Prolific author and amateur tennis player Arthur Marx, son of legendary comedian Groucho Marx, died on April 14, 2011, at his home in Los Angeles of an undisclosed cause. He was 89.
Born in New York City on July 21, 1921, Marx was the second of three children of Groucho and his first wife, Ruth Johnson. Honing his skills as a tennis great at a young age, Marx was a nationally ranked tennis player before the age of 18. While attending the University of Southern California, he won the National Freshman Intercollegiate Tennis title at Montclair, New Jersey.
Advised by his famous father to pursue a career as a writer, Marx went to work at MGM as a reader after serving in the Philippines during World War II. Among his earliest screenwriting credits was comedy Winter Wonderland and Blondie theatrical, Blondie in the Dough, both in 1947. He made his debut as a novelist in 1951 with The Ordeal of Willie Brown, which was based on his experiences as a top-ranked junior tennis player, and wrote his first book about his father, Life With Groucho, in 1954. A sequel, Son of Groucho, was published in 1972, while a composite of the two books, My Life With Groucho, was finished in 1992. Nine years later came Arthur Marx’s Groucho: A Photographic Journey.
In the early 1960s, Marx formed a long-term writing partnership with former Groucho Marx writer Robert Fisher, and the duo racked up a long list of credits including collaborating on four films for Bob Hope (Eight on the Lam, A Global Affair, I’ll Take Sweden and Cancel My Reservation) and episodes of 1960s sitcoms Dennis the Menace, McHale’s Navy, Petticoat Junction, Family Affair, The Mothers-In-Law and My Three Sons. They also created the Mickey Rooney sitcom Mickey, which aired in the 1964-65 season.
In 1965, Marx and Fisher shifted to Broadway as writers for hit play The Impossible Years, with Alan King, which ran for three years and morphed into a movie with David Niven. Inspired by the famous Marx Brothers, the two wrote Broadway play Minnie’s Boys in 1970, which starred Shelley Winters as the Marx family matriarch.
Moving back to television, other episodic credits for the duo included Nanny and the Professor, Love, American Style, All in the Family, The Paul Lynde Show, Maude, The Jeffersons, and short-lived Life With Lucy, featuring Lucille Ball in her fourth, and final regularly scheduled series role. In 1977, they joined the staff of long-running Alice, writing more than 40 episodes.
In addition to his work and TV film, Marx wrote several Hollywood biographies, including Goldwyn: The Man Behind the Myth, Red Skelton, The Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, The Secret Life of Bob Hope and Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime (Especially Himself), which was adapted into 2002 made-for CBS movie Martin and Lewis. He also penned a tennis-themed murder mystery in 1993 called Set to Kill.
Always fascinated with his famous family, Marx and Fisher wrote the play Groucho: A Life in Revue in 1986, which Marx also directed. It received two New York Outer Critics Circle Awards, including best play. A longtime member of the WGA and AMPAS, Marx is survived by his wife Lois; sons Steve and Andy; stepdaughter Linda; sisters Miriam and Melinda; and four grandchildren.