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Arthur Adolph "Harpo" Marx (November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian and film star. The second oldest of the Marx Brothers, his comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate).

Marx frequently used props such as a walking stick with a built-in bulb horn, and he played the harp in most of his films. He quit grade school during his second attempt to pass the second grade and worked numerous odd jobs alongside his brother Chico to contribute to the family income before joining his brothers, Julius (later "Groucho") and Milton (later "Gummo"), to form "The Three Nightingales" in January 1910. Harpo was inspired to develop his "silent" routine after reading a review of one of their performances which had been largely ad-libbed.

The theater critic wrote, "Adolph Marx performed beautiful pantomime which was ruined whenever he spoke". He got his stage name during a card game at the Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg, Illinois: the dealer (Art Fisher) called him "Harpo" because he played the harp. In his autobiography, he says that mother Minnie Marx sent him the harp, and no one knew how to play it, so he tuned it as best he could; three years later he found out he’d tuned it incorrectly.

Although he played this way for the rest of his life, he tried to learn how to play correctly; teachers, however, were fascinated by the way he played. Harpo recorded an album of harp music for RCA Victor (Harp by Harpo, 1952) and two for Mercury Records (Harpo in Hi-Fi, 1957; Harpo at Work, 1958). His first film appearance was in the 1921 Humor Risk with his brothers; according to Groucho, it was only screened once and then lost.

Four years later, Harpo appeared without his brothers in Too Many Kisses, and four years after that in the brothers' first widely-released film, The Cocoanuts (1929). His non-speaking in his early films was occasionally referred to by the other Marx Brothers, who were careful to imply that his character's not speaking was a choice rather than a disability. Harpo became famous for prop-laden sight gags, in particular the seemingly infinite number of odd things stored in his topcoat's oversized pockets.

Harpo often used facial expressions and mime to get his point across. One of his facial expressions, which he used in every Marx Brothers film and stage play, beginning with Fun in Hi Skule, was known as "the Gookie". Harpo created it by mimicking the expression of Mr.

Gehrke, a New York tobacconist who would make a similar face while concentrating on rolling cigars. Harpo further distinguished his character by wearing a "fright wig". Early in his career it was dyed pink, as evidenced by color film posters of the time and by allusions to it in films, with character names such as "Pinky".

It tended to show as blonde on-screen due to the black-and-white film stock at the time. Over time, he darkened the pink to more of a reddish color, again alluded to in films with names such as "Rusty". In 1933, following US diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union, he spent six weeks in Moscow as a performer and goodwill ambassador.

His tour was a huge success, and he also served as a secret courier, smuggling messages in and out of Russia by taping a sealed envelope to his leg beneath his trousers. The Russia trip was later memorialized in a bizarre science fiction novella, The Foreign Hand Tie by Randall Garrett, a tale of telepathic spies which is full of references to the Marx Brothers and their films. In 1955, Harpo made an appearance on I Love Lucy, in which he and Lucille Ball re-enacted the famous mirror scene from the Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup (1933).

About this time, he also appeared on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. Marx made a number of notable television appearances in the 1960s: in 1960, with Ernest Truex in an episode of The DuPont Show with June Allyson entitled "A Silent Panic"; in 1961, on The Today Show, Play Your Hunch, Candid Camera, I've Got a Secret, Here's Hollywood, Art Linkletter's House Party, Groucho's quiz show You Bet Your Life, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Your Surprise Package; in 1962, with Carol Burnett in an installment of the DuPont Show of the Week entitled "The Wonderful World of Toys". Marx's two final television appearances came less than a month apart in the fall of 1962: as a guardian angel on CBS's The Red Skelton Show on September 25 and as himself on October 20 in the episode "Musicale" of ABC's Mr.

Smith Goes to Washington, a sitcom starring Fess Parker, based on the 1939 Frank Capra film. He married actress Susan Fleming on September 28, 1936. Unlike most of his brothers (bar Gummo), who were unlucky with love (Groucho was divorced three times, Chico once, and Zeppo twice), Harpo's marriage to Susan was lifelong.

The couple adopted four children: Bill, Alex, Jimmy, and Minnie. When asked by George Burns in 1948 how many children he planned to adopt, he answered: "I’d like to adopt as many children as I have windows in my house. So when I leave for work, I want a kid in every window, waving goodbye." Harpo's final presence before the public came in early 1964, when he appeared on stage with singer/comedian Allan Sherman.

Sherman burst into tears when Harpo, speaking to the audience for the first time, announced his retirement. Comedian Steve Allen, who was in the audience, remembered that Harpo kept talking for several minutes about his career and how he would miss it all, and that he kept cutting Sherman off when he tried to speak. Allen said that everyone found it charmingly ironic that the comedian who’d been mute on stage and screen for several decades "wouldn't shut up!" Marx was also an avid croquet player, and was inducted into the Croquet Hall of Fame in 1979.

Harpo Marx died on September 28, 1964 at age 75 after undergoing open heart surgery following a heart attack, barely six months after his retirement. Harpo's death was said to have hit the surviving Marx brothers very hard. Harpo was cremated and his ashes were reportedly sprinkled into the sand trap at the seventh hole of the Rancho Mirage golf course which he occasionally played on.

In his will, he donated his trademark harp to the State of Israel.

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