Erin Fleming

2025-02-21T21:50:55Z

2603:7000:B900:8226:C454:4BEB:5E2A:58F2: Fixed grammar

{{Short description|Canadian actress (1941–2003)}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=October 2012}}

{{Infobox person
| name = Erin Leslie Fleming
| image =
| birthname = Marilyn Suzanne Fleming
| birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1941|8|13}}
| birth_place = [[Temiskaming Shores|New Liskeard, Ontario]], Canada
| death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|2003|4|15|1941|8|13}}
| death_place = [[Los Angeles, California]], US
| occupation = Actress
}}

'''Erin Leslie Fleming''' (August 13, 1941 – April 15, 2003<ref>{{cite web|work=United States Social Security Death Index|publisher=index, FamilySearch|url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VM21-H62|access-date=August 24, 2014|title=Erin M Fleming|date=April 15, 2003}} citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).</ref>) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] actress, best known as the companion and manager of comedian [[Groucho Marx]] during his final years.

==Early career==
Fleming was born Marilyn Suzanne Fleming on August 13, 1941, in [[Temiskaming Shores|New Liskeard, Ontario]], Canada. She appeared in minor roles on television and in six feature films between 1965 and 1976, during which time she became acquainted with Groucho Marx and was initially hired as his secretary. Her most prominent film role was in the 1972 [[Woody Allen]] movie ''[[Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (film)|Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)]]''.

==Relationship with Groucho Marx==

Fleming's influence on and relationship with [[Groucho Marx]] were controversial. Marx had been introduced to Fleming by television producer and writer [[Jerry Davis (screenwriter)|Jerry Davis]] in 1971 and she was initially (and extemporaneously) hired as his secretary. She eventually assumed the role of his manager. Many of Marx's friends and colleagues acknowledged that she did much to revive his popularity, by arranging a series of personal appearances and one-man shows culminating in a sold-out performance at [[Carnegie Hall]], which was recorded and issued on a best-selling record album. She also successfully lobbied for the honorary [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] Marx received in 1974.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1YsAxiiH98 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/a1YsAxiiH98| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=Groucho Marx receiving an Honorary Oscar |publisher=Oscars.org |date=2009-11-24 |accessdate=2013-09-25|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Several of Marx's friends, family and employees, including
his son [[Arthur Marx|Arthur]] and youngest daughter [[Melinda Marx|Melinda]], charged Fleming with embezzling money and pushing the increasingly frail Marx to the limits of his endurance, largely for her own personal gain. There were also charges of [[psychological abuse|psychological]] and suspected [[physical abuse]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Dick|last=Cavett|author-link=Dick Cavett|url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/groucho-lives-in-two-places/|title=Groucho Lives! (In Two Places)]|newspaper=[[The New York Times|New York Times Online]]|publisher=New York Times Company|location=New York City|date=March 30, 2012|access-date=August 29, 2018}}</ref> Marx's friend, writer [[Sidney Sheldon]] wrote a ''[[roman à clef]]'' on Fleming's relationship with Marx titled ''[[A Stranger in the Mirror]]'', published in 1976.<ref>{{cite news|first=Marilyn|last=Beck|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19760416&id=CggqAAAAIBAJ&pg=4280,3468441|title=Hollywood Closeup|newspaper=[[The Milwaukee Journal]]|publisher=[[Gannett Company]]|location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin|date=April 16, 1976|access-date=August 29, 2018|page=55}}</ref>

In the years leading up to Marx's death, Fleming was Groucho's guardian until a court appointed [[Nat Perrin]] in May 1977, in the midst of a contentious court case with Groucho's heirs.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 9, 1977 |title=His Kids and His Consort Wage an Unseemly Court Case Over an Ailing Groucho Marx |url=http://www.marxoutofprint.org.uk/people77/people77.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511175551/http://www.marxoutofprint.org.uk/people77/people77.htm |archive-date=2013-05-11 |website=marxoutofprint.uk.org |publisher=People Magazine}}</ref>

Groucho Marx died on August 19, 1977, aged 86. Litigation over his estate was eventually resolved in 1988 in favor of his three children: daughters, [[Miriam Marx|Miriam]] and Melinda and son, Arthur Marx. Fleming was ordered to repay $472,000 which she had fraudulently taken from Groucho's estate.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-arthur-marx-20110415-story.html|title=Obituary of Arthur Marx|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|location=Los Angeles, California|date=April 15, 2011|access-date=August 29, 2018|quote=In his father's declining years, Marx became a central figure behind a successful legal battle to wrest back control of Marx's affairs from his late-in-life companion, Erin Fleming.}}</ref>

==Later life and death==
By 1983, Fleming was diagnosed with [[paranoid schizophrenia]]. She was arrested in June 1990 on suspicion of carrying a concealed loaded firearm, which she brought into the [[West Hollywood]] sheriff's office.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=L. A. Times |date=1990-06-13 |title=NAMES IN THE NEWS : Erin Fleming Arrested With Gun |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-13-vw-415-story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240914203305/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-13-vw-415-story.html |archive-date=2024-09-14 |access-date=2024-09-14 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |language=en-US}}</ref> She spent much of the last decade of her life impoverished, homeless, [[delusional]], and in and out of various psychiatric facilities.<ref>{{cite news|first=Gary|last=Clothier|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/116123819/?terms=%22Erin%2BFleming%22%2B%22Groucho%2BMarx%22|title=Ask Mr. Know-It-All: Groucho's Sad Denouement|newspaper=[[Star-Democrat]]|publisher=Adams Publishing Group|location=Easton, Maryland|date=March 31, 2010|access-date=August 29, 2018}}</ref>

Fleming died of a self inflicted gunshot wound in Hollywood on April 15, 2003, at age 61. She was cremated and her ashes interred in Hornings Mills Cemetery, [[Melancthon, Ontario|Horning's Mills, Ontario]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ&q=Hornings%20Mills%20Cemetery%20erin%20fleming&pg=PA246 ''Resting Places'']</ref>

== Legacy ==
In a 1993 television adaptation, [[Lori Loughlin]] performed the role inspired by Fleming.<ref>{{cite news |last=Martinez |first=Julio |date=October 20, 1993 |title=ABC Sunday Night Movie: A Stranger in the Mirror |url=https://variety.com/1993/tv/reviews/abc-sunday-night-movie-a-stranger-in-the-mirror-1200433606/ |access-date=December 5, 2018}}</ref>

==Filmography==
* ''The Legend of Blood Mountain'' (1965) - Phyllis Stinson
* ''[[Hercules in New York]]'' (1970)
* ''[[Conquest of the Planet of the Apes]]'' (1972) - Cafe Customer (uncredited)
* ''[[Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (film)|Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)]]'' (1972) - The Girl
* ''[[Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York]]'' (1975) - Girl
* ''McCullough's Mountain'' (1975) - Phyllis Stinson

===Television===
* ''[[The Dick Cavett Show]]'' (December 16, 1971 – 1972) - Herself
* ''[[Adam-12]]'' (Episode: "Venice Division", 1973) - Suzanne Martin

==Sources==
* Miriam Marx Allen, ''Love, Groucho: Letters from Groucho Marx to His Daughter Miriam'' (1992), {{ISBN|978-0306811036}}.
* Charlotte Chandler, ''Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends'' (1978), {{ISBN|978-1416544227}}.
* Stefan Kanfer, ''Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx'' (2000), {{ISBN|978-0375702075}}.
* [[Arthur Marx]], ''My Life with Groucho'' (1992), revised from ''Life with Groucho'' (1954), {{ISBN|978-0942637458}}.
* Steve Stoliar, ''Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House'' (1996), {{ISBN|978-1593936525}}.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511164410/http://www.marxoutofprint.org.uk/moviestar/moviestar.htm |date=11 May 2013 |title="Loving Groucho Wrecked My Life" }} an article by Erin Fleming from the July 1983 issue of ''Movie Star''.
* [https://www.marxbrotherscouncilpodcast.com/2019/08/bonuscast-jay-hopkins-interviews-volume.html 'The Marx Brothers Council Podcast' episode featuring a 1979 interview with Erin Fleming]
* {{find a Grave | 102523857}}
* {{IMDb name}}

{{Marx Brothers}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Erin}}
[[Category:1941 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:2003 suicides]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian actresses]]
[[Category:Canadian film actresses]]
[[Category:Canadian television actresses]]
[[Category:People from Temiskaming Shores]]
[[Category:Suicides by firearm in California]]
[[Category:Actresses from Ontario]]
[[Category:People with schizophrenia]]
[[Category:Canadian homeless people]]

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Erin Fleming