Under that name, they were active on the silver screen from the 1930s to the 1960s, with several personnel changes along the way. With another Howard brother, known to the world as Curly, the newly-christened Three Stooges became household names. Money, and Healy's unstable behavior, drove Shemp out of the act, and later broke the Stooges off entirely. When Larry Fine was added three years later, they became Ted Healy and his Stooges, with the standard routine being the Howards and Fine destroying whatever earnest performance Healy tried to deliver. According to Britannica, the act began when Samuel and Moses Horwitz - stage names Shemp and Moe Howard - joined forces with Moe's pal Ted Healy for a vaudeville comedy act in 1922. Not that there were ever more than three stooges at a time, at least in a professional sense.
