--- title: Groucho Marx at 125: Remembering His Craziest Characters description: Oct. 2, 1890: Groucho Marx is born canonical: https://time.com/4049402/groucho-marx-125/ author: Jennifer Latson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-02T11:30:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:54.695Z article:section: History og:title: Groucho Marx at 125: Remembering His Craziest Characters og:description: Oct. 2, 1890: Groucho Marx is born og:url: https://time.com/4049402/groucho-marx-125/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte80ccf7ffcad30b0/69886569f887dc26f0e92905/marx.jpeg?branch=production&width=628&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 628 og:image:height: 353 og:image:alt: Groucho og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Groucho Marx at 125: Remembering His Craziest Characters twitter:description: Oct. 2, 1890: Groucho Marx is born twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte80ccf7ffcad30b0/69886569f887dc26f0e92905/marx.jpeg?branch=production&width=628&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Groucho Marx at 125: Remembering His Craziest Characters > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 100 Years of Blockbusters in 5 Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): 100 Years of Blockbusters in 5 Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tfrXo5zL.m3u8) (5:21)  _Published 2014-02-12. Time has taken the highest grossing film each year for the past century and crammed them into 5 and a half minutes. No Intermission._ by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Oct 2, 2015 11:30 AM UTC  circa 1935: American actor Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977), with his trademark moustache and glasses. circa 1935: American actor Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977), with his trademark moustache and glasses. John Kobal Foundation—Getty Images by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Oct 2, 2015 11:30 AM UTC Few comedians are in Groucho Marx’s league — but he wouldn’t want to belong to any league that would have him as a member, anyway. The man who inspired a line of [novelty glasses](http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/06/18/reviews/000618.18giddent.html) was born in New York on this day, Oct. 2, in 1890 (given name: Julius Henry Marx). He and his brothers became legendary as the zaniest characters ever seen, or heard, on stage, screen or radio: the “funniest brothers in the U.S.,” as [TIME called them](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,952068,00.html) in 1930\. Groucho, of course, was the leader of the pack: the one “who pulls most of the wisecracks,” per TIME. A planned biopic [announced this summer](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/groucho-marx-biopic/rob-zombie-director/), with Rob Zombie as director, will pay homage to Groucho’s legacy and the debt Hollywood owes him. As TIME’s Richard Corliss [put it](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,995560,00.html) in 2004, “If the Four Marx Brothers—Groucho, mute Harpo, Italianate Chico (pronounced Chick-o) and straight man Zeppo—weren’t the fathers of every aggressive film comic from the Stooges to Sandler, they were surely their Dadas.” The Marx brothers’ comedy style was heavy on puns and light on logic, steeped in slapstick and highly irreverent — especially so with Groucho. “Unsquelchable effrontery has always been Groucho’s chief stock in trade,” [TIME declared](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,821980-1,00.html) in 1951\. “During his stage & screen career, he played a succession of brazen rascals.” A few of Groucho’s brazenest rascals follow: **Captain Spaulding**. Jeffrey T. Spaulding (as he explains, the “T” stands for Edgar) is an explorer and fast-talking con man in the Broadway play—and the 1930 film—_Animal Crackers_. [He claims](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZUfhfHbjE4) to have shot a polar bear while on safari; when pressed about encountering an Arctic bear in Africa, he explains, “He was a rich bear and he could afford to go away in the winter.” He adds, famously, “One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.” **Professor Wagstaff**. In the 1932 film _Horse Feathers_, Groucho plays Prof. Quincy Adams Wagstaff, president of the fictional Huxley College. The cigar-puffing (of course) professor teaches a geography class, telling his students, “The Lord Alps those that Alps themselves.” When students blow spitballs at him, he blows spitballs back. In the film’s iconic ending—a still of which made [TIME’s front cover](http://time.com/vault/issue/1932-08-15/page/1/) that year—Groucho and his brothers, cast as football players, arrive at a Huxley football game in a garbage can on wheels. They win the game when they ride to the end zone in their “refuse wagon,” [per TIME](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,744191,00.html), and “put down several balls for several more touchdowns.” **Otis B. Driftwood**. Groucho as Driftwood is a [scheming business manager](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,755337,00.html) working all the angles in _A Night at the Opera_ (1935). In an attempt to assuage his client after he stands her up for dinner—and she catches him with another woman at the same restaurant where she’s been waiting for an hour—[he explains](http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/224503/Night-at-the-Opera-A-Movie-Clip-Otis-B-Driftwood.html), “That woman? Do you know why I sat with her? Because she reminded me of you.” **Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush.** Groucho plays a “horse doctor posing as a fashionable neurologist,” as [TIME describes Dr. Hackenbush](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,821980-1,00.html), in the 1937 romp _A Day at the Races_. When told that a sanitarium is looking to hire a doctor with peculiar talent, he answers, “You don’t have to look any further. I’ve got the most peculiar talents of any doctor you’ve ever met.” Examining a patient, he remarks, “Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped.” **_Read a 1951 cover story about Groucho Marx, here in the TIME archives:_** [Personality](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,821980-1,00.html) ## Transcript [ Music Playing ] [ Music Playing ] >> I'm going to kiss you then I want you to turn away and go on talking. >> Or I'll take the liberty of having you seized up and flogged. >> Now take the apple dearie. >> Nowadays you go out and get yourself an >> ism and-- >> Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. >> War! Take [ unk ] >> It is a war of the people, of all the people. >> Stand up now and go and we both go. >> Would you like to swing on a star. >> The bells of St. Mary. >> I'll never marry him. >> Nor any of the [ unk ] you try to force on me. >> Late? >> For the Easter Parade. We had a date, remember? -[ unk ] He's back. >> It's the greatest show on earth. >> White Christmas. >> Now, this is Doc, girls, Mr. Roberts. >> Hi! >> Hi! >> Hi! -[ unk ] >> What don't we get? >> You know damn well. >> Your eyes are full of hate, 41. >> Keep cooly cool, boy. >> No criminals! >> I could have danced all night. >> The hills are alive with the sound of music. >> Let there be light! >> Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. >> I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that. >> Rules. No rules. >> 'Til we marry, okay? >> The French connection, a [ unk ] with a record too clean to be true. -[ unk ] >> All right, everybody, FBI! Don't anybody try to leave. -[ Music Playing ] >> Enjoy your flight. >> No, I am your father. >> Then try to keep up, okay? >> The need for speed. >> There you go, Ray. >> Yeah. >> You're dancing. >> Yeah. >> This is it. -[ unk ] are we hit? >> On our left. >> I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle. >> A whole new world. >> The circle of life. >> 90 blocks and 30 minutes of New York traffic. >> I'm flying. Jack-- >> I'll look in on you from time to time, okay, honey. >> You're a wizard, Harry. >> Shrek! >> Fiona! >> Fiona! >> Mom! >> Harold. >> Donkey! >> Let her go. >> Very poor choice of words. >> That's not trash. That's not trash! >> I thought I was-- >> The [ unk ] >> Oh my. >> What the heck? 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