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Joe Besser recalled his friendship with the Stooges in an emotional speech, referring to "the four boys [Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp] ... up in heaven" looking down at the dedication of a star to The Three Stooges on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 30, 1983.
Joe Besser. After Shemp Howard died in 1955, the Stooges replaced him with Joe Besser. Joe Besser was born in Saint Louis, Missouri on August 12, 1907, to Fannie and Morris Besser. His parents were Orthodox Jews and moved to the United States from Poland in 1895 where Morris worked as a baker.
- Early Life
- Began to Acting
- The Three Stooges Years
- After The Stooges
- Death
- Trivia
Besser was born in St. Louis, Missouri, making him the only Stooge member not born on the East Coast. He was the ninth child of Morris and Fanny Besser (Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe). He had seven older sisters, and an older brother Manny who was in show business, primarily as an ethnic Jewish comic. From an early age, Joe was fascinated w...
Besser remained in show business and developed a unique comic character: a whiny sissy who flew into temper tantrums with his painfull whimpers . Besser, with his frequent outbursts of "You crazy, youuuuu!" and "Not so faaaaaast!," was so original and so outrageously silly that he became a vaudeville headliner, and movie and radio appearances soon ...
After Shemp Howard died of a sudden heart attack on November 22, 1955, at the age of 60 his brother Moe suggested that he and his teammate Larry Fine continue working as "The Two Stooges". Studio chief Harry Cohnrejected the proposal. Although Moe had legal approval to allow new members into the act, Columbia executives had final say about any acto...
Besser returned to films and television, most notably as the superintendent "Jillson" for four seasons (1961–1965) of The Joey Bishop Show, and the voice of Babu the genie in Jeannie, an animated version of I Dream of Jeannie. He also made occasional appearances on the ABC late-night series, also called The Joey Bishop Show between 1967 and 1969. B...
Joe Besser died of heart failure on March 1, 1988. His wife Erna died on July 1, 1989, from a heart attack at age 80, the second longest living member of all the stooges after Joe DeRita who died at the age of 83. Both spouses are buried in the same plot in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.
Besser never appeared in any feature films with the Stooges, nor did he make any public appearances as a member of the group, due to his retirement from the act and being soon replaced by Joe DeRita.
Joe Besser recalled his friendship with the Stooges in an emotional speech referring to "the four boys [Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp] . . . up in heaven" looking down at the dedication of a star to The Three Stooges on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 30, 1983.
Mar 2, 1988 · Joe Besser, the rotund knockabout comic who played a succession of crazy characters in a long film and TV career but found his greatest satisfaction as Joe, the “Oooh, you crazy” of the...
Jun 1, 2022 · In footage from a NBC Nightly News report aired on April 23, 1976, comic Joe Besser recalls how he joined the Stooges and how he enjoyed working with them.
- 1 min
- 1874
- Joe Besser Forever
Joe joined The Three Stooges in 1956, but quit the team to be with his ailing wife in 1958. He spent the 1960s appearing in numerous films and television series, including 88 performances on The Joey Bishop Show (1961) and a regular role as the voice of Babu on the animated series Jeannie (1973) .
