Actors - Laurel and Hardy

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	Actors - Laurel and Hardy

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were perhaps the most famous comedy duo in motion picture history. Their humor is physical, but the accident-prone buffonery is distinguished by the stars' friendly, kindly personalities and their great devotion to each other. The characters are grown-up children, a skinny-and-fat pair of life's innocent bystanders who always run afoul of irate landlords, pompous citizens, angry policemen, domineering women, antagonistic customers, and apoplectic bosses. Their well-meaning solutions to the simplest problems are hilariously disastrous. Off-screen, Laurel and Hardy were the opposite of their movie characters. Stan, who wrote many of their comedy bits and scripts, and frequently produced the films, carefully supervised his own pictures, while the easygoing Hardy, spent his free time on hobbies, cooking, playing golf, and watching sporting events.

Stan Laurel

Stan, the thin half of the team, was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, England on June 16, 1890. The son of a prominent theatrical producer, Stan grew up in show business, and at the age of twenty he joined a theatrical troupe which featured another comic, Charlie Chaplin. Stan entered the film industry in 1917, and alternately played brash go-getters and worried simps for the following ten years.

Oliver Hardy

Oliver was born in Harlem, Geaorgia on January 18, 1892. His mother operated an hotel, and the young Hardy was fascinated by the "show folk" that passed through the community. A stint as a boy singer led him into theatrical enterprises, and by 1910 he was a moviehouse projectionist. Three years later he joined a local comedy-film company, and in a few short years he became well established as a comic villain with expressive pantomine skills.

Stan and Ollie

=Hal Roach years===== In 1927, both Laurel and Hardy were working at the Hal Roach studio in Culver City, California. Roach had become a leading producer of comedy short subjects, and his stars included Harold Lloyd, and Charley Chase. Stan was on the payroll as a writer and director, while Hardy was playing prominent character roles. They began performing together, and their chemistry was immediately noticeable. Their characters became Stan and Ollie, dumb-bells in derby hats. Gradually the new duo became the Hal Roach's biggest stars.

From silent to talkies

While most silent-film actors, saw their careers decline with the advent of sound, Laurel and Hardy were made the successful transition, as Laurel's English accent and Hardy's southern accent and singing brought new dimensions to their characters. The team also proved skillful in their melding of visual and verbal humor, adding dialogue that served to enhance rather than replace their popular sight gags. Their two-reel, twenty minute shorts became a staple of movie programs everywhere. A three-reel special, The Music Box won the first short-subject Academy Award. Hal Roach soon added feature films to his production schedule, and Laurel and Hardy's features were often expensive, carefully crafted spectaculars. Their full-length hits included The Devil's Brother, Sons Of The Desert, Babes In Toyland, and Way Out West.

Decline

In 1941, Laurel and Hardy were beginning a decline in their professional careers. Because of creative disagreements with Hal Roach Studios, the team left for Twentieth Century Fox and MGM. Although Laurel and Hardy believed their talents ideally suited to short films, these larger studios were losing interest in that less-profitable medium and cast the team in a series of modestly budgeted and poorly written features. Moreover, the studios did not allow the duo to engage in the improvisation that had been so vital to the success of their earlier work and insisted instead that the scripts be strictly followed. Discouraged once again, in 1945 Laurel and Hardy retired from films, returning only for the poorly received Atoll K, a.k.a. Utopia in 1951.

Final Years

After taking several months off to recouperate, Laurel and Hardy undertook a successful series of public appearances in a short sketch Laurel had written called Birds of a Feather, and in the 1950s were negotiating again with Hal Roach for a series of television specials to be called Laurel & Hardy's Fabulous Fables. The plans were shelved as the aging comedians suffered declining health. After a series of strokes, Hardy died on August 7, 1957. Laurel retired and lived until 1965, surviving to see the duo's best work rediscovered by appreciative audiences through television and classic film revivals. A few months after Laurel's death, the inaugural meeting of the Sons of the Desert, the official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society, was held in New York City. Since that time, chapters of the organization have formed across North America and Europe, as well as in Australia.

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