Actors - Ted Healy

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	Actors - Ted Healy

Ted Healy (October 1, 1896 - December 21, 1937) was an American vaudeville performer and actor. His real name was Clarence Earnest Lee Nash. He is chiefly remembered today as the original employer of the Three Stooges, but had a successful career of his own.

In 1912, Lee Nash and his childhood friend Moe Howard joined the Annette Kellerman Diving Girls (a vaudeville act which included four boys). The job ended quickly, though, after an accident on stage, and Nash and Howard went separate ways. Nash then developed a blackface act and adopted the stage name Ted Healy.

Healy's act was successful, and he added performers to it, including his new wife Betty. When some of his acrobats quit in 1922, Moe Howard answered the advertisement Healy placed for replacements. Since Howard was not an acrobat, Healy cast his old friend as a stooge, someone who impersonated a member of the audience called on stage. Howard's appearance on stage ended with Healy losing his trousers.

Howard's brother Shemp joined the act soon after as a heckler, then Larry Fine joined in 1925, after which the act became known as Ted Healy and his Southern Gentlemen.

Howard took a break from show business in the late 1920s, and shortly after he returned he, his brother, and Fine left after falling out with Healy over a movie contract. Shortly afterward Healy sued the Stooges for their use of his material, but since the copyright was held by the Shubert Theatre Corporation, for which it had been produced, and the Stooges had the Shuberts' permission to use it, Healy lost the suit.

Healy continued to have great success in vaudeville, however. The Stooges rejoined his act in 1932, obtaining higher salaries and a promise from Healy to quit drinking. Healy did not quit drinking, however, and when in 1934 he reduced the Stooges' salary they quit again.

Healy then went on to establish a promising career in motion pictures, where he was successful in both comedic and dramatic roles. Ted died in a bar fight on the Sunset Strip while celebrating the birth of his son, John Jacob Healy. He was drinking at the Trocadero when he got into the fatal brawl.

After Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Curly Howard left his act in 1934, Healy appeared in a succession of films for 20th Century-Fox, Warner Brothers and MGM. He was 41 and under contract to MGM at the time of his death on December 21, 1937. His untimely passing occurred only a few hours after preview audiences had acclaimed his work in the Warner Brothers film Hollywood Hotel (1937).

A cloud of mystery still hangs over the cause of Healy's demise. Newspaper accounts attributed his passing to serious head injuries sustained in a night-club brawl while celebrating the birth of his first child, a son. Conflicting reports stated that the comedian died of a heart attack at his Los Angeles home. Apparently, his physician, Dr. Wyant LeMont, refused to claim a heart seizure as the cause, and refused to sign the death certificate. Despite his sizable salary, Healy died penniless. In fact, MGM's staff members got together a fund to pay for his burial. Moe later mentioned that comedian Brian Foy of the Eddie Foy family footed a great part of the bill for Healy's funeral.

Two days before his death, Healy visited Moe Howard's wife, Helen, at their Hollywood apartment with the news that Betty (Hickman), his second wife, was expecting. Excited at the prospect of his first child, he told Moe's wife, "I'll make him the richest kid in the world." Moe had later related in an interview that Ted had always wanted children and that it was ironic that the birth of his first child came the night of his death. Moe recalled, "He was nuts about kids. He used to visit our homes and envied the fact that we were all married and had children. Healy always loved kids and often gave Christmas parties for underprivileged youngsters and spent hundreds of dollars on toys."

At the time of Ted's death, the Stooges (consisting of Moe, Larry, and Curly) were at Grand Central Terminal in New York City preparing to leave for a personal appearance in Boston. Before their departure, Moe called Rube Jackter, head of Columbia Pictures' sales department, to confirm their benefit performance at Boston's Children's Hospital. During the conversation, Jackter told Howard that the night editor of the New York Times wanted to talk to him.

Moe phoned the Times. The editor, without even a greeting, queried curtly, "Is this Moe?" Howard replied, "Yes." Then the editor asked, "Would you like to make a statement on the death of Ted Healy?" Moe was stunned. He dropped the phone. Then, folding his arms over his head, started to sob. Curly and Larry rushed into the phone booth to warn Moe that their train was about to leave and saw him crumpled over, crying. Since Moe never showed his emotions, Larry cracked to Curly, "Your brother's nuts. He is actually crying." Moe didn't explain the reason for his sudden emotional breakdown until he got aboard the train.

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Actors - Ted Healy

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