He was born Moses Harry Horwitz to Lithuanian-Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. But though he called himself Harry, the world came to know him as Moe Howard, the unofficial leader of the legendary Three Stooges.
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00:00He was born Moses Harry Horwitz to Lithuanian Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York.
00:05But though he called himself Harry, the world came to know him as Moe Howard, the unofficial
00:10leader of the legendary Three Stooges.
00:12Moe caught the acting bug early.
00:14After regularly playing hooky from grade school to watch plays, he dropped out of high school
00:18after just two months and began singing in saloons for money along with his brother Sam,
00:23better known to Three Stooges fans as Shemp.
00:25Their father quickly put a stop to that, but it wasn't long before Moe got his big break
00:29in show business as part of comedian Ted Healy's act.
00:33Shemp joined the act as well, and shortly after they became a trio with the addition
00:37of former boxer Louis Feinberg, who took on the stage name Larry Fine.
00:41And with that, the Three Stooges were born, later to be joined by Moe's brother Curly.
00:46Yet appearances aren't always what they seemed.
00:49In the nearly 200 short films the Three Stooges filmed for Columbia Pictures, the character
00:54of Moe was a bit of an angry bully who frequently smacked, punched, or kicked his fellow Stooges.
01:00When he wasn't poking them in the eyes.
01:02In real life, though, it was Moe himself who took the brunt of the damage while filming
01:06those sequences.
01:07In his autobiography, I Stooged to Conquer, he wrote,
01:11"...as rough a character as I seemed to be in pictures, and as tough as I came across,
01:15I was hurt in our films more often than either Larry or Curly or any other member of the
01:20cast.
01:21Props might go wrong, set pieces break, a move was mistimed.
01:25Over the years, Moe suffered a fractured ankle, cracked ribs, concussions, and more,
01:30all to make the public laugh.
01:31In reality, Moe was actually beloved by his friends and family as a caring, kind, generous,
01:36and thoughtful man.
01:37Quiet in his personal life, Moe collected coins and stamps, and dabbled in ceramics.
01:42He loved to care for plants, including vegetables in his prolific victory garden during World
01:47War II.
01:48He also served as an air raid warden during the war, and he and the family would invite
01:51soldiers home for home-cooked meals and entertainment.
01:54Beyond that, the Three Stooges toured extensively during the war.
01:58Moe wrote in his autobiography that on one trip alone,
02:00"...we played every Army, Navy, and Air Force installation from Maine to Pensacola."
02:06He also donated time and money to a number of charities, and assisted other performers
02:10who were down on their luck.
02:11And though he was reportedly not a very demonstrative man by nature, he was actually a hopeless
02:16romantic who wrote hundreds of love poems to his wife Helen over the nearly 50 years
02:21they were married.
02:22He was even known to play Santa Claus for hospitalized children.
02:26Sadly, in 1946, Moe's brother Curly, the baby of the family, suffered a severe stroke.
02:32As his physical and mental health deteriorated, Moe took over his care, refusing to institutionalize
02:37his brother, regardless of the severity of Curly's situation.
02:41Moe saw to it that his baby brother was cared for in a series of nursing homes, rather than
02:45locked away in an asylum which was common at the time.
02:48Curly died in 1952 at the age of 48.
02:52Just three years later, Shemp also passed away at the age of 60.
02:56With the Three Stooges essentially over, Moe, who had done well with investments over his
03:00career, moved into real estate, though he continued to occasionally cameo on TV shows
03:04or in movies.
03:05Hey, Moe Howard of the Three Stooges!
03:09Finally, though, the inevitable came, and in 1975 he passed away from lung cancer at
03:16the age of 77, just three months after Larry Fine's death.
03:20And tragically, just one month before he would have celebrated his 50th anniversary
03:24with his wife Helen.
03:25Moe was survived by his wife and two children, and a legion of fans who continue to honor
03:30the legacy of the greatest Stooge who ever lived.