Samuel Simon Marx (born Simon Marx; October 23, 1859 – May 10, 1933) was the father of the American entertainers known as the

Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act known for their anarchic humor, rapid-fire wordplay, and visual gags. They achieved success in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in 14 motion pictures. The core group consisted of brothers Chi ...

, stars of

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

, Broadway and film, and the husband of Minnie Marx, who served as the group's manager.

Life and family

According to his birth certificate, Marx was born as Simon Marx in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

, in France. 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 player and taught the game to his two eldest sons.

Career

Marx became a tailor. 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 said: 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 appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

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 renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), 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 fa ...

, aged 73. He was survived by his brother-in-law

Al Shean Abraham Elieser Adolph Schönberg (May 12, 1868 – August 12, 1949), known as Al Shean, was a comedian and vaudeville performer. Other sources give his birth name variously as Adolf Schönberg, Albert Schönberg, or Alfred Schönberg. He is mos ...

, sons Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo Marx and grandchildren Maxine,

Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...

Miriam Miriam (, 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 Torah refers to her as "Miria ...

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 (New York City), borough of Queens. It is bounded by Forest Hills, Queens, Forest Hills to the east, Ridgewood, Queens, Ridgewood to the west, Woodhaven, Queens, ...

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