Arthur Marx

Arthur Julius Marx ( born July 21, 1921 in New York City; † April 14, 2011 in Los Angeles, California ) was an American screenwriter and writer.

Life

Arthur Marx was born in 1921 as the son of comedian Groucho Marx and his first wife Ruth Johnson in Manhattan. After his father and uncle made ​​her acting breakthrough in the early 1930s, the family moved to Los Angeles.

In his youth in the 1930s and early 1940s, Marx was a talented tennis player and included, among other things, the 1939 Junior Davis Cup team, whose members included Jack Kramer, Ted Schroeder and Budge Patty. Marx studied for a year at the University of Southern California before joining in 1942 the United States Coast Guard and was stationed during World War II in the Philippines. After his return to the United States Marx began his Hollywood career in Los Angeles.

First he worked for MGM as a proofreader. Later he became a screenwriter and was on several of Pete Smith's short films, and of films of the Blondie film series, like Blondie in the Dough (1947 ), involved. While he continued to write for film and television, Marx published his first book in 1951, The Ordeal of Willie Brown, in which he recorded his experiences as a tennis player. In 1954 he published with Life With Groucho, the first of a series of books in which he and his father and their relationship to each other busy.

In the early 1960s he began with Robert Fisher cooperate. This had previously been working with for Marx's father. In the next 30 years they wrote the screenplays for numerous movies and sitcoms. Among her works in the 1960s include multiple films with Bob Hope, as Eight on the Lam, A Global Affair, I'll Take Sweden and Cancel My Reservation, episodes of sitcoms, such as McHale's Navy, My Three Sons, Petticoat Junction and The Mothers -in-Law. The sitcom Mickey starring Mickey Rooney in the title role, goes back to her idea. In 1965, she wrote the Broadway play The Impossible Years, which was later filmed by David Niven titled Everything is prohibited. Another Broadway play from her pen is Minnie 's Boys, about Arthur Marx's grandmother. In the 1970s Marx and Fisher wrote episodes for All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude and Love, American Style. In 1977, the two became active in the production crew of the series Alice and worked in more than 40 episodes.

In addition to his work for film and television Marx published a series biographies of famous Hollywood actresses, but they were all not authorized by them. His 1974 published book about Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime ( Especially Himself), was founded in 2002 when Martin and Lewis filmed.

In 1986, Marx and Fisher turned to the works of the Marx Brothers and wrote the Broadway play Groucho: A Life in Revue, in which Marx also directed. The piece won two New York Outer Critics Circle Awards, including best play category. After his performance in London's West End, it was nominated for three Laurence Olivier Awards.

Marx was married twice, his first wife, Irene Kahn, the daughter of lyricist Gus Kahn song. He has two sons and a stepdaughter.

Publications (selection)

• The Ordeal of Willie Brown ( 1951)
• Life With Groucho (1954 )
• Not as a Crocodile (1958 )
• Goldwyn: The Man Behind the Myth
• Red Skelton
• The Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney
• The Secret Life of Bob Hope
• Son of Groucho (1972 )
• Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime ( Especially Himself) (1974 )
• My Life With Groucho (1992 )
• Arthur Marx 's Groucho: A Photographic Journey ( 2003)

Musicals

• The Impossible Years (1965, with Robert Fisher)
• Minnie 's Boys (1970, with Robert Fisher)
• Groucho: A Life in Revue (1986, with Robert Fisher)