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Who2 Biography:The Three Stooges, Comedians
- Born: c. 1900
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, NY and Philadelphia, PA
-
Died: 1975
- Best Known As: Famous nyuk-nyuk slapstick comedy trio
The Three Stooges were a hugely popular film comedy team of the
mid-1900s. The original hit trio were Moe Howard (born Harry Horwitz,
1897-1975), his brother Curly (born Jerome Lester Horwitz, 1903-1952),
and Larry Fine (born Louis Feinberg, 1902-1975). Moe was the irritable
ringleader, Larry the mop-haired middleman, and Curly the nearly-bald
dimwit -- although none of the characters was a mental giant. Stooge
comedy consisted mainly of slapstick eye-gouging, shin-kicking,
head-knocking, and the like, punctuated by Curly's signature
"nyuk-nyuk-nyuk" chuckle. The group made nearly 200 comedy shorts
between 1934 and 1958. The first 97 starred the original trio; after
Curly suffered a stroke in 1946, he was replaced by his brother Shemp,
then by Joe Besser, and finally by 'Curly Joe' De Rita. Extremely
popular in their day, the Stooges gained a whole new following through
TV reruns in the 1960s and '70s.
MGM Studios announced in 2009 that it was planning a new Three
Stooges film and expected to cast Sean
Penn as Larry, Benicio
del Toro as Moe, and Jim
Carrey as Curly. The film is to be directed by Peter and Bobby
Farrelly, with an expected release in 2010.
Actor:The Three Stooges
The dictionary definition of "stooge" is "foil for a comedian or the
butt of his jokes." When the American comedy team known as The Three
Stooges came together in 1925, they were doing stooging for stage and
vaudeville comedian Ted
Healy. The team consisted of Healy's lifelong friend Moe
Howard, who'd unsuccessfully pursued a dramatic acting career in
his youth; Moe's brother Shemp, who'd previously teamed with his
sibling in a fifth-rate blackface act; and Larry
Fine, fresh from a vaudeville turn in which he played the violin
while doing a Russian dance. Healy preferred his stooges short,
stupid-looking and adorned with bizarre hairstyles -- Moe, Shemp and
Larry fit the first two qualifications naturally, meeting the third
requirement by having Moe wear a Beatles-style trim, Shemp an unkempt
mop of hair split down the middle, and Larry a frizzy Einstein-like
hairdo. Ted
Healy and his Stooges hit Broadway in the late 1920s in Earl
Carroll's Vanities, and when Healy made his first film, Soup
to Nuts (1930), the Stooges appeared (with a fourth member, Fred
Sanborn), as "the Racketeers." Shemp disliked Healy and dropped out of
the act to become a solo. He was replaced by younger brother Jerry,
who'd been doing a comedy "orchestra" act. Casting about for a
distinctive haircut for Jerry, Healy decided to shave his new stooge's
hair to the bone; thereafter, Jerry was known as Curly. Continuing to
work with Healy in films and on stage until 1934, Moe
Howard decided to strike out with Larry and Curly in a separate
act. As "Howard, Fine and Howard," the threesome signed with Columbia
Pictures' short subject unit in 1934 as "The Three Stooges." They'd stay
with Columbia to make 190 slapstick comedies until 1957. Moe took over Ted
Healy's role as the abusive "boss" off the group, hitting and
poking his partners at the slightest provocation; Curly was the patsy of
the trio, famed for his squeals, grunts, "Nyuk nyuks," "Woo woos," and
sociopathic behavior; Larry was the nebbish middleman, whose only line
seemed to be "I'm sorry, Mo, it was an accident." The Three Stooges'
contract at Columbia called for eight two-reelers a year, to be filmed
within 40 weeks; the rest of the time, the Stooges were permitted to
make all the personal appearances they wanted. As it turned out, the
Stooges made more money on tour than they did with Columbia's tight-wad
$60,000 per year contract. In 1946, when Curly suffered a severe stroke
that rendered him a virtual invalid, Curly was replaced by the man he'd
replaced back in 1933, older brother Shemp. Though purists prefer the
Stooge shorts with Curly, Shemp was in fact a more talented comedian,
given to zany adlibs and nonsequiturs. Shemp worked with the team during
the 1950s, a time in which Columbia cut back budgets and began relying
heavily on stock footage from earlier two-reelers. Shemp died suddenly
in 1955, compelling the studio to film that year's remaining manifest of
Stooges shorts with Moe and Larry alone; Shemp appeared only in stock
footage, replaced in the newly-shot scenes by actor Joe
Palma, who kept his back to the camera. Columbia replaced Shemp in
1956 with Joe
Besser, who was at the time starring in his own two-reelers for
the studio. Besser's "fat sissy" characterization didn't mesh well with
the rougher antics of Larry and Moe, but he gave a welcome energy
boost to the team's otherwise mediocre final 16 two-reelers. The Stooges
were let go by Columbia in late 1957, though enough film had been shot
to continue releasing shorts until 1959. Besser left the team because of
his wife's illness, to be replaced by burlesque comic Joe DeRita. A
derivative performer whose style resembled that of Lou
Costello, DeRita was made over into a reincarnation of Curly
Howard; he shaved his head and changed his name to "Curly Joe." The act
wasn't doing so well by 1958, and there was talk of breaking up the
team when Columbia's Screen Gems TV subsidiary released the old Stooge
shorts to television. Eagerly devoured by millions of kiddie viewers,
the Three Stooges became the hottest TV commodity of 1959, thrusting the
team back into the limelight. Full-fledged (and high-priced) stars
again, the Stooges supplemented their personal appearances with a new
string of low-budget feature films. As always, the Stooge humor was a
matter of taste, but even nonfans enjoyed such nonsensical outings as The
Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1963) and The
Outlaws is Coming (1965). In 1965, the team provided voices and
live-action vignettes for a series of 156 Three Stooges cartoons, but by
this time the initial euphoria had worn off; within a few years the
Stooges were unemployable again. Some of the kids who'd enjoyed the
Stooge comedies in the 1950s grew up to become film historians and
cultists, and the early 1970s found the Three Stooges being exalted as
comic geniuses (an assessment disputed by many, including the Stooges).
However, this time there would be no reteaming -- Larry
Fine suffered a debilitating stroke in 1970; Moe retired, but made
the rounds on lecture tours and talk show appearances (though he made it
clear he'd take any and all film work); and Curly Joe tried
unsuccessfully to form a "new Three Stooges" act on his own. Both Moe
and Larry died in 1975, putting an end to a 50-year era. ~ Hal Erickson,
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