Trivia: See "Three Stooges"

Trivia: The "middle stooge" in the various incarnations of the Three Stooges, Larry Fine was most recognizable across his four decades in show business by his eccentric frizzed out hair. He occupied the awkward and often ill-defined position of "middle man," his presence necessary to give a gag body and a boost of action, and to keep it going to its conclusion. As an actor in the group's sketches, he was most often characterized as the wide-eyed nebbish, often nearly as surprised as any by-stander character by the physical comedy (and mayhem) taking place. His most memorable catch-phrases included "Moe, I didn't mean it" (usually followed by a slap from Moe), and "I'm a victim of circumstance" (which was used by Curly on occasion as well).And "victim of circumstance" might define his whole entre to the world of performing. He was born Louis Feinberg in Philadelphia, the son of a jeweler. One day while at his father's shop, an accident took place that resulted in his forearm being badly burned with aqua regia, the acid used to test the purity of gold. The doctor who treated him warned his parents that he would have to do something to strengthen the arm or he would lose it. That led to his taking up the violin, an instrument at which he became so proficient that the family considered sending him to Europe for advanced study, a plan that fell apart with the advent of the First World War He began playing the violin in vaudeville under the name Larry Fine, developing a routine in which he would play from a nearly sitting, knees-bent position, kicking his legs alternately. In 1925, he crossed paths with Moe Howard, who was already working, in tandem with his brother Shemp Howard as part of a comedy act with Ted Healy. He became part of the act and remained when Shemp left, to be replaced by another Howard brother, Curly (aka Jerome). The trio eventually left Healy's employ and struck out on their own as the Three Stooges. Over the course of 25 years and 190 short films at Columbia Pictures, they became one of the longest running movie comedy acts (if not always the most respected or beloved, especially by women) in history. Larry Fine's contribution was a mix of violin virtuosity (on display at various times across their history, from Punch Drunks, Disorder In The Court, and "Violent Is The Word For Curly" in the early/middle 1930s to Sweet And Hot in the late 1950s) and zany cluelessness, mixed with an occasional out-of-left-field ad-lib. Larry usually played the wide-eyed middle-stooge, but occasionally the plots of the trio's movies would allow him some variation on this characterization. In "Sweet And Hot," he plays a small-town boy who has made good as a stage producer, and whose intervention sets the plot (focused on characters played by Muriel Landers and Joe Besser) in motion; and in Rockin' In The Rockies, a full-length feature, as a result of a plot that split Moe Howard's character off from the trio, Larry plays the aggressive "head stooge," and is surprisingly good at it. But he was best known as the clueless middle stooge, often referred to by Moe as "porcupine" because of his hair-style. He kept on with the Stooges into the 1960s, but was forced to retire as his health -- damaged by a series of strokes -- deteriorated later in the decade. He passed away in 1975. He was so familiar, that in 1980, five years after his death, his name still turned up in popular culture. In episode two of the sitcom Bosom Buddies, when women's hotel manager Lucille Benson finds Tom Hanks' Kip Wilson in a female tenant's room, she pulls him by the ear down the hall, causing him to exclaim, "Who am I -- Larry Fine?" And in 1983, SCTV presented "Give 'Em Hell, Larry," a short bit (done as a TV promo spot) in which Joe Flaherty portrays James Whitmore (who had previously enjoyed major success playing President Harry Truman in the one-man show "Give 'Em Hell, Harry") performing the one-man show as Larry Fine -- it was among the funniest 60 seconds of television that season.

Trivia: George Neise played character roles on stage, screen, and television. Born and raised in Chicago, Neise became an actor following service as a colonel in the Army Air Corps during WWII. Neise made his feature-film debut in They Raid by Night (I942). Though he would specialize in action-dramas and Westerns, Neise appeared in a wide range of roles ranging from comedy to drama to romance. Neise made his final film appearance in The Barefoot Executive (1971). On television, Neise has appeared on The Jackie Gleason Show, The Red Skelton Show, and The Loretta Young Show. Neise passed away in his Hollywood home on April 14, 1996.

Trivia: American actor Emil Sitka had a long career as a character actor. He spent many years as a comic foil in the Three Stooges comedy shorts of the '40s and '50s.

Trivia: Character actor Hal Smith (born Harold John Smith) cut his acting teeth in various touring road companies. Before serving in the Air Force during World War II, he had amassed impressive credits as a band singer, radio disc jockey, and writer. In the postwar years, he decided to try his luck in Hollywood, although holding down a real-estate job so he'd have a financial cushion between acting jobs. His first recurring TV role was on the vintage sitcom I Married Joan (1952-53). (It was a different actor who appeared in the bit role of Anne Baxter's suitor in O. Henry's Full House [1952].) He spent most of the '50s playing guest stints and providing voice-overs for cartoon characters, and was briefly Hal the Bartender, a commercial spokesman for a popular brand of beer. In 1960, he was signed for the semi-regular role of town drunk Otis Campbell on The Andy Griffith Show, essaying this hilarious (if politically incorrect) characterization with expertise, although he often insisted, "I don't think I've ever really been drunk in my whole life." Since Otis did not appear in every Griffith episode, Smith had time aplenty to free-lance, playing such film roles as a drunken Santa in Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960) and an effeminate Roman emperor in The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962), and supplying voices for such cartoon programs as Davey and Goliath and The Flintstones. By 1962, he was making 50,000 dollars per year, a tidy sum in those days. During the 1970s and '80s, Smith was most closely associated with Disney, replacing the late Vance "Pinto" Colvig as the voice of Goofy and providing voices for series ranging from Winnie the Pooh and Friends to Ducktales. Smith died in 1994.

Trivia: From a family of minstrel performers, tough-looking John Cliff (born Clifford) toured with carnivals prior to landing in Hollywood shortly after World War II. In scores of films from 1946, the dark-haired Cliff was almost always cast as a heavy, notably in Westerns, and would later become equally busy on television. He retired from performing in 1968 and went into real estate.

Trivia: Burly American utility actor Gene Roth appeared in nearly 200 films, beginning around 1946. He was initially billed under his given name of Gene Stutenroth, shortening his surname in 1949. Most often cast as a hulking villain, Roth growled and glowered through many a Western and serial (he was the principal heavy in the 1951 chapter play Captain Video). He also showed up in several Columbia two-reel comedies, starting with the Shemp Howard/Tom Kennedy film Society Mugs (1946). A frequent foil of the Three Stooges, Columbia's top short-subject stars, Roth extended his association with the comedy trio into the 1962 feature The Three Stooges Meet Hercules. A ubiquitous TV actor, Roth was frequently cast as a judge or bailiff on the Perry Mason series and essayed two roles in the 1961 Twilight Zone classic "Shadow Play." An active participant on the nostalgia-convention circuit of the 1970s, Gene Roth died in 1976 when he was struck down by a speeding automobile.

Trivia: A rakish-looking, often mustachioed bit-part player, Eddie Foster (born Eddie Eleck) could play any nationality -- including Mexican (Men of the Night, 1934) and Egyptian (The Mummy's Hand, 1940) -- but was almost exclusively cast as thugs. Onscreen from 1932, Foster appeared in a total of ten serials, including Queen of the Jungle (1935), Mandrake the Magician (1939), and Captain Video (1951). He continued his skullduggery well into the television era and became a regular on Commando Cody: Skymaster of the Universe (1953).

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the '60s.

Trivia: Joe DeRita, sometimes known as "Curly Joe DeRita," was the last of the six members of the Three Stooges to join that august comedic trio. Born Joseph Wardell in Philadelphia in 1909, he came from a show business family, his mother a dancer and his father a stage hand. DeRita accompanied his parents on tour from the age of seven, and he soon had a dancing act with his sister. He continued working as a single after she married and their parents had retired, and his comedic specialty involved lots of dancing, which would serve him in good stead when he later joined the Three Stooges. He worked in burlesque comedian from the early '20s until 1942, when he went out to California to headline a show. He got a film contract out of the trip, and in 1944 made his screen debut at Warner Bros. in The Doughgirls starring Ann Sheridan. In 1946, following appearances in two more comedy features, DeRita jumped to Columbia Pictures for a series of comedy shorts. He also entertained the troops during World War II, touring with Randolph Scott, a good friend with whom he did a comedy act. After World War II, DeRita returned to the stage and also began working on radio. In 1958, he made his return to movies in his only non-comedic acting role, playing the phony, murderous hangman in Henry King's Western chase-drama The Bravados. He also began showing up on television occasionally in comedy roles on series such as Bachelor Father. That same year, fate would take a hand in his career with the crisis affecting the Three Stooges -- the 30-year-old comedy team had reached an impasse with the decision by Joe Besser, the fat "third" stooge who'd come in to succeed Shemp Howard following the latter's death in 1955, to leave the act. Partners Moe Howard and Larry Fine needed a new partner with none in sight, and that was when Fine happened to go to Las Vegas and caught DeRita's act in a revue called Minsky's Follies of 1958. He was impressed and duly informed Moe Howard, who was similarly enthusiastic after meeting DeRita and testing him in performances at different nightclubs. In October of 1958, Joe DeRita -- christened "Curly Joe" because of his resemblance to the group's most famous member, Curly Howard -- made his debut as a member of the trio. DeRita may have missed the trio's busiest years, but he got in on their most profitable era, appearing as the comically goofy member of the trio in six full-length feature film in which they starred, as well as two more movies, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Four for Texas, in which the group had bit parts. Beyond that, however, were innumerable personal appearances, lots of merchandising, and television work by the trio, all of which was enough to keep DeRita busy and solvent for the rest of his life. With his goofy physiognomy and dancer's agility, DeRita was the sparkplug for much of the trio's physical comedy during this period, as well as some of its zaniest moments; he had an acrobat's grace, reminiscent of Curly Howard, but also a childlike innocence and good-nature that made younger audience members love him as well as laugh at him -- this was especially true in Have Rocket, Will Travel, the all-important 1959 feature that established the trio in full-length movies. He remained with the Three Stooges until Moe Howard's retirement in the mid-'70s. Such was his relationship with Howard that the oldest surviving Stooge, who controlled the group's name, broke precedent and gave DeRita permission to put together a new, very short-lived group of Three Stooges. That project didn't last, however, and DeRita retired in the 1970s. The youngest of the Three Stooges, he passed away after all of the others, in 1993.