Dilip Kumar

He has been a member of the upper house of Parliament since 2000. He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California. He has been active in efforts to bring the people of India and Pakistan closer. It is said he would throw away good cards (with the knowledge of spectators) to make the play "more interesting". He married her when he was 44 and she was half his age, and despite apprehensions from the media, the marriage has been one of the longest lasting marriages in Bollywood. He had a reputation as a world-class pinochle player. He is married to actress Saira Banu. Because of his gambling, the brothers finally took the money as he earned it and put him on an allowance, which he stayed on until he died.

His acting has influenced his successors and many actors look up to him and try to emulate his style. Chico Marx had a lifelong gambling habit, which usually kept him short of funds, and which compelled him to continue in show business long after his brothers had retired in comfort from their Hollywood income. (Groucho continued to host the long-running televison show "You Bet Your Life" out of his love of being before an audience rather than any financial need.) The last two Marx brothers movies were made for Chico's benefit; the other brothers twice returned to the screen to bail Chico out of debt. His style of acting is characterised by rich dialogues in Urdu and a poetic manner of delivery. For a while in the 1930s and 1940s Chico led a big band; young Mel Torme began his professional career singing with the Chico Marx Orchestra. Dilip Kumar is considered one of the best actors produced by the Hindi film industry. As manager he cut a deal to get the Marx Brothers a percentage of a film's gross receipts - the first of its kind in Hollywood. However his award ran into controversy when war-like conditions strained relations between India and Pakistan, and he was asked to return the award by Hindu extremists like Balasaheb Thackeray. Chico became manager of the Marx Brothers after their mother Minnie, died.

He is the second Indian to receive the award, after former Indian prime minister Morarji Desai. As part of the act he would play passages with his thumb up and index finger straight--like a gun. In 1998 he was awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian award conferred by the Pakistan government. He was known for "shooting" the keys of the piano. He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1995. Before performances he would soak his fingers in hot water before going on instead. The role eventually went to Omar Sharif. Groucho Marx one time said that Chico never practiced the pieces he played.

However, Kumar was unsure of doing films outside India in which he had no say, and declined the part. Harpo however could only play a few tunes on the piano, which often would get both brothers fired. Hollywood director David Lean offered Dilip Kumar a role in his 1962 blockbuster, Lawrence of Arabia. The two brothers looked so much alike, no one could tell the difference. He tried his hand as Producer for the film Ganga Jamuna and was rewarded as the film turned out to be successful. He would acquire the job with his piano playing skills, work for a few nights, and then substitute Harpo on one of the jobs. The film Mughal-e-Azam (1960) in which he played crown-prince Jehangir, the son of Akbar, was a record-breaking film in the history of the Indian film industry. Sometimes Chico would even get work playing in two places at the same time.

In the 50s, his role in Bimal Roy's Devdas as a tragic drunken hero earned him the title of the "Tragedy King". As a young boy, he would get jobs playing piano to earn money for the Marx family. In 1949, he co-starred with Raj Kapoor in the film Andaz, which went to become a major success and made him a superstar. Chico was a talented pianist. Khan adopted the screen name of Dilip Kumar for his first film Jwar Bhatta released in 1944. Stereotyped ethnic characters were common with Vaudeville comedians, and all the Marx brothers sometimes performed "dialect characters" early in their careers, but Chico was the only one to continue this. His father relocated to Bombay (now Mumbai) and Yusuf Khan got introduced to the Bombay film industry in the 1940s. Chico developed the "Italian" accent he used to convince some roving bullies that he was Italian, not Jewish.

Dilip Kumar was born Yusuf Khan in Peshawar (now Pakistan) in a Pathan family of twelve children. A typesetter accidentally dropped the k in his name and it became Chico, but it was still pronounced as if it were Chicko. He is the recipient of India's highest award for cinematic excellence, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and also the Nishan-e-Pakistan, Pakistan's highest civilian award. Originally nicknamed Chicko because in those days women were referred to as chicks and the guys who chased them as chicken chasers, of which he was one. Dilip Kumar (born December 1, 1922) is an Indian film actor and Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha). Leonard Marx, known as Chico, (March 22, 1887 - October 11, 1961) was one of the Marx Brothers.