Curly Joe Derita, Last Surviving Member Of The Three Stooges

LOS ANGELES - He was slapped, kicked in the shins, poked in the eye and given "knuckle sandwiches," but Curly Joe DeRita, the last of the bumbling Three Stooges, enjoyed it as much as he enjoyed vaudeville.

"He used his stage experience," said DeRita's stepson, Robert Benjamin. "He made a lot of people happy in his life. He loved working with the Stooges."

Mr. DeRita died Saturday nine days before his 84th birthday from pneumonia after a three-day bout with the illness. He had lived at the Motion Picture & Television Fund convalescent home and hospital in Woodland Hills the past two years after a series of strokes.

"He still gets fan mail from around the world," Benjamin said.

The Three Stooges began in vaudeville in 1923 as Ted Healy and His Stooges and included at various times the Howard brothers of Curly, Moe and Shemp, as well as Larry Fine, Joe Besser and Mr. DeRita.

The act was featured in about 200 two-reel comedies produced by Columbia Pictures from 1934 to 1958. The Stooges were never big moneymakers for Columbia until the movie shorts were released on television.

Mr. DeRita joined the Stooges in the late 1950s, replacing Besser, a longtime bit player with Abbott and Costello. Besser joined the comedy team for two years after Shemp Howard's death.

Mr. DeRita appeared with the Stooges in a series of feature-length comedies, including "Have Rocket Will Travel" (1959), "The Three Stooges Meet Hercules" (1962), "Snow White and the Three Stooges" (1961). The last of them, "The Outlaws Is Coming" was released in 1965.

"He's not the most popular Stooge, but I think he was significant," Gary Lassin, president of the Three Stooges Fan Club, said last month.

Mr. DeRita is survived by his wife, Jean DeRita; and stepsons Robert and Earl Benjamin.