Curly Howard

Though not an original member of the iconic comedy trio, Jerome "Curly" Howard was by far the most popular of The Three Stooges and represented what was inarguably the group's golden era. The youngest of the five Howard brothers, Curly joined his sibling Moe and Larry Fine as one of vaudeville comedian Ted Healy's Stooges after replacing another brother, Shemp, in 1932. After Healy moved on to a solo career, Larry, Moe and Curly signed with Columbia Pictures as the Three Stooges and began cranking out such side-splitting classics as "Hoi Polloi" (1935), "Disorder in the Court" (1936) and "A Plumbing We Will Go" (1940). Appearing in nearly 100 two-reel shorts with Larry and Moe, Curly was adored as the hyperkinetic man-child of the group, filled with false bravado and blessed with an unbreakable skull. Whether bellowing out his signature, "Woo-woo-woo!" or spinning around on the floor like a broken top, Curly's antics proved the high point of nearly every Stooge short, right up until his final appearance in "Half-Wits Holiday" (1947). Declining health, brought on by rich foods, alcohol and the strains of success, dulled Curly's comedic brilliance in the mid-1940s, prior to a debilitating stroke that forced him into retirement. Although Shemp returned to stand in for his younger brother on the Stooge roster, in the hearts and funny bones of diehard fans, there would never be a replacement for the most beloved of Stooge - Curly Howard.