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Joseph Wardell (July 12, 1909 – July 3, 1993), known professionally as Joe DeRita, was an American actor and comedian, who is best known for his stint as a member of The Three Stooges in the persona of Curly Joe DeRita.
Joe DeRita, also known as Curly-Joe, was born in 1909 and died in 1993. He joined the Three Stooges in 1958 after Moe Howard's death and appeared in several films and TV shows with them.
- January 1, 1
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- January 1, 1
- Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA
Jul 4, 1993 · Joe (Curly Joe) DeRita, 83, the lone survivor of the Three Stooges, died Saturday at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home in Woodland Hills after a bout of pneumonia, a...
Jul 5, 1993 · Curly Joe DeRita, the last surviving member of the Three Stooges team of hard-edged slapstick comedians, died on Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 83 and had been living at the Motion Picture...
- Early Life
- Career with The Three Stooges
- Personal Life
- Death
- Legacy
- In Popular Culture
- External Links
DeRita was born into a show-business family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Florenz (DeRita) and Frank Wardell, and of French-Canadian and English ancestry.He was the youngest of his 5 brothers. Wardell's father was a stage technician, his mother a professional stage dancer, and the three often acted on stage together from his early child...
The Three Stooges (Curly Howard, Larry Fine and Moe Howard) had been making short comedies for Columbia Pictures since 1934. Curly suffered a stroke in 1946, forcing him to retire; his brother Shemp Howard, the original third Stooge before leaving the act in 1932 for a solo career, only wanted to be a temporary replacement. Joe DeRita was also star...
DeRita was married to a chorus girl named Bonnie Brooks in 1935 until she died in 1965. In 1967, he married Jean Sullivan, and they stay married until he died in 1993. DeRita was also the only Stooge who was a Christian.
On July 3, 1993, DeRita died of pneumonia at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, nine days before his 84th birthday.He was buried in the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood; his epitaph reads "The Last Stooge", as he outlived Joe Besser (although Emil Sitka died in 1998, his posit...
Although DeRita enjoyed working with Moe and Larry and made a living doing it, he was not a fan of the Stooges' humor. He once told an interviewer the following: Despite his indifference to the team's brand of comedy, he had nothing but respect and appreciation for the Stooges, proudly saying "Moe and Larry were the best. We worked well together an...
In the spring of 2000, ABC aired a made-for-television movie about the Stooges, with actor Peter Callan playing the role of Joe DeRita.
Joe DeRita on IMDbTemplate:Amg namePeople also ask
What happened to 'the Three Stooges' survivor Joe (Curly Joe) DeRita?
Why did Joe DeRita join the Three Stooges?
Did Peter Callan play Joe DeRita in the Three Stooges?
Why did Jules White try to recruit DeRita for the Three Stooges?
Curly Joe formed an act called The New Three Stooges with Mousie Garner and Frank Mitchell, but the act only made a few appearances. Joe was just too old to do the Stooge shtick anymore. Curly-Joe married Jean DeRita in 1966 and they were married 25 years until his death.
May 3, 2024 · Stars: Joe DeRita, Larry Fine, Moe Howard ...more. This half-hour series follows the trio's antics in live-action and animated segments.
- 252 min
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