Groucho Marx's twitching eyebrows, flicking cigar and quick-witted irreverence made him one of the world's most enduring and revered funnymen. His distinctive brand of comedy spanned more than 65 years of vaudeville, films, radio and television.
An eye-rolling, mustachioed comic with a lope, a leer and an inevitable cigar, Julius Henry Marx, his real name, was a master of the ad-lib, the squelch, the snappy comeback. With his brothers, he made 14 films that have become comedy classics. Together, they made an art form of zaniness.
The Marx Brothers got their start before Groucho joined the group. When he moved to Hollywood in 1931, they made several movies: "Monkey Business" (1931), "Horsefeathers" (1932) and "Duck Soup" (1933). The group hit their comedic stride in 1935 with "A Night at the Opera." Their last movie was "Love Happy" in 1949.
But perhaps Groucho's greatest fame came as emcee of the radio and television quiz show "You Bet Your Life," in which the quiz was a kind of afterthought to the comedian's tart and biting wit as he wisecracked with contestants and the show's straight-man announcer, George Fenneman.
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Year | Category | Work | |
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1973 | Honorary Award | Win |
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