Moses Harry Horwitz (June 19, 1897 â€" May 4, 1975), known
professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian, best
known as the leader of the Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who
starred in motion pictures and television for four decades. That group
originally started out as Ted Healy and His Stooges, an act that
toured the vaudeville circuit. Moe's distinctive hairstyle came about
when he was a boy and cut off his curls with a pair of scissors,
producing a ragged shape approximating a bowl cut.Howard was born as
Moses Harry Horwitz on June 19, 1897 in the Brooklyn, New York
neighborhood of Bensonhurst, the fourth of five sons born to Jennie
Gorovitz and Solomon Horwitz, who were of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry.
He was called Moe as a child and later called himself Harry. His
parents and brothers Benjamin ("Jack") and Irving weren't involved in
show business, but he, his older brother Shemp Howard, and his younger
brother Curly Howard eventually became known as members of the Three
Stooges. He loved to read as his older brother Jack recalled: "I had
many Horatio Alger books, and it was Moe's greatest pleasure to read
them. They started his imaginative mind working and gave him ideas by
the dozen. I think they were instrumental in putting thoughts into his
head to become a person of good character and to become successful."
This helped him in his acting career; he could memorize his lines
quickly and easily.Howard's "bowl cut" hairstyle became his trademark,
despite his mother initially refusing to cut his hair in childhood,
letting it grow to shoulder length. He secretly cut his hair in his
backyard shed after being frequently teased in school. During one
appearance on The Mike Douglas Show in the 1970s, he stated, "I used
to fight my way to school, in school, and back home from school."
professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian, best
known as the leader of the Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who
starred in motion pictures and television for four decades. That group
originally started out as Ted Healy and His Stooges, an act that
toured the vaudeville circuit. Moe's distinctive hairstyle came about
when he was a boy and cut off his curls with a pair of scissors,
producing a ragged shape approximating a bowl cut.Howard was born as
Moses Harry Horwitz on June 19, 1897 in the Brooklyn, New York
neighborhood of Bensonhurst, the fourth of five sons born to Jennie
Gorovitz and Solomon Horwitz, who were of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry.
He was called Moe as a child and later called himself Harry. His
parents and brothers Benjamin ("Jack") and Irving weren't involved in
show business, but he, his older brother Shemp Howard, and his younger
brother Curly Howard eventually became known as members of the Three
Stooges. He loved to read as his older brother Jack recalled: "I had
many Horatio Alger books, and it was Moe's greatest pleasure to read
them. They started his imaginative mind working and gave him ideas by
the dozen. I think they were instrumental in putting thoughts into his
head to become a person of good character and to become successful."
This helped him in his acting career; he could memorize his lines
quickly and easily.Howard's "bowl cut" hairstyle became his trademark,
despite his mother initially refusing to cut his hair in childhood,
letting it grow to shoulder length. He secretly cut his hair in his
backyard shed after being frequently teased in school. During one
appearance on The Mike Douglas Show in the 1970s, he stated, "I used
to fight my way to school, in school, and back home from school."
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