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| Right, Sitka in a standout performance as the justice of the peace in Brideless Groom (1947). |
Most of the classic comedy teams had them: their stock company of talented supporting actors and/or actresses. The Three Stooges were no exception.
Wikipedia says it best: "After striking out, Shemp finally finds a girl willing to marry him, and they rush off to a justice of the peace (Sitka). As he starts the ceremony, initially telling the couple to 'hold hands, you lovebirds', the other girls that turned down Shemp's proposal burst in, having heard of the inheritance. A free-for-all then ensues, with poor Sitka being struck again and again, attempting to start the ceremony, each time more disheveled and his 'hold hands, you lovebirds' rather weaker."
In all, Sitka played over 70 roles with the Stooges. He also co-starred in the live action wraparounds for the boys syndicated The New 3 Stooges cartoon TV series in 1965.
Usually these actors played it straight to the boys. But, many times, depending on the character they were portraying, they generated big laughs themselves also.
Of all of the actors who worked opposite the Stooges, one stands out above them all: their most talented foil, Emil Sitka.
You name the role, Sitka probably played it. He was that versatile. He portrayed everything from a butler to an attorney to a talent scout to a doctor to an eccentric scientist, and then some.
Sitka, who was signed to be a Stooge in the 1970s to replace frizzy haired middle Stooge Larry Fine but never performed as one, is one of only two actors who appeared in films with all four sets of Stooges: mainstays Moe Howard and Larry Fine, and, as the third stooge, either Curly Howard, Shemp Howard, Joe Besser or Curly Joe DeRita.
When it came his roles with the boys, Sitka was always a standout.
His best remembered role is as the justice of the peace in the Stooges riotous 1947 short, Brideless Groom, written by Clyde Bruckman and directed by Edward Bernds. The premise: third stooge Shemp must get married before 6 p.m. to inherit a half a million dollars.
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| In his first short with the Stooges as the butler in Half Wits Holiday (1947), Sitka experiences firsthand what it is like working with them. |
Sitka's role was made memorable by one line of dialogue. That line is so memorable, it was put on Sitka's gravestone after he passed away in 1998 less than a month after his 83rd birthday.
When my twin brother Jeff and I interviewed Sitka for the original edition of our book The Three Stooges Scrapbook, we had the honor of meeting him and asking him questions about his life and long career as well as his working opposite the boys. Warm, funny and animated in person, his eyes would light up with excitement and he would get a big smile on his face when he would share with us his captivating stories about them.
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| Right, as the professor who invents a a combination tank/helicopter/submarine in The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962). |
As his obituary said, in his many roles he was "poked in the eyes, bopped on the head,, squirted with seltzer water and hit in the face with pies." No wonder he was affectionately known to fans as "The Fourth Stooge."
Sitka was so versatile an actor that in the Stooges' final feature film, The Outlaws IS Coming! (1965), he played three roles: Mr. Otis Abernathy, a witch doctor and a calvary colonel!
And you know what? When it came to working with the Stooges, Sitka loved every minute of it. And you know what? I loved every minute watching him.