Joe Besser

At 80 years old, Joe Besser physical status not available right now. We will update Joe Besser's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Joe Besser (August 12, 1907 – March 1, 1988) was an American actor, voice actor, comedian, and singer best known for his impish humor and wimpy characters.

He is best known for his brief stint as a member of the Three Stooges in cinematic short films from 1957 to 1959.

He is also known for his television appearances: Stinky, the bratty man-child on The Abbott and Costello Exhibition, and Jillson, the maintenance man in The Joey Bishop Exhibition.

Early life

Besser was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on August 12, 1907. He was Morris and Fanny's ninth child [Fecht] Besser, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. He had seven younger sisters and an older brother Manny, who was mostly known as an ethnic Jewish comedian. Joe was captivated by show business, particularly Howard Thurston, who travelled to St. Louis every year. When Joe was 12, Thurston allowed him to be an audience plant. After the St. Louis run of the show was concluded, Besser sneaked into Thurston's train, and was discovered the next day sleeping on the roof of the lion's cage in Detroit.

Thurston notified Besser's parents of the incident and arranged him as an assistant. The first act involved pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Two rabbits were involved in the trick, one of whom was hidden in a pocket of Thurston's cape. However, young Besser was so ill that he botched badly, pulling out the rabbit from the cape at the same time as the other rabbit was on display, but the trick was not successful. The audience erupted with laughter, and Besser from then on was given "comic mishap" roles. At age 12, Besser was accepted by St. Louis juvenile officials in a "corrective academy" (reform school).

Personal life

Besser's married dancer Erna Kay (born Ernestine Kretschmer) in 1932, nicknamed "Ernie." There were no children in the household. They were neighbors and acquaintances of Lou Costello, the Abbott and Costello duo's Lou Costello family. Besser appeared in the Abbott and Costello film Africa Screams (1949), which also featured Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges. Joe and Shemp were old friends who first met in 1932.

Matt Besser, a co-founder of Upright Citizens Brigade and an improviser/comedian, is his cousin.

Source

Acting career

Besser stayed in show business and created a comedic actor who was both excited and tense, tossing temper tantrums with no provocation. "You crazy, youuuuuuuuu" Besser's remark at his frequent outbursts.

and "Not so faaaaaast!"

or "Not so harrrrd!!"

He made a name for himself in vaindeville, and film and radio performances followed shortly.

Joe Besser, the comedy team of Olsen and Johnson, who performed live on Broadway, had recruited Joe Besser to join their company. Besser's raucous intrusions fit the Olsen & Johnson style, and Besser's art captured the Shubert brothers' attention, who have reportedly committed Besser to a theatrical contract. Besser was hired by Columbia Pictures, who moved to Hollywood in 1944, where he adapted his comedies like Hey, Rookie, and Eadie Was a Lady (1945). Besser appeared on television show Hour Glass on May 9, 1946, performing his "Army Drill" routine with stage partner Jimmy Little. According to an article in the Life magazine's May 27, 1946 issue, around 20,000 viewers were seen on about 3,500 television sets, the majority in the New York City area. In the episode "Jack Prepares For Carnegie Hall" in June, 1943, he appeared on the Jack Benny radio show during this period. Besser has appeared in short-subject comedies for Columbia from 1949 to 1956. His persona had already been well-known by this time that he was often depicted in Looney Tunes animated shorts of the period. He appeared in The Desert Hawk (1950), an action film.

Besser had substituted Lou Costello on radio, opposite Bud Abbott, and by the 1950s, he was well established as one of Abbott and Costello regulars. They recruited Joe Besser to play Oswald "Stinky" Davis, a young, loudmouthed boy dressed in an oversized Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit, shorts, and a flattop hat with overhanging brim when the pair shot The Abbott and Costello Show for television. He appeared on The Abbott and Costello Show's first season. In the low-budget biblical film Sins of Jezebel (1953), which starred Paulette Goddard as the titular wicked queen, Besser was cast for the role of Yonkel, a chariot man.

On the way home from a boxing night on November 22, 1955, Shemp Howard died of a heart attack, his surviving partners, Moe Howard and Larry Fine, were a two-man team since Shemp's death (with Shemp seen solely in an older film clip). Larry and Larry could continue to work as "The Two Stooges," Moe suggested. Harry Cohn, the company's chairman, turned down the proposal. Despite Moe's legal permission to admit new people to the theatre, Columbia executives had the final word on any actor who would appear in the studio's films and wanted to use a performer who was already under Columbia's contract. Joe Besser, one of the few comedians still making comedy shorts at the studio, was one of the few comedians still making comedy shorts at the time. He successfully renegotiated his deal and was given his former movie salary, which was more than the other Stooges.

Besser was forbidden from imitating Curly or Shemp. He continued to play the same whiny person he had cultivated throughout his long career. He had a clause in his employment that prohibited him from being struck excessively. "I usually played the kind of person who would not be able to hurt others," Besser recalled. Larry volunteered to bear the brunt of Moe's screen objuration, according to him.

In a 2002 E!

According to the comedian, the left side of Larry Fine's face was noticeably coarser than the other, owing to Moe's slaps.

Joe has become less popular with contemporary Stooge fans, particularly because he did not have to apologize on the air before presenting Besser shorts; during the show's tenure, he received more than 30 letters from viewers protesting his airing of them. However, Besser does have his defenders. Edward Watz and Ted Okuda of Columbia have written appreciatively of Besser's contribution to what was then a flagging dramatic program.

The Stooges short films with Besser were shot from 1956 to 1957. On December 20, 1957, Stooge's tenure came to an end when Columbia shuts down the two-reel-comedy service. Jules White, the producer, had enough film for 16 comedies, which were released a few months apart until June 1959, with Sappy Bull Fighters being the last film to be released.

For the first time in their careers, the Stooges did not make any public appearances during their layoff season, which began in 1956. The Stooges appeared live at the Paramount Theatre, Los Angeles, sometime around 1957, with Besser as the third stooge. The ad was later discovered to have been mistakenly used for the act's personal appearances in December 1959, rather than Besser, as part of the line-up. Besser, a Besser, had never made any public appearances as a member of the Three Stooges.

Moe Howard and Larry Fine, along with Columbia's Larry Fine, discussed plans for a personal appearance tour, but Besser turned down. In November 1957, his wife had a heart attack, and he was unable to move without her. In a 1985 radio interview, Besser praised Moe and Larry, of whom a excerpt from the interview was broadcast on A&E Network's Biography.

Besser said:

Besser returned to film and television, most notable as the superintendent Jillson of four seasons (1961–1965) of The Joey Bishop Show. Between 1967 and 1969, he appeared on ABC late-night television, also known as The Joey Bishop Exhibition. Besser appeared on The Mothers-in-Law, Batman, The Good Guys, That Girl, and American Style. On The Alvin Show (1961), he provided the dragon's voice. In Cry Love, Cry Murder (1961), he appeared Chubby Stone (1961).

Besser appeared on several Saturday Morning cartoon series in the 1970s. In The Houndcats (1972), bumbling genie Babu in Jeannie (1973), (inspired by I Dream of Jeannie) and Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, and as Scare Bear in Yogi's Space Race (1978). Besser's career slowed a little after he suffered a minor stroke in 1979, resulting in a significant weight loss.

Besser expressed concern later in life that people only recognized him for his brief stay with the Stooges. However, he eventually loosened, knowing that the Stooges had provided him his best exposure.

Besser co-wrote his autobiography for Excelsior Books in 1984, alongside authors Jeff and Greg Lenburg. Following his death in 1988, the book was later retitled and re-published as Once a Stooge, Always a Stooge.

In a emotional address referring to "the four boys [Moe, Larry Curly, and Shemp] "up in heaven" looking down on the dedication of a celebrity to the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 30, 1983. Joe Besser recalled his friendship with the Stooges. Emil Sitka, the only other Stooge attendee, also spoke; Joe DeRita, the only other living Stooge, was in hospital but he outlived Besser by five years.

The Three Stooges, a made-for-television film starring actor Laurence Coy, appeared briefly as Besser in the spring of 2000. Besser's depiction has been chastised for being unfairly dismissive.

Source