"THE THREE STOOGES" MOE
The Three Stooges debuted on the big screen in the 1930
black-and-white feature, "Soup to Nuts," in which they appeared
opposite veteran vaudevillian Ted Healy (1896-1937). It was Healy who
accidentally discovered the Howard brothers (Moses and Samuel Horwitz,
nicknamed, respectively, Moe and Shemp) during a 1922 stage performance in
Brooklyn (the third member, Larry Fine, whose birthname was Louis Feinberg,
came into the fold in 1925). Initially billed as "Ted Healy and His
Stooges," the concept had the trio (Moe, Larry and Shemp) act as foils, or
"stooges" to Healy's jokes. It may have been Healy telling the jokes,
but The Stooges were getting all the laughs.
With the renewed popularity of the comedy trio in
syndicated television in recent years, it made sense to revive the franchise in
a brand new motion picture.
In “The Three Stooges” movie, the trio - Larry, Moe and
Curly are introduced as three orphans dropped on the doorstep of an orphanage,
ultimately raised by nuns in a very sheltered manner. The only pop culture
references they have is from the very limited amount of television they’ve
seen, so they don’t really have a concept of what’s going on in the outside
world and they stay childlike because they are with children. They’re the ones
that don’t get adopted year after year, but then they have to save the
orphanage from being shut down. That’s when they’re released into the world,
and of course the world colliding with these three nitwits is where the
hilarity ensues.
Diamantopoulos was destined to play the intolerant leader
of the comedy trio -- he was born four days after the death of Moe Howard (May
4, 1975). He split his childhood between
Canada and Greece (Greek is his first language), began appearing in Canadian TV
commercials at age nine.
Following his secondary schooling, he left home to
perform in a series of U.S. national tours. He received critical acclaim for
his portrayal of Che Guevara in Pittsburgh CLO's 2000 production of
"Evita." A year later, he debuted on Broadway as Ethan Girard in the
popular Tony-nominated musical, "The Full Monty." He has also essayed
the role of Marius in the long-running musical "Les Miserables," and
most recently starred opposite wife Becki Newton in Jerry Zaks'
Encore!presentation of the Gershwin musical, "Girl Crazy" at New
York's famed City Center Theater.
On the small screen, Diamantopoulos is well-known for
several diverse character portrayals –"The Starter Wife," "The
Kennedys," "24," and in "Behind The Camera: Mork & Mindy." Diamantopoulos made his
film debut in the starring role of the 2000 drama, "The Adulterer,"
and includes among his feature credits "Drop Dead Roses," "Into
The Fire," "Wedding Daze," "Three Days To Vegas," and
"Under New Management."
“The Three Stooges” opens October 24 in cinemas from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.