Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the French Second Republic, Second and the French Third Republic ...
.
Due to his place of birth, he was known as "Frenchie". His parents were Simon Marx and Johanna Haennchen Isaak; he came to the U.S. from France in 1880. 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 in 1885, died in infancy. The other children were
Leonard (Chico), born in 1887,
Adolph (Harpo) in 1888,
Julius (Groucho) in 1890,
Milton (Gummo) in 1892, and
Herbert (Zeppo) in 1901. Marx was an excellent
pinochle
Pinochle (), also called pinocle or penuchle, is a trick-taking, Ace-Ten card game typically for two to four players and played with a 48-card deck. It is derived from the card game bezique; players score points by trick-taking and also by form ...
player, a game he taught to his two eldest sons.
Marx became a tailor, although apparently not a very good one. According to Groucho, he was a talented cook, often convincing the landlord to delay their rent pay time with a good meal. In his show ''An Evening With Groucho'', Groucho reminisced about his father, Sam:
Harpo put the bad tailoring down to the fact that Frenchie never took the time to measure a client for a suit, preferring to guess their size. He would then take the suits that clients had rejected, travel to New Jersey, and sell them door-to-door.
In his last interview, Zeppo joked that his late father "was a very bad tailor but he found some people who were so stupid that they would buy his clothes, and so he'd make a few dollars that way for food".
Cameo appearance with his sons
Marx made a
cameo appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...
in his four sons' film ''
Monkey Business'' (1931),
sitting on top of luggage behind the brothers on the pier as they wave to the First Officer, having slipped off the ship without being arrested as stowaways. (In some interviews, this scene has been mistakenly attributed to ''
A Night at the Opera''.)
Death
Marx died in Hollywood, California, on May 10, 1933, from complications due to
kidney failure
Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...
.
[ at age of 73.
He was survived by his brother-in-law Al, sons Chico, Harpo, Groucho, ]Gummo
''Gummo'' is a 1997 American experimental drama film written and directed by Harmony Korine, starring Jacob Reynolds, Nick Sutton, Jacob Sewell, and Chloë Sevigny. The film is set (but was not filmed) in Xenia, Ohio, a Midwestern American town ...
and Zeppo Marx
Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx (February 25, 1901 – November 30, 1979) was an American comedic actor, theatrical agent, and engineer. He was the youngest and last survivor of the five Marx Brothers. He appeared in the first five Marx Brothers f ...
and grandchildren Maxine, Arthur
Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...
, Miriam
Miriam ( he, מִרְיָם ''Mīryām'', lit. 'Rebellion') is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the older sister of Moses and Aaron. She was a prophetess and first appears in the Book of Exodus.
The Tor ...
and Robert "Bob" Marx. He was interred at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, Queens
Glendale is a neighborhood in the west-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Forest Hills to the east, Ridgewood to the west, Woodhaven to the south, and Middle Village to the north.
Glendale was built on a ...
next to his late wife Minnie (who predeceased him in September 1929),
References
External links
Family — The Marx Brothers
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marx, Sam
1859 births
1933 deaths
People from Bas-Rhin
Alsatian Jews
American male actors
American people of French-Jewish descent
French emigrants to the United States
Deaths from kidney disease