Description:
Moe Howard was born on June 19, 1897, in Bensonhurst, New York, a small Jewish community on the outskirts of Brooklyn. Moe's real name was Moses Horwitz. Moe's mother's name was Jennie Horwitz, and his father was clothing cutter Solomon Horwitz. Moe was the fourth eldest of five Howard brothers. Two of Moe's brothers, Jerome (Curly), and Shemp performed with him as members of The Three Stooges. Moe's other two brothers, Jack and Irving, never entered show business.
Moe graduated from P.S. 163 in Brooklyn. He attended Erasmus High School for only two months and never completed his high school education. To please his parents h
Moe Howard was born on June 19, 1897, in Bensonhurst, New York, a small Jewish community on the outskirts of Brooklyn. Moe's real name was Moses Horwitz. Moe's mother's name was Jennie Horwitz, and his father was clothing cutter Solomon Horwitz. Moe was the fourth eldest of five Howard brothers. Two of Moe's brothers, Jerome (Curly), and Shemp performed with him as members of The Three Stooges. Moe's other two brothers, Jack and Irving, never entered show business.
Moe graduated from P.S. 163 in Brooklyn. He attended Erasmus High School for only two months and never completed his high school education. To please his parents he took a class in electric shop at the Baron DeHirsch Trade School in New York. Moe's true love, however, was the theater. In 1909 at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn he earned his entry into film making by running errands for the performers. His persistence paid off, and he soon appeared in films with such stars of the time as John Bunny, Flora Finch, Earle William, Herbert Rawlinson, and Walter Johnson.
It was also in 1909 that Moe met Ted Healy. They became close friends, and in the summer of 1912 joined Annette Kellerman's aquatic act as diving "girls". This job only lasted through the summer. After a separation, Moe renewed his acquaintance with Ted Healy in 1922 and together with brother Shemp formed a partnership, which would last, with a few short breaks, for almost 10 years. On June 7, 1925, Moe married Helen Schonberger, who was a cousin of the late Harry Houdini.
After a short stint outside of show business, Moe rejoined Ted Healy. Larry Fine joined the act in 1925. Healy with his Stooges appeared in a string of vaudeville shows including A Night in Venice. Ted Healy and his Stooges made their first screen appearance in the classic 1930's comedy feature "Soup to Nuts" for 20th Century Fox. This film was followed by a series of comedies for Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
In 1934, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Jerome Curly Howard, signed on with Columbia Studios as The Three Stooges to make the comedy shorts that are still viewed on television today. In 1958, Moe and Larry joined Joe DeRita to continue The Three Stooges act until Larry suffered a stroke during the filming of "Kook's Tour" in 1970. As Larry was unable to perform, Moe and Curly Joe considered re-placing him with Emil Sitka, but The Three Stooges never performed together again. Moe has two children, Joan and Paul. Moe passed away on May 4, 1975 at the age of 77.
Trade Mark:
He always played the "Boss Stooge," ordering around the others,insulting them and slapping them around and worse when they goofed up, which was often.
Bowl haircut.
Angry scowl.
Scarred nose.
Trivia:
Interred at Hillside Memorial Park, Culver City, California, USA.
Determined to get into movies, Moe (then going by his middle name, Harry) went to the Brooklyn-based American Vitagraph studios in May, 1909, and volunteered to run errands for the stars and crews without charging for the service. This impressed Maurice Costello, who brought Moe inside and introduced him to the company. Soon, he was appearing in dramas with Costello and comedies with John Bunny and Flora Finch. At first, he didn't tell his family about his movie work. But, when they thought he was losing his mind because he was acting like his characters at home, he told them about his extracurricular activities. Most of his films from this period were lost when the Vitagraph film library burned on 2 July 1910.
Moe of The Three Stooges.
Moe had a legal agreement with his fellow Stooges stating that he reserved the right to choose Stooge replacements (Curly Howard was replaced by Shemp Howard; Shemp was replaced by Joe Besser; Joe was replaced by Joe DeRita).
His wife, Helen Schonberger, was a cousin of Harry Houdini.
Daughter: Joan Howard.
Son: Paul Howard.
He, Emil Sitka and Joe DeRita ("Curly Joe") were slated to appear in the R-rated film comedy "The Jet Set" (eventually retitled Blazing Stewardesses (1975)). However, because he was suffering from lung cancer, Moe was forced to drop out of the film. The Ritz Brothers replaced Moe, Sitka and De Rita.
Brother of actors Curly Howard, Shemp Howard.
Was working on his autobiography when he died. Its working title was "I Stooge to Conquer"; it was published posthumously as "Moe Howard and the Three Stooges.".
Father-in-law of Norman Maurer, with whom he was partnered in Normandie Productions.
Grandfather of Jeffrey Scott and Michael Maurer.
In contrast to his roughneck public persona, Moe was, in private life, a quiet, dedicated family man, whose hobbies included reading, playing bridge and making hooked rugs. The only one of the Stooges who really understood the value of a dollar, investments during his salad days left him a wealthy man at the time of his death.
When The Three Stooges shorts began to appear on local children's shows in the late 1950s, there was a wave of kids poking each other in the eyes. When Moe heard about this, it was the Stooges who came to the rescue. They went on many local television shows, as well as national TV, and showed how the eye-pokes were done in a way that nobody got hurt. To the kids watching, it was like learning a magic trick.
Has two older brothers, Jack Horwitz and Irving Horwitz.
Moe was the business-minded one of the group. He knew that Curly liked to spend his money on partying and women, and Larry liked to spend his at the racetrack. So, he drew up an agreement where Larry and Curly turned over a certain percentage of their salaries to him. He, in turn, invested it for them. The result was that, while Larry and Curly were not as wealthy as Moe was (he invested far more of his own money and was quite well off), he ensured that their spendthrift habits did not result in their being broke when their careers ended.
Son of Sol Horowitz.
According to Moe, in sixty years, he never missed a performance.
His famous "bowl" haircut came by accident. As a child, his mother always wanted a girl, and with Moe being the youngest at the time, she would play dress-up with him, putting him in dresses and bologna curling his long hair. One day, after being picked on for months in school, he and some friends hid in the shed, and he chopped all of the hair off, using a bowl as a guide. After doing so, he was so afraid to face his mother, he hid for hours. Finally coming out, after seeing his hair, she cried out that she was so happy he did so, simply because she couldn't bring herself to. His hair stuck with him all his life.
He was very protective of his brother Curly Howard, who was in reality quite shy and not known to stand up for himself.
Is portrayed by Paul Ben-Victor in The Three Stooges (2000) (TV)
Skinned his nose in a fall down the stairs of his home as a child. His nose was rebuilt by a doctor, but when the doctor turned out to be a phony, he had to have his nose rebuilt all over again by another doctor, whom his mother paid by giving him some of her old copper pots.
Most of his investments were in real estate.
The Stooges' contract with Columbia gave the studio the right to use their likenesses in perpetuity. This means that no one else can legally use the Stooges' likenesses in any form of media without the studio's permission.
Voice work: for Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) "The Three Stooges" video game (1989).
When he and his brother Shemp put on shows for families and friends as children, they used younger brother Curly in female parts. Curly at seven, had trouble remembering his lines so Moe made cue cards on adhesive tape and stuck them to his forehead for Curly to read.
Sold frogs in saloons when he was a child to pay for his fares when he skipped school and instead went to the theater.
Got the idea for the notorious Stooge gag of eye-gouging one day when, during a game of bridge, Shemp leaned over and poked Larry in the eyes for not playing well. The result, Larry cried, Shemp apologized, Moe laughed until he fell out of his chair and walked through a glass door and considered the eye-gouge the funniest thing he'd ever seen.
In addition to himself, Moe also supplied the voices for other characters in The New Three Stooges series. An example being, A Flycycle Built for Two, in which he also was the voice of Orville Wright.
Right after the Stooges' breakup with Ted Healy, Moe signed a contract with Columbia. Unknown to him, Larry had signed with Carl Leammle at Universal. The next morning Moe asked to see Cohn and explained the situation to him. Cohn called up his legal department who called up Universal's legal department to check the date and time of the contract signing. According to Moe, Cohn hung up the phone and said, "You boys belong to Columbia.".
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Tags: Three Stooges (3), American (2), Actor (2), Died 1975 (2), Born 1897 (2), Lung Cancer (1), Bowl Haircut (1), Ted Healy (1), Scowl (1), Part Of Comedy Team (1), Died Aged 77 (1), Slapstick Comedy (1), Columbia Pictures (1), Lead Actor (1), Supporting Actor (1), Stooge (1), Tv Actor (1), Funny (1), Voice Actor (1), Deceased (1)
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