#Fact1During the 1940s, he had his own series of comedy shorts that were made at Columbia by the same team that were making the Three Stooges shorts.2Has two granddaughters from son Mort: Jill Howard (b. May 02, 1953) and Sandie Howard (b. Oct 05, 1956).3He was of Lithuanian ancestry.4Was the tallest of all the Stooges.5Was reportedly good friends with Huntz Hall.6Performed together with brother Moe Howard in vaudeville, accomplishing a rare feat of working for two different vaudeville companies at the same time when actors from one company were not hired by another. They achieved this by performing a blackface act for one company, then doing a whiteface act for the second.7Was forced to leave his vaudeville act with Moe Howard when he was drafted during World War I; he was soon sent back home because he was very nervous about being a soldier, and the army did not want a bedwetter.8As a teen, he once crashed his car through the front window of a barbershop. The incident shook him up so much that he never drove again in his life.9He was Alex Trebek's favorite Stooge.10When he was six years old, at a family picnic, he sneaked off with a plate of tomatoes and hit a man with them. The man dragged Shemp back, kicking and screaming, Shemp's mother beat the man with her umbrella.11Like brother Moe Howard, he played hooky from school often and his mother would have to come down and straighten things out. When he graduated grade school, it was said that he did not graduate, but his mother did.12Once when he and his brother Moe Howard, as children, were left to watch younger brother Curly Howard (Jerome), they turned his baby carriage into a soapbox racer and were about to test it out when their parents came home.13During the early 1940s, when his solo career was at its height and he was a contract player at Universal Studios appearing with everyone from Bud Abbott and Lou Costello to W.C. Fields to John Wayne, he was promoted as "The Ugliest Man in the Movies".14Had a son named Mort Howard (Feb. 26, 1927 - Jan. 13, 1972).15Was an avid boxing fan.16His favorite actors were Richard Arlen, Andy Devine and Horace McMahon. Patsy Kelly was his favorite actress and Fred Allen was his favorite radio comedian.17His favorite Stooges comedy was Fright Night (1947), his first comedy with The Three Stooges, and which dealt with boxing.18He, Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard appear in only one short together, Hold That Lion! (1947). Curly appears uncredited as a train car passenger (watch for the man with the hat on his face). This was a short, non-speaking cameo, due to Curly's health issues.19Director Sam Raimi, a huge fan of The Three Stooges, credits stand-ins and body doubles in his movies as "Fake Shemps", a reference to the body doubles that Columbia Pictures used after Shemp's death.20Was multiphobic, many who knew him jokingly said he was even afraid of his own shadow.21The phrase "to shemp" meaning "to fake" was coined from the actor's name. It was inspired by Columbia's use of an uncredited double in order to complete several of The Three Stooges shorts left uncompleted at the time of Shemp's death.22After Curly Howard had his stroke, Shemp was brought back, with Curly's blessing, to be a stopgap until Curly got better. Unfortunately, Curly never got well enough to continue, so Shemp stayed with The Three Stooges until his death.23He got the name "Shemp" when he was a child. Whenever his mother would say his name, "Sam", the combination of her heavy Lithuanian accent and abrupt manner of speaking made it come out sounding like "Shemp". The name stuck.24Son of Sol Horwitz; brother of actors Curly Howard and Moe Howard, and non-actors, Jack Horowitz and Irving Horowitz.25Following his death, he was interred at Home of Peace Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.26Died in the back seat of an automobile on the way home from watching a boxing match.27Member of what would become The Three Stooges until 1933, when he was replaced by his brother Curly Howard (Jerome) until 1946. Shemp rejoined the team following Curly's debilitating stroke.