Ted Healy (October 1, 1896 - December 21, 1937) was an American vaudeville performer and actor. He is chiefly remembered today as the original employer of the Three Stooges, but had a successful career of his own.

Healy's was the first caricature drawn by Alex Gard to grace the walls of Sardi's, a legendary restaurant located in the New York City theater district.

US vaudevillain who in 1923 founded a stage act known as "Ted Healy & His Stooges," the latter comprising one Moe Howard (I) and his brother, Shemp Howard, whose roles were to act as foils, or stooges, for Healy's jokes. Joined later by Larry Fine (I), the Howards later went off on their own, eventually to call themselves "The Three Stooges." Over the years there would be six stooges in all. When Shemp left the act to try a solo career, he was replaced by a third Howard brother, the shy, bumbling 'Jerome Howard'. Later, when Curly Howard suffered a debilitating stroke, Shemp would return to replace him. Later still, after Shemp's death in 1955, Joe Besser, a short, fat, effeminate-acting veteran of stage and screen comedy, would join the act in Shemp's place. Besser, however, unwilling to tolerate the sort of violent, physical slapstick that was the Stooges' trademark, left the act in 1958, to be replaced by the sixth and final Stooge, Joe DeRita, who was given the moniker "Curly-Joe."

Ted Healy was was born Charles Lee Nash and grew up a very good friend with Moe and Shemp Horwitz (later Moe and Shemp Howard). In the twenties he changed his name to Ted Healy and got Moe, Shemp, and a violinist Larry Feineberg (later Larry Fine) to do vaudeville acts with him as his stooges. As the 1930's started Ted was becoming addicted to alcohol. Shemp left the act and Moe replaced him with Curly Jerome Howard. those three also left the act because Ted Healy underpaid them and kept getting drunk. He spent the rest of his life doing feature films most notably "Operator 13" before he was murdered in 1937 by three men at the bar because Ted was drunk and tried to pick a fight with them.

Ted Healy was born Clarence Lee Nash in Kaufman, Texas on October 1st, 1896. Around 1919, after years of flirtation with show business, Lee Nash rejected a career as a businessman and entered vaudeville as Ted Healy. In 1922, his solo act was expanded to include his wife, Elizabeth Braun. The act found almost immediate fame as "Ted and Betty Healy: The Flapper and the Philosopher". Moe and Shemp Howard, the first of Healy's famous stooges were incorporated into the act by 1924, followed shortly by a third stooge, Kenneth Lackey (replaced by Larry Fine in 1925). In 1926, Ted and Betty Healy were signed by Hal Roach to produce a series of short comedies, only one of which was made, sans Betty, entitled Wise Guys Prefer Brunettes (1926), directed by Stan Laurel. In various combinations, Ted, Betty, and the stooges appeared on Broadway and continued to tour vaudeville until 1928, when Betty departed the act (the Healys were officially divorced in 1932). Ted and his stooges made their feature film debut in 1930's Soup to Nuts (1930), after which Shemp Howard departed and was replaced by his younger brother Jerome. In 1933, Ted Healy and his stooges were signed by MGM, and were featured in a wide variety of shorts and features, with Healy more and more frequently appearing alone in character roles. The act finally dissolved in 1934 when Howard, Fine, and Howard accepted an offer from Columbia Pictures and became the famous Three Stooges. At MGM, Healy was featured with ever-increasing prominence in both dramas (San Francisco (1936), Death on the Diamond (1934)) and light comedies (It's in the Air (1935)), and was also teamed with Nat Pendleton. In late 1936, Ted Healy signed a lucrative contract with Warner Brothers and received co-starring roles (with Dick Powell) in two major Busby Berkeley musicals, Varsity Show (1937) and _Hollywood Hotel (1938)_. Ted Healy married UCLA co-ed Betty Hickman in 1936 and on December 17, 1937, his son, John Jacob Nash, was born. Healy reportedly left the hospital to celebrate, first at the Brown Derby, then at the Trocadero. Intoxicated, Ted became involved in a fight with one or more people that left him seriously injured and nearly unconscious. He was found by friends, delirious and bleeding on the sidewalk in front of the Trocadero, and was taken to a doctor. Healy never regained full consciousness. He died at 11:30 AM, Tuesday, December 21, 1937 at his home in Beverly Hills. The cause of death was determined, in time, as kidney failure due to both the beating and years of alcohol abuse. He was survived by his wife, child, and sister, Marcia Healy.