# Larry Fine
**Larry Fine** (born Louis Feinberg; October 1902 – January 24, 1975) was an American actor, comedian, and violinist best known as the middle member of the slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, a position he held from the act's vaudeville origins in the late 1920s until a stroke ended his career in 1970. He was the only original Stooge not related to the Howard brothers, appearing in more than 200 films over roughly four decades[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio) • [2](https://threestooges.net/about/index/5).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Birth name and place | Louis Feinberg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; sources give October 4, 1902 (IMDb) and October 5, 1902 (ThreeStooges.net)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio) • [2](https://threestooges.net/about/index/5) |
| Death | January 24, 1975, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, after a series of strokes, at age 72[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio) • [3](https://jewishcurrents.org/january-24-smart-stooge) |
| Stooge tenure | Joined Ted Healy's act in the late 1920s; first Columbia short May 5, 1934; 190 Columbia shorts through 1959[4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/entertainment/20120412_Stooge_Larry_Fine_was_a_Philly_guy.html) • [5](https://threestooges.net/filmography/columbia) |
| Film output by lineup | Moe–Larry–Curly: 97 shorts, 1934–1947; Moe–Larry–Shemp: 77 shorts, 1947–1956; Moe–Larry–Joe: 16 shorts, 1957–1959[6](https://faculty.etsu.edu/gardnerr/pubs/T5.pdf) |
| Musical background | Violin lessons prescribed after a childhood acid burn; in scenes where the Stooges play fiddles, he is the only one actually playing[7](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/larry-fine/bio/3000479872/) |
| Career end | Suffered a stroke in 1970 during production of *Kook's Tour*, the team's last film[8](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/11798/three-stooges-goofs-on-the-loose-colorized-black-white-the/) |
## Early life in Philadelphia
Louis Feinberg was born in Philadelphia to Joseph Feinberg and Fanny Lieberman, a Russian Jewish family who ran a watch repair and jewelry business; he was the eldest of four children and grew up above the shop in [South Philadelphia](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-philadelphia)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio) • [9](https://www.theshot.com/actors/larry-fine-legend-stooge). At about four or five years old, he suffered a serious burn when acid splashed his left forearm in the shop, damaging muscle tissue[10](https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/91462df8-ab30-49d3-9f47-f92de8ad6b53/episodes/4a1d6a25-b62b-4db2-b0c1-b0c1bac581d3/hollywood-stars-and-secrets-the-acid-burn-that-grounded-a-conservatory-dream). Doctors recommended violin lessons as therapeutic exercise for the damaged arm, and the instrument became his first love[2](https://threestooges.net/about/index/5). Fine's family had intended that he attend a European conservatory, but when World War I broke out in 1914 this became impossible[10](https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/91462df8-ab30-49d3-9f47-f92de8ad6b53/episodes/4a1d6a25-b62b-4db2-b0c1-b0c1bac581d3/hollywood-stars-and-secrets-the-acid-burn-that-grounded-a-conservatory-dream).
**Boxing and vaudeville.** As a teenager he earned money as a singer and boxer, fighting under the name Kid Roth; he won his first and only lightweight bout and then quit the ring because his parents disliked the rough stuff[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio) • [4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/entertainment/20120412_Stooge_Larry_Fine_was_a_Philly_guy.html). He adopted the stage name Larry Fine and entered vaudeville in 1921, joining the Gus Edwards Newsboy Sextette as a musician, dancer, and comedian in 1922, and forming an act with his future wife Mabel and her sister Loretta called the Haney Sisters and Fine[2](https://threestooges.net/about/index/5) • [11](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/larry-fine/).
## Joining the Stooges
During a 1925 performance in Chicago, Fine was noticed by the vaudevillian [Ted Healy](https://www.edgepedia.org/ted-healy) along with Moe and [Shemp Howard](https://www.edgepedia.org/shemp-howard), who were then working as Healy's comedic foils[11](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/larry-fine/). The dating of his entry is disputed: IMDb states that in 1925 he joined Ted Healy and [Moe Howard](https://www.edgepedia.org/moe-howard) in the act that became the Three Stooges[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio), while the Stooge biographer Jeff Lenburg, coauthor of *The Three Stooges Scrapbook*, documented that Fine first took the stage with Shemp in April 1928, with Moe joining in 1929, a chronology confirmed by a handwritten document in Moe Howard's personal records[4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/entertainment/20120412_Stooge_Larry_Fine_was_a_Philly_guy.html). According to the Inquirer account, Shemp tried to recruit Fine after seeing his act at Chicago's Rainbo Room, where Fine was working as an emcee; Fine declined at first, but when a Prohibition-era liquor raid shut the club down, he accepted Healy's offer[4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/entertainment/20120412_Stooge_Larry_Fine_was_a_Philly_guy.html). Healy offered him $90 a week, with an additional $10 if he would give up the violin[11](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/larry-fine/).
The group's first film was the Fox feature *Soup to Nuts* in 1930[2](https://threestooges.net/about/index/5). After splitting from Healy in March 1934, Moe, Larry, and Curly signed with [Columbia Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbia-pictures), and their first short under the Three Stooges name, the rhyming musical *Woman Haters*, was released on May 5, 1934[5](https://threestooges.net/filmography/columbia) • [12](https://time.com/3834986/three-stooges/).
## The middle Stooge
Fine played the middle Stooge for the rest of his career, positioned between the domineering Moe Howard and the featured third Stooge, whether [Curly Howard](https://www.edgepedia.org/curly-howard), Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, or Curly-[Joe DeRita](https://www.edgepedia.org/joe-derita)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio) • [6](https://faculty.etsu.edu/gardnerr/pubs/T5.pdf). His trademarks were a receding hairline topped by a bushy, unkempt halo of frizzy hair, and bewildered reactions; his relative normality let him serve as the necessary straight man to the others[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio) • [9](https://www.theshot.com/actors/larry-fine-legend-stooge). The hairstyle, according to [TV Guide](https://www.edgepedia.org/tv-guide), originated at his first meeting with Ted Healy, who saw it drying oddly after it had gotten wet[7](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/larry-fine/bio/3000479872/).
His musicianship carried into the films. In scenes where the Stooges play fiddles, Fine is the only one actually playing music while the other two pantomime[7](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/larry-fine/bio/3000479872/). He also took more of the physical punishment than any other Stooge; his brother recalled that repeated slaps from Moe gave him a callous on his cheek[3](https://jewishcurrents.org/january-24-smart-stooge). Ed Bernds, who directed many of the team's best films, put the assessment plainly: "The Stooges weren't worth a damn without Larry"[13](https://threestooges.net/bibliography/view/25).
## Later years
Fine's personal life brought heavy losses. His wife Mabel Haney, whom he married on January 22, 1926, died on May 30, 1967; their son John died in a car accident on November 17, 1961, at age 24, and their daughter Phyllis died of cancer on April 3, 1989[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio). Offstage he was, by one account, a gambler and easy spender who kept his family living in hotels, and he appeared onstage to make announcements at the Woodstock Festival in 1969[3](https://jewishcurrents.org/january-24-smart-stooge).
A serious stroke in 1970, suffered during production of *Kook's Tour*, ended his career and effectively the act[8](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/11798/three-stooges-goofs-on-the-loose-colorized-black-white-the/) • [14](https://historyofthetwentiethcentury.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/387-Hooray-for-Hollywood.pdf). He died on January 24, 1975, in [Woodland Hills, Los Angeles](https://www.edgepedia.org/woodland-hills-los-angeles), at 72[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio).
## Legacy
[The Stooges](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-stooges)' shorts found a second life on television, and the act's popularity grew among new, younger audiences through syndication[12](https://time.com/3834986/three-stooges/). Philadelphia memorializes Fine with a mural at Third and South Streets, near where he grew up[4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/entertainment/20120412_Stooge_Larry_Fine_was_a_Philly_guy.html). In the 2012 Farrelly Brothers film *The Three Stooges*, Sean Hayes played Fine, cast in part for his ability to mimic Fine's Philadelphia accent, distinct from the Brooklyn-born Howard brothers[4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/entertainment/20120412_Stooge_Larry_Fine_was_a_Philly_guy.html).
## References
1. [Larry Fine – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004310/bio)
2. [About The Stooges: A Brief History, ThreeStooges.net](https://threestooges.net/about/index/5)
3. [January 24: The Smart Stooge, Jewish Currents](https://jewishcurrents.org/january-24-smart-stooge)
4. [Stooge Larry Fine was a Philly guy, Philadelphia Inquirer](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/entertainment/20120412_Stooge_Larry_Fine_was_a_Philly_guy.html)
5. [The Columbia Shorts (1934–1959), ThreeStooges.net](https://threestooges.net/filmography/columbia)
6. [Hypothesis Testing Using the Films of The Three Stooges, ETSU](https://faculty.etsu.edu/gardnerr/pubs/T5.pdf)
7. [Larry Fine Biography, Celebrity Facts and Awards, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/larry-fine/bio/3000479872/)
8. [Three Stooges Goofs on the Loose review, DVD Talk](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/11798/three-stooges-goofs-on-the-loose-colorized-black-white-the/)
9. [Larry Fine And The Legend Of The Third Stooge, The Shot](https://www.theshot.com/actors/larry-fine-legend-stooge)
10. [The acid burn that grounded a conservatory dream, Hollywood Stars and Secrets podcast](https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/91462df8-ab30-49d3-9f47-f92de8ad6b53/episodes/4a1d6a25-b62b-4db2-b0c1-b0c1bac581d3/hollywood-stars-and-secrets-the-acid-burn-that-grounded-a-conservatory-dream)
11. [Larry Fine – Comedian, Actor, Musician, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/larry-fine/)
12. [When the Three Stooges Got Their Big Silver Screen Break, TIME](https://time.com/3834986/three-stooges/)
13. [Larry: The Stooge in the Middle, ThreeStooges.net bibliography](https://threestooges.net/bibliography/view/25)
14. [Hooray for Hollywood, History of the Twentieth Century](https://historyofthetwentiethcentury.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/387-Hooray-for-Hollywood.pdf)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: silent and early sound*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license