Photograph of American comedian and film star Harpo Marx.

Harpo Marx

(1888 - 1964)

Adolph Marx was nicknamed Harpo after the stringed instrument that he had taught himself to play. American playwright George S. Kaufman once asked “How can you write for Harpo? What do you put down on paper? All you can say is, ‘Harpo enters.’ From that point on, he’s on his own!” Of his own onscreen antics, Marx wrote, “Most people have a conscious and a subconscious. Not me. I’ve always operated on a subconscious and a sub-subconscious.” Considering his life achievements in his autobiography Harpo Speaks!, he wrote, “I don’t know whether my life has been a success or a failure. But not having any anxiety about becoming one instead of the other, and just taking things as they came along, I’ve had a lot of extra time to enjoy life.”

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