Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Joe Besser
The Three Stooges
Motion Pictures Category Star
- Ceremony was on August 30, 1983
Moe Howard
3 Stooges' Moe Dies Of Cancer At Age 78
HOLLYWOOD - (UPI) - For more than half a century, Moe Howard with his soup-bowl haircut and eye-gouging, face-slapping antics entertained three generations of Americans as the leading member of one of the world's best-loved comedy acts.
The last of the Three Stooges, Howard died of lung cancer Sunday night at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital where he had been admitted 24 hours earlier. He was 78.
HE IS survived by his widow, Helen, a daughter, Joan Maurer of Los Angeles, and a son, Paul of New York.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y. Howard began his career with minor dramatic roles on a Mississippi River showboat in 1914 but switched to a comedy routine in 1921.
He was joined two years later by his brother, Shemp Howard, and in 1925 by Larry Fine. The three went on to slug, slap and clown their way through 204 movies that were re-run on television countless times.
Shemp left the act in 1932 and was replaced by another brother, Curly, who died in 1952, three years before Shemp's death.
Joe Besser
of 'Three Stooges' found dead at home at age 80
LOS ANGELES - (AP) - Joe Besser, who was one of the members of the Three Stooges and played the whining brat Stinky in "The Abbott and Costello Show," was found dead in his home Tuesday. He was 80.
The rotund comic had been ill for six months and appears to have died of natural causes, said Jeff Lenburg, his publicist of 15 years.
"I go back 50 years with Joe Besser, when I played vaudeville with him," said comedian Milton Berle. "He was one of a kind. He was very innovative, very creative. He was a darling of a man, very congenial."
Besser was one of the Stooges from 1955 to 1959. He played the character Joe, who would often whine, "Oooh, you crazy," as he was slapped around by Moe Howard.
The original Three Stooges, created in the 1920s, were Morris (Moe) Horowitz, who changed his last name to Howard; his brother Samuel (Shemp) Horowitz, and Larry Fineberg, who used the stage name Fine.
By the early "30s, Shemp Howard was replaced by Jerome (Curly) Horowitz, who was then replaced by Besser. Joe De Rita is the last living Stooge.
In the 1950s and 60s, Besser became a regular on several shows, including "The Joey Bishop Show."
