27 Facts About Moe Howard

Moses Harry Horwitz, better known by his stage name Moe Howard, was an American comedian and actor.

Moe Howard is best known as the leader of the Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television for four decades.

Moe Howard was born as Moses Harry Horwitz on June 19,1897, in the Brooklyn, New York neighborhood of Bensonhurst, the fourth of five sons born to Jennie Gorovitz and Solomon Horwitz.

Moe Howard was called Moe as a child and later called himself Harry.

Moe Howard's "bowl cut" hairstyle became his trademark, despite his mother initially refusing to cut his hair in childhood, letting it grow to shoulder length.

Moe Howard secretly cut his hair in his backyard shed after being frequently teased in school.

Moe Howard took an electric shop course to please his parents but quit after a few months to pursue a career in show business.

Moe Howard started off running unpaid errands at the Vitagraph Studios in Midwood, Brooklyn and was rewarded with bit parts in movies in production there, until a 1910 fire destroyed the films done there, and with it, most of Moe Howard's work.

In 1923, Moe Howard saw Shemp in the audience during a theater performance and yelled at him from the stage.

Moe Howard retired in June 1925 after his marriage to Helen Schonberger and went into real estate with his mother.

Meanwhile, Healy's act with frequent stooge Shemp Moe Howard went on to national fame in the Shubert Brothers' A Night in Spain, which had a successful Broadway run, as well as a national tour.

Moe Howard emphasized in his autobiography that the ill-tempered aspects of his on-screen persona did not reflect his real personality.

Moe Howard boasted of being a shrewd businessman by wisely investing the money made from his film career.

Moe Howard had already suffered a series of them before the filming of Beer Barrel Polecats and was replaced by Shemp, who agreed to return to the group, but only until Curly would be well enough to rejoin.

Moe Howard was well enough to participate in a second cameo the next year as a chef in a short scene in Malice in the Palace, but the footage was never used.

Moe Howard co-produced occasional Western and musical films in the 1950s.

Joe, Larry, and Moe Howard filmed 16 shorts through December 1957.

Ever the businessman, Moe Howard put together a new Stooges act, with burlesque and screen comic Joe DeRita as the new "third Stooge".

The films were so popular some young fans tried to emulate Moe Howard's slapping, gouging, and hitting, prompting the Stooges to warn them against trying to re-create those actions.

Moe Howard sold real estate when his show-business life slowed down.

On June 7,1925, Moe Howard married Helen Schonberger, a cousin of Harry Houdini.

Moe Howard attempted to earn a living in a succession of "normal" jobs, none of which was very successful, and he soon returned to working with Ted Healy.

Moe Howard died of lung cancer at age 77 on May 4,1975, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he had been admitted a week earlier in April, just over three months after Larry Fine's death, and more than a month before his 78th birthday.

Moe Howard was a heavy smoker for much of his adult life.

Moe Howard was interred in an outdoor crypt at Culver City's Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery.

At the time of his death, Moe Howard was working on his autobiography titled I Stooged to Conquer.

Moe Howard was portrayed by Paul Ben-Victor in The Three Stooges, a 2000 made-for-TV biopic that focused on the trio's years in show business and their off-screen lives.