Early Days Productions

Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson on June 16, 1890 in Ulverston, Lancashire (now Ulverston, Cumbria), England. Laurel began his career in the Glasgow Britannia Theatre of Varieties and Alhambra Theatre Glasgow at the age of 16, where he crafted a comedy act largely derivative of famous music hall comedians of the day, including George Robey and Dan Leno. He gradually worked his way up the ladder of supporting roles until he became the featured comedian, as well as an understudy to Charlie Chaplin in Fred Karno's comedy company. He emigrated to America in 1912 where he decided to change his name; he worried that "Stanley Jefferson" was too long to fit onto posters. He shortened it to "Stan" and added "Laurel" at the suggestion of his superstitious vaudeville partner, Mae Dahlberg who fretted that his original stage name was composed of 13 letters.

Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy on January 18, 1892 in Harlem, Georgia. As a tribute to his father (who died when Norvell was very young), he took his father's first name (although not legally), henceforth calling himself "Oliver Norvell Hardy." By his late teens, Hardy was a popular stage singer, and he operated his own movie house in Milledgeville, Georgia, the Palace Theater, financed partially by his mother. Seeing film comedies inspired him with an urge to take up comedy himself and in 1913, he began working with Lubin Motion Pictures in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1914, Babe acted in his first film called "Outwitting Dad". Between 1914 and 1916, Babe made 177 shorts with the Vim Comedy Company, which were released up to the end of 1917. Exhibiting a versatility in playing heroes, villains and even female characters, Hardy became much in demand as a supporting actor, comic villain or second banana

Stats:

Stan Laurel
(1890 - 1965)
Height: 5' 8"
Eye Color:Light Blue
Hair Color: Light Brown

Quote: "A friend once asked me what comedy was. That floored me. What is comedy? I don't know. Does anybody? Can you define it? All I know is that I learned how to get laughs, and that's all I know about it. You have to learn what people will laugh at, then proceed accordingly."

Oliver Hardy
(1892 - 1957)
Height: 6' 1"
Eye Color: Dark Brown
Hair Color: Black

Quote: "The world is full of Laurel and Hardys. I saw them all the time as a boy at my mother's hotel. There's always the dumb, dumb guy, who never has anything bad happen to him, and the smart guy who's even dumber than the dumb guy, only he doesn't know it."

The first film pairing of the two comedians (albeit as separate performers) took place in "The Lucky Dog", produced in 1919 by Sun-Lite Pictures and released in 1921. Several years later, both comedians appeared in the Hal Roach production "45 Minutes from Hollywood" (1926). Their first "official" film together was "Putting Pants on Philip", although their first appearance as the now familiar "Stan and Ollie" characters was "The Second Hundred Years" (June 1927), directed by Fred Guiol and supervised by Leo McCarey, who suggested that the performers be teamed permanently. Hal Roach kept them a team for the next decade, making silent shorts, talking shorts, and feature films. While most silent-film actors saw their careers decline with the advent of sound, Laurel and Hardy made a successful transition in 1929 with the short "Unaccustomed As We Are". Laurel's English accent and Hardy's Southern American 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.

In 1931, Laurel and Hardy's first starring feature was released, "Pardon Us". Following its success, the duo made fewer shorts in order to concentrate on feature films, which included "Pack Up Your Troubles" (1932), "Fra Diavolo" (or The Devil's Brother, 1933), "Sons of the Desert" (1933), and "Babes in Toyland" (1934). Their classic short "The Music Box", released in 1932, won the first Academy Award for Best Short Subject, (Comedy). Because the popularity of the double feature diminished the demand for short subjects, Hal Roach cancelled all of his shorts series, save for Our Gang. The final short in the Laurel and Hardy series was 1935's "Thicker than Water". The duo's subsequent feature films included "Bonnie Scotland" (1935), "The Bohemian Girl" (1936), "Our Relations" (1936), "Way Out West" (1937) (which includes the famous song "Trail of the Lonesome Pine"), "Swiss Miss" (1938) and "Block-Heads" (1938).

By 1936, although the relationship between Laurel and Hardy remained strong, Laurel's dealings with producer Roach became strained amid a tangle of artistic differences. Roach insisted that his feature-length comedies should also contain musical numbers and/or subplots. (Roach always contended that if you watched any comedian for an hour at a time, "you'd be bored to hell with him.") Laurel maintained that such padding distracted from the team's comedy. Because of this friction, extended stand-off periods became common during the late 1930s, with Roach occasionally threatening to pair Hardy with someone else. Laurel countered Roach's announcement with one revealing his own plans. In October 1938, Roach's old rival Mack Sennett announced that he had signed Laurel to star in comedy features for his new Sennett Pictures Corporation Studio. Those films were not made, since by April 1939 the dispute between Laurel and Roach was settled and the comedy team was again intact for further work with Roach. They made two more films for Roach, "A Chump at Oxford" (filmed in 1939, released 1940) and "Saps at Sea" (1940). Both of these films were released through United Artists, as Roach's distribution arrangement with MGM had ended in 1938. As their new agreement with Roach was non-exclusive, Laurel and Hardy also starred in "The Flying Deuces", a feature-length remake of "Beau Hunks" produced and released by RKO Radio Pictures.

Hoping for greater artistic freedom, Laurel and Hardy split with Roach and signed with major studios 20th Century-Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. However, the working conditions were now completely different, as they were hired only as actors, relegated to the B-film divisions, and initially not allowed to improvise or contribute to the scripts. When the films proved popular, the studios allowed the team more input with Laurel and Hardy starring in eight features through 1944. These films, while not considered the team's best, were extremely successful. Budgeted at $250,000 to $300,000 each, the films earned millions at the box office. The films were so profitable that Fox kept making Laurel and Hardy comedies after discontinuing its other "B" series. Disappointed in the films in which they had little creative control, from 1945 to 1950 the team did not appear on film and concentrated on their stage show, embarking on a musical hall tour of England, Ireland and Scotland. Laurel and Hardy made one final film together in 1950, "Atoll K".

Under doctor's orders to improve a heart condition, Hardy lost over 100 pounds in 1956. Several strokes (that some doctors partly attribute to the rapid weight loss) resulted in loss of mobility and speech. He died of a major stroke on August 7, 1957. Just after Hardy's death, Laurel and Hardy returned to movie theaters, as clips of their work were featured in Robert Youngson's silent-film compilation "The Golden Age of Comedy". For the remaining eight years of his life, Stan Laurel refused to perform, even turning down Stanley Kramer's offer to make a cameo in his landmark 1963 movie, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". He spent a great deal of time corresponding with fans as he insisted on answering every fan letter personally. Laurel lived until 1965, surviving to see the duo's work rediscovered through television and classic film revivals.

The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)
The Rogue Song (1930) (lost film)
Pardon Us (1931)
Pack Up Your Troubles (1932)
The Devil's Brother (1933)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
Babes in Toyland (1934)
Hollywood Party (1934)
Bonnie Scotland (1935)
The Bohemian Girl (1936)
Our Relations (1936)
Way Out West (1937)
Pick a Star (1937)
Swiss Miss (1938)
Block-Heads (1938)
The Flying Deuces (1939)
A Chump at Oxford (1940)
Saps at Sea (1940)
Great Guns (1941)
A-Haunting We Will Go (1942)
Air Raid Wardens (1943)
Jitterbugs (1943)
The Dancing Masters (1943)
The Big Noise (1944)
Nothing But Trouble (1944)
The Bullfighters (1945)
Atoll K / Utopia (1951

Ollie Dee and Stanley Dum try to borrow money from their employer, the toymaker, to pay off the mortgage on Mother Peep's shoe and keep it and Little Bo Peep from the clutches of the evil Barnaby. When that fails, they trick Barnaby into marrying Stanley Dum instead of Bo Peep. Enraged, Barnaby unleashes the bogeymen from their caverns to destroy Toyland.. - From the IMDB