Jackie Cooper

Cooper has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1501 Vine Street. Being the final living member of the original Three Stooges act, his epitaph reads, "The Last Stooge.". The title comes from Norman Taurog's threat to shoot young Jackie's dog if he couldn't cry in Skippy. Curly Joe DeRita died in Los Angeles on July 3, 1993. His autobiography, Please Don't Shoot My Dog, was published in 1981. In later years, DeRita attempted to form "The New Three Stooges," featuring actors unrelated to the originals, but the act failed and DeRita retired. Later in the 1970s, he found renewed fame as Clark Kent's editor, Perry White, in the Superman feature film series starring Christopher Reeve. However, Larry Fine suffered a stroke in 1970, permanently disbanding the Stooges.

It was his television acting that convinced him that he could become a director, and he successfully moved behind the camera, to become one of the busier television directors, for which he won Emmy Awards. Through the 1960s, DeRita became a readily accepted member of the team, participating in animated series and television series such as The New 3 Stooges. Cooper had problems finding roles as he became an adolescent, and he served in World War II, so his career was at a nadir when he starred in two popular television series, The People's Choice and Hennesey. The team formed Comedy III Productions, Inc., and created a number of theatrical Three Stooges films, including Have Rocket, Will Travel and Snow White Meets the Three Stooges. He began a long on-screen relationship with actor Wallace Beery in such films as The Champ (1931), The Bowery (1933), Treasure Island (1934), and O'Shaughnessy's Boy (1935). With the advent of longer theatrical films, Columbia Pictures' short films studio shut down, leaving the Stooges to seek their own full-length features. Our Gang producer Hal Roach sold Jackie's contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in mid-1931, as he felt the youngster would have a better future in features. DeRita's arrival coincided with necessary changes to the formula.

The movie catapulted young Jackie into superstardom. Noticing his physical resemblance of predecessors Besser and Curly Howard, DeRita was named "Curly Joe," and became the third Stooge in 1958. His first non-Our Gang role was in 1931, when his uncle Norman Taurog hired him to star in Skippy, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor (the youngest actor ever to receive the nomination). Familiar with DeRita's work, Howard asked him to join the act, which he readily accepted. He conntinued to appear in Our Gang for two more years, becoming its main character. His most notable Our Gang shorts explore his character's crush on Miss Crabtree, the schoolteacher played by June Marlowe. After Shemp Howard died in 1955, Moe Howard and Larry Fine tried to complete the "Three Stooges" act with Joe Besser, who left shortly thereafter over creative differences. Born in Los Angeles, California the nephew of director Norman Taurog, Cooper first appeared in the movies in Boxing Gloves in 1929, one of the Our Gang comedies. During World War II, DeRita joined the USO, performing through Great Britain and France with such celebrities as Bing Crosby and Randolph Scott.

Jackie Cooper (born September 15, 1922) is an American actor and director, one of the few child actors who managed to transition into an adult career. Taking his mother's maiden name, DeRita, the actor joined the Burlesque circuit during the 1920s, gaining fame as a comedian. Wardell's father was a stage technician, and his mother, a professional stage dancer; the three often acted on stage together from his early childhood. "Curly" Joe DeRita (July 12, 1909 - July 3, 1993), born Joseph Wardell, was an American comedian who is best known as the "sixth" of the Three Stooges.