Larry Fine

Larry Fine, real name Louis Fineberg, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 5, 1902. His father and mother (Joseph Feinberg and Fanny Lieberman) owned a watch repair and jewlery shop. When Larry was a child, he mistook some of his father's acid, which was used to test whether or not gold was real, for a drink. He had the bottle to his mouth when his father noticed and slapped the bottle from Larry's hand, spilling acid onto the child's arm. To help rehabilitate his arm, Larry began taking violin lessons, a talent that was used in many stooge shorts (when the stooges were shown playing fiddles on screen, only Larry was actually playing, the others were just acting). In order to further strengthen his arm. Larry took up boxing. He fought and won one professional fight, but his father was opposed to his fighting in public, and forced him to stop.

Larry adapted the name Larry Fine and played the violin on vauldville. In 1925 he met Ted Healy and Moe Howard and joined their act. In the Stooge shorts, Larry stayed in the background and provided the voice of reason, often times reacting more than acting, but offscreen Larry was described as a social butterfly. Larry and his wife, Mabel, loved parties and every Christmas they would throw a big midnight dinner.

Unfortunatly, Larry's care free attitude also carried over to finances. Larry was a terrible businessman and would often spend his money as soon as he got it, either by gambling at the horse track or in high stake card games. Larry would also lend money to family and friends in need and never ask to be repaid. Because of Larry's laid back attitude and his wife's dislike for houswork, Larry and his family lived in hotels, first in the President Hotel in Atlantic City, then the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, before finally buying a house in Los Angeles, California in the late 1940s. Larry and his wife had two kids, Phyllis and John.

On November 16, 1961 John died in a car crash. Six years later, Mabel died of a heart attack on May 30, 1967. In 1970, the Stooges began work on a television pilots titled Kook's Tour. During filming Larry suffered a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body, ending his career. Larry was confined to a wheelchair and, like Curly, suffered additonal strokes before his death on January 24, 1975.

Larry's famous hairstyle came from his first meeting with Ted Healy. Larry had just wet his hair in a basin and as the two talked, it began to try oddly. Healy saw the hair style and told Larry to keep it that way.

(photo from http://www.answers.com/topic/larry-fine-actor)