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The Three Stooges Wiki
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==''The Three Stooges'' years== After [[Shemp Howard]] died of a sudden heart attack on November 22, 1955, at the age of 60 his brother [[Moe Howard|Moe]] suggested that he and his teammate [[Larry Fine]] continue working as "The Two Stooges". Studio chief [[Harry Cohn]] rejected the proposal. Although Moe had legal approval to allow new members into the act, Columbia executives had final say about any actor who would appear in the studio's films, and insisted on a performer already under contract to Columbia: Joe Besser. At the time (early 1956), Besser was one of a few comedians still making comedy shorts at the studio. He successfully renegotiated his contract, and was paid his former feature-film salary (which was more than the other Stooges earned). Joe Besser refrained from imitating Curly or Shemp. He continued to play the same whiny character he had developed over his long career. He had a clause in his contract prohibiting being hit excessively (one that would be rescinded later on), insisting that his humor was more about comedic revenge for being bullied. (He usually reacted to Moe's anger by wimpily hitting Moe's shoulder and complaining. "Not so harrrrd!") Besser recalled, "I usually played the kind of character who would hit others back." He claimed that Larry volunteered to take the brunt of Moe's screen abuse. In a 2002 "E Entertainment" episode which used file footage of Besser, the comic stated that the left side of Larry Fine's face was noticeably coarser than the other side, which he attributed to Moe's less-than-staged slaps. (Larry Fine's daughter attributes this, plus scars to the comic's left hand, to a chemical spill that occurred when Larry was a child.) "Stooge-a-polooza" TV host Rich Koz once hosted an episode featuring only Besser shorts, and Columbia historians Ted Okuda and Edward Watz have written appreciatively of Besser bringing new energy to what was by then a flagging theatrical series. Besser was a Stooge from the spring of 1956 to the end of 1957. His Stooge tenure ended when Columbia shut down the two-reel-comedy department on December 20, 1957. Producer-director Jules White had shot enough film for 16 comedies, which were released a few months apart until June 1959, with [[Sappy Bull Fighters|''Sappy Bull Fighter''s]] being the final release. Moe Howard and Larry Fine discussed plans to tour with a live act, but Besser declined. His wife had suffered a heart attack in November 1957, and he was unwilling to leave without her. In later life, Besser praised Moe and Larry in a 1985 radio interview, of which a quote from said interview was aired on A&E Network's Biography. Besser said: {| class="cquote" style="margin:auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent; width:auto;" | style="color:#B2B7F2;font-size:35px;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;text-align:left;padding:10px 10px;" valign="top" width="20"|β | style="padding:4px 10px;" valign="top"| ...Moe and Larry, they were the best. I enjoyed every minute of it with them. In fact, to show you how wonderful they were, I never liked to be hit with anything. And Larry would always say to me, 'Don't worry Joe, I'll take it.' Now that's the kind of guys that they were... | style="color:#B2B7F2;font-size:35px;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;text-align:right;padding:10px 10px;" valign="bottom" width="20"|β |}
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