Comedian Shemp Howard was a charter member of the Three Stooges when they toured the vaudeville circuit, only to depart in 1932 for a successful career as a character actor. He rejoined in 1946 but died of a heart attack in 1955 while on his way home from a boxing match.
The former University of Arkansas football star coached the Oklahoma Sooners for 16 years and went on to coach the NFL's Dallas Cowboys for four years. He is one of only three NFL coaches to win both a college football national championship and a Super Bowl, the others being Jimmy Johnson and Pete Carroll.
Recognizable by his nearly 400-pound frame and the distinctive flame tattoo spanning most of his bald head, Bigelow was hailed by Ryan Murphy (a writer for Bigelow's former employer WWE) as "the most natural, agile and physically remarkable big man of the past quarter century", while former colleague Bret Hart described him as "possibly the best working big man in the business."
Just before his death in 2007, James Bechtold, a firefighter from Metuchen, New Jersey, made a surprising final request — the heads of Moe, Curly, and Larry etched on his gravestone, as he was a diehard Three Stooges fan.