The most famous and gleefully self-promoting of the Marx Brothers, Groucho (born Julius) was the sardonic, sometimes absurdist wit of the group. Dressed in baggy pants, with oversized glasses and painted-on eyebrows and mustache, Groucho hurled barbed insults at friends and foes alike while crouch-walking and tapping imaginary ashes from a huge cigar. Like many vaudeville cohorts, he was a human cartoon, but he outlasted them all.

Marx's maternal family was theatrical and included famed vaudeville star Al Shean. Groucho got his start with Gus Edwards' kiddie review around 1904, and with his