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forked from Groucho Marx, and slightly reworked
Zeppo played the group's straight man and occasional romantic lead,<ref>http://www.marx-brothers.org/biography/zeppo.htm</ref> though on stage he understudied for Groucho, and was considered just as capable a comedian as his siblings. <ref>http://books.google.ca/books?id=k64P_6iYpmUC&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=zeppo+understudy+groucho&source=bl&ots=uQoGLAfa09&sig=ys2CDvkJYy1Qw339VywlwosZWgY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result</ref> Zeppo eventually left the group and ran a company that produced parts for the [[World War II|war]] effort.
Zeppo played the group's straight man and occasional romantic lead,<ref>http://www.marx-brothers.org/biography/zeppo.htm</ref> though on stage he understudied for Groucho, and was considered just as capable a comedian as his siblings. <ref>http://books.google.ca/books?id=k64P_6iYpmUC&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=zeppo+understudy+groucho&source=bl&ots=uQoGLAfa09&sig=ys2CDvkJYy1Qw339VywlwosZWgY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result</ref> Zeppo eventually left the group and ran a company that produced parts for the [[World War II|war]] effort.
==From vaudeville to film==
Beginning with 1929's ''The Cocoanuts'' and followed in 1930 with ''[[Animal Crackers]]'', the Marx Brothers took to the screen for a series of long-running and widely acclaimed musical comedies. Their 1933 ''[[Duck Soup]]'', which took [[pot]]shots at the tinpot [[dictatorship]]s of prewar [[Europe]], is frequently rated one of the greatest comedies of all time.{{fact}}
While Groucho, Harpo, and Chico's characters translated easily to the cinematic medium, Zeppo Marx's straight-man persona did not fare so well. Audiences didn't respond to Zeppo's light touch, preferring the more slapstick comedy of Groucho, Chico, and Harpo, and Zeppo grew bored with the role. After the success of ''Duck Soup'', Zeppo left the act for good.
The three Marx Brothers made a few more films with MGM, such as ''A Night at the Opera'' and ''A Day at the Races'', but the quality of their work began to falter, and the act was essentially defunct by the 1950s. The brothers made one last appearance together in film with cameos in Irwin Allen's ''The Story of Mankind''.
==Filmography==
==Filmography==