Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy comprised one of the most popular comedic duos ever to grace
the screen. Though the two didn't know each other very well when they first started working together
under the watchful eye of producer Hal Roach, they developed a sincere friendship over the
decades of their professional partnership. By the time Oliver Hardy passed away in the 1950s,
Stan Laurel considered him a good friend and was so devastated that he never wanted to work again.
Join Facts Verse as we explore why Laurel and Hardly left Stan Laurel in despair.
There were few comedic actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age more prolific and beloved than Stan
Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Together, the two comprised the duo of Laurel and Hardy. They
catapulted to fame over the course of the 1920s and remained successful in some capacity until
the end of their creative partnership in the 1950s. Their longtime professional partnership
was put to an end only because of Oliver Hardy’s death. Though he and Stan Laurel
had barely known each other when they first started working together, they had become
very good friends during the time they spent together over the course of their careers. When
Oliver passed away, Stan was so devastated that he retired.
Throughout their partnership, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared in over 100 films
together. The two of them had become so iconic that most people could recognize
them just by seeing their silhouettes. Stan Laurel was the smaller and skinnier of the two,
while Oliver Hardy was burly and big. This contrast in size contributed to the comedy.
While many duos over the course of Hollywood’s history started out with amicable relationships
and then grew to hate each other as time went on, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were
essentially strangers when they were first put together by producer Hal Roach
in a film. The first time they worked on a film was in 1921, and they didn’t work
on another one again until 1926. By the late 1920s, Hal Roach realized that the pair made an
incredibly great duo on the screen and that the audience wanted to see more of them together.
In the initial years that Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy spent together performing as the comedic
duo of Laurel and Hardy, the two were so busy with their respective roles in the duo that they didn’t
have much time to really get to know each other. Of the two, Stan Laurel was the one with more
creative input behind the scenes. While he was busy toiling away on scripts for their films or
editing scenes, Oliver Hardy was out playing golf with his real-life friends.
Even though the two weren't friends when they started out working together, they found more
time later in their careers to socialize and eventually developed a very close relationship.
Laurel and Hardy toured in their later years quite a bit more than they had during their earlier and
more successful days on the big screen. Once the two found themselves taking frequent train trips
together, they found the time to finally get to know one another. During this time,
they realized that they actually had much more in common than they initially had thought,
and they developed a true friendship. By the end of their creative partnership,
Laurel and Hardy were friends both in real life and on the screen.
By the time of Oliver Hardy’s death, Stan Laurel had grown so attached to
his longtime partner that he went into retirement. From Stan’s perspective,
there was no reason to continue performing in any capacity if he didn’t have Oliver
by his side. Stan’s health had also been decreasing in his later years,
and it was less than a decade after his retirement that he reunited with his former partner in death.
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were already in their 30s by the time they
found success with their creative partnership as a comedic duo. One of the biggest hits of
Laurel and Hardy’s early career as a duo was The Battle of the Century, which was released in 1927.
Before their time working together, the two had come from relatively different walks
of life. However, their distinct paths led them to meet up at just
the right time to be paired together by producer Hal Roach. If you’re enjoying this video so far,
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Stan Laurel was born in England, and he came from a family that was
versed in the theater. This led to Stan pursuing his own career on the stage,
though little did his family know that the young man was going to develop a predilection for
comedy as compared to more dramatic acting. Stan’s penchant for comedy saw him become an understudy
of a vaudeville troupe led by notable performer Fred Karno. This opened up the opportunity for
Stan to make his way towards the United States, where he decided that he wanted to stay.
In the United States, Stan hooked up with producer Hal Roach, who began using him as
a performer in some of his films. This is how Stan was eventually paired up with Oliver Hardy,
and the pairing proved to be lightning in a bottle! The audience adored the comedic
pairing of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, from their contrasting physical appearances
to their warring personalities. Although their characters would often quarrel during their films,
they would always come back together as friends by the end of the day.
Contrasting Stan Laurel’s upbringing, Oliver Hardy was raised in the United States and his family had
no background in entertainment whatsoever. Instead, Oliver simply developed an interest
in the performing arts by his own volition. Oliver was a gigantic lover of the cinema.
Although Oliver had begun attending school with the intent of becoming a lawyer,
he ended up dropping out after deciding that he wanted to open a movie theater instead.
Oliver Hardy's time operating his cinema gave him a chance to experience
all of the work that was being done by other comedic actors of the time.
Eventually, Oliver decided that he wanted to try his own hand at performing. In Florida,
Oliver appeared in some films for a production company named the Lubin Company. However,
he later ended up in Hollywood, where producer Hal Roach paired him up with Stan Laurel. The
first picture the two appeared in together was called The Lucky Dog, which was released in 1921.
Soon after the release of the duo’s first few features together, they became one of the most
popular comedic acts in the industry. The two continued working with producer Hal Roach until
1941, at which point they made the move over to 20th Century Fox. Laurel and Hardy’s time with
Hal Roach certainly marked their most successful time period, though they still continued to sell
tickets while working with the latter studio. However, their celebrity status had decreased
even further by the 1950s. They spent much of that decade touring Britain and other parts of Europe.
Even though Laurel and Hardy had decreased in mainstream popularity by the final days of their
career, they were still beloved and revered by critics and fans. The duo never compromised
their integrity, and both were the same beloved performers in the 1950s that the public had come
to love at the height of their fame. By the 1950s, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had come to know each
other much better than they had during the 1920s when they’d first met. Their time touring in
the 1950s made them even closer than ever before,
and this made it all the more tragic when Oliver Hardy passed away later in the decade.
Oliver Hardy was the first member of the beloved comedic duo to go, passing away on August 7,
1957. The legendary comedic performer’s death was caused by a stroke. Stan Laurel was sick
at the time, as well, and was kept by his own illness from attending the funeral of his longtime
friend. This exacerbated the impact that Oliver’s death had on him. However,
he eventually recovered from his own illness and went on to survive Oliver by nearly a decade.
Despite the fact that Stan Laurel survived Oliver Hardy, he vowed never to work
again after his longtime partner’s death. Instead, he spent the remainder of his years in retirement.
Stan also apparently became very involved in the Laurel and Hardy fan community
in the years after his retirement, and always made sure to answer letters from fans with personalized
replies. That is until the vaudeville legend went blind during his later years.
Stan Laurel himself passed away on February 23, 1965. In the last years of his life,
Stan claimed that he felt completely lost without the man that he had spent the prior decades with
in show business. This is perhaps why Stan chose to dedicate so much of his time to interacting
with fans and reminiscing about the days that he shared with his creative partner. The story of
Laurel and Hardy still stands as a heartwarming tale, particularly in comparison to the bitter
feuds that ended the professional relationships of other memorable duos from Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Oliver Hardy was 65 years old at the time of his death, while Stan Laurel was 74. Now it’s time
to hear from you: did you know that Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel barely knew each other when they
formed the popular comedic duo of Laurel and Hardy, but that they became such good friends
by the end that Stan never performed again after Oliver’s death? As always,
like this video to show your support, subscribe and hit the notification bell if
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