Shemp Howard was born Samuel Horwitz on the 4th of March, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was also the brother of fellow stooges Moe & Curly. Larry was not related to any of the other stooges. When The Three Stooges did not work with Shemp, he made a lot of feature film work, such as "The Bank Dick" (1940) with W. C. Fields. Shemp, Moe, Larry and Curly appeared in only one short together. It was called "Hold That Lion" (1947), and Curly appears as an uncredited train car passenger. Watch for the man with the hat on his face. This was a short, non-speaking cameo, due to Curly's health issues.


Died in the back seat of a car on the way home from watching a boxing match. (See Ted Healy.) Son of Sol Horowitz; brother of actors Curly Howard and Moe Howard, and non-actors, Jack Horowitz and Irving Horowitz. After Curly had his stroke, Shemp was brought back, with Curly's blessing, to be a stopgap until Curly got better. Sad to say, Curly never got well enough to continue, so Shemp stayed with the Stooges until he died. The phrase "to shemp" meaning "to fake" was coined from the actor's name. It was inspired by Columbia's use of an uncredited double in order to complete several Three Stooges shorts left uncompleted at the time of Shemp Howard's death. Director Sam Raimi, an avid Three Stooges fan, credits stand-ins and body doubles in his movies as "Fake Shemps," a reference to the body doubles used after Howard's death. Is portrayed by John Kassir in The Three Stooges (2000) (TV) His favorite actors were Richard Arlen, Andy Devine and Horace McMahon. Patsy Kelly was his favorite actress and Fred Allen was his favorite radio comedian. Had a son named Mort Howard. Once when he and his brother Moe, as children, were left to watch baby brother Jerome 'Curly' Howard, they turned his baby carriage into a soapbox racer and were about to test it out when their parents came home. When he was six years old, at a family picnic, he sneaked off with a plate of tomatoes and hit a man with them. The man dragged Shemp back, kicking and screaming, Shemp's mother beat the man with her umbrella.