Curly Joe DeRita..

Joe DeRita was born Joseph Wardell in 1909.  He was the only Stooge who came from a show business family.  His mother, Florenze DeRita, was a dancer,  and his father, Frank Wardell, was a stage technician.

Joe started out as a dancer, but in 1921, when into burlesque as a comedian.  He played the New Burlesque Circuit until 1942.  He then went to California to headline at the Music Box Theatre in Hollywood. He made his big-screen debut in 1944 in a Warner Brothers movie called "The Doughgirls."  Altogether, Joe appeared in five motion pictures between 1944 and 1958.  He also had a short series of two-reelers with Columbia in 1946.

During World War II, Joe worked for the USO and toured the South Pacific performing for the troops.  After returning to the states, Joe did some work in radio, appearing with Burns and Allen and Andy Russell. He was also a regular on "The Fred Brady Show" for 13 weeks.  He then went back to motion pictures until 1958. 

It was in 1958 that the Stooges were catapulted to stardom when Screen Gems released 78 Stooge comedies with Curly to television.  The Stooges now had an opportunity to do feature films.  But they had no third Stooge at the time because Joe Besser left the act to care for his wife who had suffered a heart attack.  Luckily, Larry happened to catch the "Minskie's Follies of 1958," which featured Joe DeRita.  After seeing DeRita, Larry informed Moe that he would be a good third Stooge.  They gave DeRita a tryout, and he was accepted to the team.

As a Stooge, DeRita starred in six feature films, and made cameo appearances in two others, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "Four for Texas," both in 1963.  Joe's favorite Stooges film was "The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze" (1963).  The Stooges also had a television cartoon series in 1965 called "The New Three Stooges" which only lasted one year.  The Stooges made one last film appearance with Joe DeRita in 1968 in a short film for the U.S. Treasury Department called "Star-Spangled Salesman."  DeRita and the Stooges act were forced into retirement when Larry suffered a stroke in 1970 . 

Off screen, Joe led a rather quiet life. He usually stayed at home and read or watched television.  He was a regular kind of guy.  His friends were all average people.  He didn't hang out with the Hollywood crowd like the other Stooges.  He married Jean Sullivan in December of 1966 and remained married to her until his death in 1993.  Joe died of pneumonia on July 3, just a week before his 84th birthday.