Emil Sitka(1914-1998)

Officially became a member of The Three Stooges in the early 1970s, replacing Larry Fine. Two planned Stooges film projects never occurred. The second, which the Stooges dropped out of when Moe Howard became too sick to work, was produced with the [two surviving] Ritz Brothers stepping into the Stooges' shoes and released as Blazing Stewardesses (1975).

[on working with Curly Howard in Half-Wits Holiday (1946), Howard's final film with The Three Stooges after suffering a major stroke that debilitated him] After [the stroke] occurred, Curly was just missing all of a sudden. It wasn't announced to the rest of the cast; nobody knew what happened. So, we're approaching the last scene in the picture, a big pie fight. They had a big set and they put a huge canvas all around; it was going to be like a battleground. They're getting all geared up and the script calls for all the Stooges. I see a dry run-through of the scene and there's no Curly. I thought it was just a change in the script. No one--including Moe [Moe Howard], Larry [Larry Fine] and Jules [producer Jules White]--ever told us how serious his condition was. It was only after the picture had been completed that I found out he took ill.