Shemp Howard

Acting

Shemp Howard

Born 1895-03-11 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Samuel (born Shmuel) Horwitz (March 11, 1895 – November 22, 1955), known professionally as Shemp Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He is best known today for his role as the third stooge in the Three Stooges, a role he first portrayed at the beginning of the act in the early 1920s (1923–1932) while the act was still associated with Ted Healy and known as "Ted Healy and his Stooges", and again from 1946 until his death in 1955. Between his times with the Stooges, Shemp had a successful film career as a solo comedian. He was born in Manhattan, New York and raised in Brooklyn, the third-born of five Horwitz brothers, sons of Lithuanian Jewish parents. Moses - professionally known as Moe Howard - and Jerome - professionally known as Curly Howard - were his younger brothers. Throughout his career Shemp seldom stuck to the script and would liven up scenes with ad-libbed incidental dialogue or wisecracks. This became a trademark of his performances. His most notable characteristic as a Stooge was a high-pitched "bee-bee-bee-bee-bee-bee!" sound, a sort of soft screech done by inhaling. It became his signature sound. He used his somewhat homely appearance for comic effect, often mugging grotesquely or allowing his hair to fall in disarray. Shemp was married to the former Gertrude Frank, whom he wed in September 1925. The couple had one child, Morton (1926–1972). On November 22, 1955, while returning home in a taxicab following attending a boxing match with friends, Shemp, age 60, died of a sudden massive heart attack. The Three Stooges have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street.

Acting credits

Hold That Ghost poster
6.8

Two bumbling service station attendants are left as the sole beneficiaries in a gangster's will. Their trip to claim their fortune is sidetracked when they are stranded in a haunted house along with several other strangers.

Hold That Ghost

1941

Convention Girl poster
8.0

Wily hotel 'hostess' Babe LaVal navigates booming business, cabaret calls and shady deals in Atlantic City. She meets a soup magnate, and begins to feel it might be 'the real thing'.

Convention Girl

1935

Malice in the Palace poster
5.8

Set in a desert land where the stooges run a restaurant, the boys set out to recover the stolen Rootin Tootin diamond after they learn from the thieves that the Emir of Shmo has absconded with the contraband jewel. They journey to the stronghold of Shmo where they disguise as Santa Clauses and scare the ruler into giving them the diamond.

Malice in the Palace

1949

In the Navy poster
6.4

Popular crooner Russ Raymond abandons his career at its peak and joins the Navy using an alias, Tommy Halstead. However, Dorothy Roberts, a reporter, discovers his identity and follows him in the hopes of photographing him and revealing his identity to the world. Aboard the Alabama, Tommy meets up with Smoky and Pomeroy, who help hide him from Dorothy, who hatches numerous schemes in an attempt to photograph Tommy/Russ being a sailor.

In the Navy

1941

Africa Screams poster
5.8

When bookseller Buzz cons Diana into thinking that his friend Stanley knows all there is to know about Africa, they are abducted and ordered to lead Diana and her henchmen to an African tribe in search of a fortune in jewels.

Africa Screams

1949

Loose Loot poster
7.0

The stooges are willed a lot of dough from a rich uncle, but the executor of the estate, Icabob Slipp, is a crook who absconds with the money. The stooges trail him to a a theater where they engage in a wild chase and ultimately recover their inheritance.

Loose Loot

1953

It Ain't Hay poster
6.5

Abbot and Costello must find a replacement for a woman's horse they accidentally killed after feeding it some candy. They head for the racetrack, find a look-a-like and take it. They do not realize that the nag is "Tea Biscuit," a champion racehorse.

It Ain't Hay

1943

Buck Privates poster
6.8

Petty con artists Slicker Smith and Herbie Brown mistakenly join the Army evading the cops. The cop chasing them winds up as their drill instructor. A rich young man and his former working class chauffeur are not only in the same unit, they're vying for a pretty girl who seems attracted to both.

Buck Privates

1941

Arabian Nights poster
6.0

Two half brothers battle each other for the power of the throne and the love of sensual, gorgeous dancing girl Scheherazade.

Arabian Nights

1942

Bubble Trouble poster
6.9

The stooges are pharmacists who invent a fountain of youth formula that can turn old people young. They turn an old lady into a beautiful young woman, but when her husband takes the formula it turns him into a gorilla.

Bubble Trouble

1953

The Tooth Will Out poster
6.6

The stooges graduate from dental school and go out west to open a practice. Everything goes well until Shemp "cures" an outlaw's toothache from the instructions in a carpentry book, and the boys must leave on the run.

The Tooth Will Out

1951

Spooks! poster
6.4

The stooges are private detectives hired to find a missing girl. The boys disguise as pie salesmen and end up wandering around a mad scientist's mansion, trying to find the girl. The boys confront a gorilla and various other bad guys, before rescuing the girl.

Spooks!

1953

Mississippi Gambler poster
6.5

A journalist finds out, that a plantation owner he meets is a gangster the police is looking for, who has changed his face with plastic surgery.

Mississippi Gambler

1942

The Bank Dick poster
6.5

Egbert Sousé becomes an unexpected hero when a bank robber falls over a bench he's occupying. Now considered brave, Egbert is given a job as a bank guard. Soon, he is approached by charlatan J. Frothingham Waterbury about buying shares in a mining company. Egbert persuades teller Og Oggilby to lend him bank money, to be returned when the scheme pays off. Unfortunately, bank inspector Snoopington then makes a surprise appearance.

The Bank Dick

1940

Knutzy Knights poster
6.5

Set in Elizabethan times, the stooges help their friend Cedric the Blacksmith win the hand of the fair princess Elaine. The only problem is that Elaine is promised to the Black Prince who is plotting to take over the kingdom. The stooges manage to foil the plot and the grateful King allows Cedric to marry Elaine.

Knutzy Knights

1954

Slaphappy Sleuths poster
6.8

The stooges are investigators for the Onion Oil company. The company's service stations are being robbed by a gang of crooks, so the boys pose as gas station attendants to capture the bad guys.

Slaphappy Sleuths

1950

Another Thin Man poster
7.1

Nick and Nora Charles are back—and this time, they have a baby, a wealthy new client, and another murder to solve! Retired detective Nick is enjoying family life with Nora and their young son, Nick Jr., when eccentric industrialist Colonel MacFay asks for protection after receiving threatening messages. When MacFay is found dead at his isolated estate, Nick and Nora spring into action, questioning a houseful of suspicious guests and uncovering greed, blackmail, family secrets, and a dangerous inheritance plot. With their trademark wit and sophistication, the glamorous couple balances parenthood, parties, and peril as they race to expose the killer. William Powell and Myrna Loy return as Hollywood’s favorite married sleuths, joined by the lovable wire-haired terrier Asta. Directed by W. S. Van Dyke, Another Thin Man is a stylish and entertaining 1939 mystery-comedy filled with sparkling banter, romance, suspense, and classic Nick-and-Nora charm.

Another Thin Man

1939

Hollywood Round-Up poster
5.3

While filming a western on location, the stand-in/stunt double for an egotistical cowboy movie star proves his heroics when a "fake" bank robbery turns out to be the real thing.

Hollywood Round-Up

1937

Tricky Dicks poster
7.0

The stooges are policemen on the trail of a murderer. They unsuccessfully interrogate an Italian organ grinder, among other suspects, and then catch the bad guy after a gun fight that nearly destroys the police station.

Tricky Dicks

1953

Trouble Chasers poster
8.0

A pair of gangsters are under the mistaken impression that three goofballs know the location of a valuable stolen necklace.

Trouble Chasers

1945

Husbands Beware poster
6.7

To inherit a fortune, voice teacher Shemp must marry before six o'clock, but no girl will accept his proposal. Finally one of his repulsive students agrees to marry him, just in the nick of time. When the rest of the prospective brides hear about the inheritance, they show up at the ceremony and a free for all ensues. Shemp marries his student before the deadline, and then finds out that there is no inheritance. Moe and Larry have tricked him into marriage as revenge for their marrying his shrewish sisters.

Husbands Beware

1956

Pittsburgh poster
6.4

Charles 'Pittsburgh' Markham rides roughshod over his friends, his lovers, and his ideals in his trek toward financial success in the Pittsburgh steel industry, only to find himself deserted and lonely at the top. When his crash comes, he finds that fate has dealt him a second chance.

Pittsburgh

1942

All Gummed Up poster
6.8

The Stooges run a drug store and are about to have their lease taken away by Amos Flint, the mean old man who owns the place. When Flint kicks his wife out for being too old, the Stooges try to help her by inventing a formula that makes old people young. Their concoction turns the wife into a beautiful young woman, and Flint offers the boys the store for free if they'll transform him as well. They agree, but after he swallows the stuff he turns into an infant, and the boys leave on the run.

All Gummed Up

1947

Hokus Pokus poster
6.9

The Stooges are taking care of their invalid friend Mary who is confined to wheelchair.

Hokus Pokus

1949