Zeppo Marx

One of only two of The Marx Brothers to play a recurring role in their films (not counting when they used their own names). He played the role of "Jamison" in both The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930).

Officially left the brothers' comedy team to become an agent on March 30, 1934.

He was a serious amateur machinist, and among the products his company, Marman, developed in the late 1940s was a 2-cylinder motorized bicycle, the Marman Twin (produced 1948-1949). Unfortunately, his bike was unable to compete with the more established Whizzers, despite being far more powerful. These bikes are highly collectible today.

He and his first wife adopted their only child, Timothy, in 1944.

The youngest of The Marx Brothers, Zeppo was put into the role of the straight man after his brother Gummo left the act. Zeppo also acted as an understudy to all three of his brothers, and he has been said to have played Grouchos part better than Groucho himself. After playing small parts in the first five Marx Brothers movies, Zeppo felt his talent wasn't being used to its full extent and left the act to join Gummo as an agent. Somewhat of a mechanical whiz, Zeppo invented a wristwatch that would monitor the pulse rate of cardiac patients, and his company, Marman Products, produced clamping devices which were used in the first atomic bomb raids over Japan in 1945.

He was portrayed by actor Alvin Kupperman in the Broadway musical "Minnie's Boys," which ran an at the Imperial Theatre for 80 Performances from Mar 26 to May 30, 1970.

According to Marc Eliot's Cary Grant biography (2005): "While the rest of the country preferred Groucho, Zeppo, the good-looking straight man and romantic lead, was [Grant's] favorite, the one whose foil timing he believed was the real key to the act's success." Grant even modeled his early Hollywood look and persona off of Zeppo.