Larry Fine - Personal Life

Personal Life

Offstage, Larry was a social butterfly. He liked a good time and surrounded himself with friends. He and his wife, Mabel, loved to party and every Christmas served lavish midnight suppers. Some of his friends called him a "yes man" since he was always so agreeable, no matter what the circumstances.

Larry's devil-may-care personality carried over to the world of finance. He was a terrible businessman and spent his money as soon as he earned it. He had a serious gambling addiction, leading him to gamble away all the money he had on him either at racetracks or high-stakes gin rummy card games. In an interview, Fine even admitted that he often gave money to actors and friends who needed help and never asked to be repaid. As Joe Besser and director Edward Bernds recall, because of his constant and free spending and gambling, Larry was almost forced into bankruptcy when Columbia stopped filming new Three Stooges episodes in December 1957.

Because of his profligate ways and Mabel's dislike for housekeeping, Larry and his family lived in hotels –- first in the President Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey where his daughter Phyllis was raised, then the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood. Not until the late 1940s did he buy a home in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, California.

On May 30, 1967, Mabel died of a sudden heart attack. Larry was on the road and about to take the stage for a live show at Rocky Point Amusement Park in Warwick, Rhode Island when he heard the bad news. He immediately flew home to California, leaving the other two stooges to improvise their remaining shows at the park.

Mabel's death came nearly six years after the early death of their only son, John, in a car crash on November 17, 1961 at age 24. Their only daughter, Phyllis, died of cancer in 1989 at 60. John's widow, Christy (Kraus), died on October 26, 2007 after a lengthy illness.