American comedian (1887-1961). Real name: Leonard Marx. Born in
New York City, Leonard was the oldest child in the family (his older brother Manfred had died in
infancy) and was the apple of his mother's eye. He still got into as much
mischief as his brothers did, but he didn't get into as much
trouble for it.
Chico's
schtick in the Marx Brothers was speaking in an outrageous
Italian accent. He learned the
accent by listening to the many Italians in the neighborhood where he grew up and practiced his
routine when he was a
kid by using the accent to negotiate his way through various
gang-run areas of New York. He was also an accomplished
pianist (though his skills on the
piano were not as strong as his brother
Harpo's skills on the
harp), and his piano-playing was often
spotlighted in
films. He was also said to have had a
photographic memory.
Hollywood legends have it that his
nickname was originally "
Chicko," because he spent so much time chasing
chicks. Supposedly, a
typesetter accidentally left the "k" out of his name once, and Chico decided he liked the way it looked. However, the proper
pronunciation was
still supposed to be "Chick-O."
Once the
Marx Brothers got started in
vaudeville, Chico evolved into something of the group's
director: he helped determine the act's
format, persuaded his brothers to move on to
Broadway and Hollywood, acted as their
manager after their previous manager (their mother) retired, and got studio bigshot
Irving Thalberg interested in their act.
Despite his good
business sense, Chico was often in
debt because he was
addicted to
gambling. He had to continue
performing long after his brothers had retired because he'd lost so much
money over the years on gambling. In fact, his gambling almost got him into serious trouble once, when a
check he'd written was found in the
pocket of recently-deceased
mobster Bugsy Siegel. He was questioned by the
police, but he persuaded them that the check was only a
payment for a gambling debt.
Chico played in all of the Marx Brothers' films, including "
Humor Risk" (a
silent film, screened once and now
lost forever), "
The Cocoanuts," "
Animal Crackers," "
Monkey Business," "
Horse Feathers," "
Duck Soup," "
A Night at the Opera," "
A Day at the Races," "
Room Service," "
At the Circus," "
Go West," "
The Big Store," and "
A Night in Casablanca." He died in Hollywood in 1961 of
heart disease.
Research from http://www.marx-brothers.org/living/chico.htm and http://www.imdb.com