While not technically a member of the Three Stooges, Ted Healy gave them their start, so his story is worth mentioning here. Besides, Healy is too tragic and salacious a character not to discuss.

Born in Texas, Healy was a talented comedian, actor, and vaudeville performer who had a successful career –- he even influenced legendary comedian Bob Hope, according to Empire. But Healy was a mean drunk. His on-stage act of verbally or physically assaulting his stooges wasn't too far from the real-life truth. Shemp was so sick of Healy's drunkenness that he quit and went out on his own. When the stooges were offered a contract that didn't include Healy, the former star allegedly completely lost it, threatening to bomb theaters showing the Three Stooges, although this is disputed in Healy's biography Nobody's Stooge.

Three years later, Healy was doing fine without the Three Stooges. His new film The Hollywood Hotel had a successful premiere, and he went out that night for some drinks at the Trocadero night club in Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, Healy wound up in his hotel room, beaten to a pulp. The next morning, he was dead.

Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, a filmmaker connected to the infamous mobster Lucky Luciano, admitted to getting in a fight outside the Trocadero with Healy that night. Precisely what happened and whether Healy was murdered remains a mystery, but his influence on the Three Stooges remains a lasting part of their legacy.

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