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Curly Howard, whose real name was Jerome Lester Horwitz (October 22, 1903 - January 18, 1952), was one of the Three Stooges. His name, especially on marquees, sometimes appeared as "Curley".
Curly, along with brothers Shemp and Moe, was born in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York. Because he was youngest of the Howard brothers, Moe nicknamed Curly "Babe," a name which stuck with him until his untimely death.
When Curly was twelve, he shot himself in the ankle while playing with a rifle. He ended up with a slight limp afterwards, which is noticable when he runs. He took up ballroom dancing, partly to overcome the limp.
Curly Howard joined the other Stooges in 1932 when oldest brother Shemp left to pursue a solo career. At first thought to be too handsome to be a Stooge by Ted Healy, one of the conditions was that he had to shave off his mustache and wavy hair. He did, but insisted on being called "Curly". Later, the act moved to the movie screen. Two of his most famous lines were, "N'yuk! N'yuk! N'yuk!" and "Woooo! Woooo! Woooo!".
Curly's wacky style of comedy started to emerge, first on stage and then on screen when Healy and his Stooges starred in numerous features and comedy shorts for MGM. Later; in 1934, Curly played an integral part in the team's rise to fame as the Three Stooges at Columbia Pictures, where he starred as a Stooge in 97 two-reel comedies.
But success virtually destroyed Curly. He started to drink heavily, feeling that his shaven head robbed him of his sex appeal. Larry Fine once remarked that. Curly wore a hat in public to confirm an image of masculinity, since he felt like a little kid with his hair shaved off Curly was also unable to save a penny. When he received his paycheck, he would rush out to spend it on life's pleasures: wine, food, women, a new house, an automobile or a new dog---Curly was mad about dogs. Since Curly was certainly no businessman, Moe usually handled all of his affairs, helped him manage his money, and even completed his income tax returns.
Since income from his successful career was carelessly spent, Curly was often left near poverty level. He was married four times, including a youthful marriage which was annulled in six months. Offstage, Curly was a quiet, introverted person.
Curly's homes were the San Fernando Valley. One house Curly purchased was on Cahuenga Boulevard and Sarah Street in North Hollywood and was purchased from child star Sabu. Later, Curly sold the property to a promising young actress of the 1940s, Joan Leslie. Curly also bought a lot next door to Moe Howard's palatial home in Toluca Lake, expecting to build on it, but he never did. It was eventually sold to film director Raoul Walsh.
As to Curly's personality, he was basically an introvert, barely speaking on the set between takes, the complete antithesis of his insanely hilarious screen character. Charles Lamont, who directed Curly in two Stooges comedies, related in an interview that "Curly was pretty dull. This may not be a very nice thing to say but I don't think he had all of his marbles. He was always on Cloud Nine whenever you talked to him."
Clarice Seiden, the sister of Moe Howard's wife, Helen, saw Curly off screen whenever there was a party at his home. She remembers him as being far from "a quiet person." Seiden said: "Although he wasn't on (stage) all the time, I wouldn't call him a quiet person. ... he was a lot of fun. He was quiet at times but when he had a few drinks-and he drank quite a bit-he was more gregarious."
Friends remember that Curly refrained from any crazy antics in private life but reserved them for his performances in the comedies. However, when he got together with his brothers, Moe and Shemp, he came out his shell.
But Curly's main weakness was women; to paraphrase an old adage, "Curly couldn't live with women, or live without them." He was a pushover for women. If a pretty girl went up to him and gave him a spiel, Curly would marry her. Then she would take his money and run off. It was the same when a real estate agent would come up and say, `I have a house for you,' Curly would sell his current home and buy another one. It seemed as though every two weeks he would have a new girl, a new car, a new house and a new dog.
But as much as Curly loved women, they were his downfall. He married three times after his first marriage was annulled. On June 7, 1937, he married Elaine Ackerman. In 1938, Elaine gave birth to Curly's first child, a daughter, Marilyn. Due to the addition to their family, Curly and Elaine moved to a home on the 400 block of Highland Avenue in Hollywood, near where Moe lived at the time. But slowly the marriage began to crumble and Elaine filed suit for divorce on July 11, 1940, after only three years of marriage.
During the next five years, Curly ate, drank, and made merry to the extreme. He gained a tremendous amount of weight and his blood pressure soared. By January 1945, his physical and mental health bottomed out. He suffered a minor stroke at age 42, the effects which are readily apparent in the 1945 short If A Body Meets A Body. Curly's final 12 films contained performances that were a mere shadow of his former self. He lost weight, was often sedated from taking heavy meds, and, at times, looked lethargic. His failing health (which is painful to watch) came to a head on May 6th, 1946, when suffered a major stroke on the set of the short Half-Wits' Holiday (1947). Curly was rushed to the hospital, and eventually he had to retire from the Stooges. After another stroke in 1949, he was confined to a wheelchair. The constant rain of blows to the head during his career as a Stooge are frequently cited as a probable contribution to the succession of devastating strokes.
After several additional strokes, Curly died in San Gabriel, California on January 18, 1952.
One can only wonder what it would have been like if Curly had lived and worked with the Stooges through the 1960's. Imagine Curly starring in full- length features in color and black-and-white. Stooges cartoons could have been voiced with the original Curly "N'yuk-n'yuking" and "Wooo-woooing." Television audiences could have realized the true genius of Curly Howard on talk and variety shows. When the Stooges' popularity suddenly burgeoned in 1959, Curly, the youngest Howard brother, could have been around to take the bows with Moe and Larry.
In a 2000 TV movie, Curly was played by Michael Chiklis.