Jerome Howard (born Jerome Lester Horwitz; October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952), better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and actor. He was a member of The Three Stooges comedy team, which also featured his elder brothers Moe and Shemp Howard, as well as vaudevillian Larry Fine. In early shorts, he was billed as "Curley". He was generally considered the most popular and recognizable of the Stooges.

He was known for his high-pitched voice, odd vocal expressions, and non-rhotic dialect ("nyuk-nyuk-nyuk!", "woob-woob-woob!", "soiteny!" [certainly], "I'm a victim of coicumstance" [circumstance], and barking like a dog), as well as his physical comedy (e.g., falling on the ground and pivoting on his shoulder as he "walked" in circular motion), improvisations, and athleticism. An untrained actor, Curly borrowed (and significantly exaggerated) the "woob woob" from "nervous" comedian Hugh Herbert. Curly's unique version of "woob, woob, woob" was firmly established by the time of the Stooges' second Columbia film, Punch Drunks (1934).

Howard left the Three Stooges in May 1946 when a stroke ended his show business career. He suffered serious health problems and several more strokes until his death in 1952 at age 48.

Howard was born Jerome Lester Horwitz in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, on October 22, 1903. Of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, he was the youngest of the five sons of Jennie (Gorovitz) and Solomon Horwitz. Because he was the youngest, his brothers called him "Babe" (a nickname he retained his entire life). When his elder brother Shemp married Gertrude Frank, who was also nicknamed "Babe", the brothers dubbed him "Curly" to avoid confusion. His full formal Hebrew name was "Yehudah Leib bar Shlomo Natan HaLevi".

A quiet child, Howard rarely caused problems for his parents (something in which older brothers Moe and Shemp excelled). He was a mediocre student, but excelled as an athlete on the school basketball team. He did not graduate high school; instead, he kept himself busy with odd jobs and constantly following his older brothers, whom he idolized. He was also an accomplished ballroom dancer and singer, and regularly turned up at the Triangle Ballroom in Queens, occasionally bumping into actor George Raft.

When Howard was 13, he accidentally shot himself in the left ankle while cleaning a rifle. Moe rushed him to the hospital, saving his life, but the wound resulted in a noticeably thinner left leg and a slight limp. Curly was so afraid of surgery that he never had the limp corrected. While with the Stooges, he developed his famous exaggerated walk to conceal the limp on screen.

Howard was interested in music and comedy, and watched his brothers Shemp and Moe perform as stooges in Ted Healy's vaudeville act. He also liked to hang around backstage, although he never participated in any of the routines.^{[citation needed]}

Howard's first on-stage appearance was as a comedy musical conductor in 1928 for the Orville Knapp orchestra; Howard would conduct the ensemble with his arms flailing, unaware that he was losing his pants. Moe later recalled that his performances usually overshadowed those of the band. Though he enjoyed the gig, he watched as brothers Moe and Shemp with partner Larry Fine made it big as some of Ted Healy's "Stooges". Vaudeville star Healy had a very popular stage act, in which he would try to tell jokes or sing, only to have his noisy assistants (or "stooges", in show-business parlance) wander on stage and interrupt or heckle him and cause disturbances from the audience. Meanwhile, Healy and company appeared in their first feature film, Rube Goldberg's Soup to Nuts (1930).