Stan Laurel

Stan Laurel came from a theatrical family, his father was an actor and theatre manager, and he made his stage debut at the age of 16 at Pickard's Museum, Glasgow. He traveled with Fred Karno's vaudeville company to the United States in 1910 and again in 1913. While with that company he was Charles Chaplin's understudy, and he performed imitations of Chaplin.

On a later trip he remained in the United States, having been cast in a two-reel comedy, Nuts in May (1917) (not released until 1918).

Mae Laurel was legally married to someone in her native Australia when she met Stan in 1918. She and Stan lived as a common-law couple. They parted in 1925 by mutual consent, and Mae returned to Australia.

His light blue eyes almost ended his movie career before it began. Until the early 1920s, filmmakers used black-and-white Orthochromatic film stock, which was "blue blind". Hal Roach cameraman George Stevens (who later become an acclaimed producer/director) knew of panchromatic film and was able to get a supply of it from Chicago. This new film was sensitive to blue and recorded Laurel's pale blue eyes in a more natural way. Stevens became Laurel's cameraman on his short films at Roach Studios. When Laurel teamed with Oliver Hardy, they made Stevens their cameraman of choice.

Laurel first appeared with his future partner, Oliver Hardy, in The Lucky Dog (1921), which was filmed in 1919 and released in 1921.

There followed a number of shorts for Metro, Hal Roach Studios, then Universal, then back to Roach in 1926.

His first two-reeler with Oliver Hardy was 45 Minutes from Hollywood (1926).

Their first release through MGM was Sugar Daddies (1927) and the first with star billing was From Soup to Nuts (1928).

Stan and Oliver Hardy made their first comic appearance in issue 46 of the American The Realm of Fun and Fiction in December 1929. In 1949 they had their own comic, produced by Jubilee publications and Archer St John Press. They made their first appearance in the center spread of the English comic Film Fun in issue 564, dated November 193, moved to the front page in March 1934, and remained there until 1957. In Italy it appeared in Bombolo in 1934 and Cine Comico, a film weekly. The same year, a rival company produced the Mastro Remo comic with them on the cover in a strip in color called Stan e Oli. In France in 1934, a color strip appeared in Cri-Cri. After WWII, an Italian publisher produced an all Laurel and Hardy comic called Criche e Croc.

He had two children with his first wife, Lois: a daughter Lois Laurel (1927-2017); and a son, Stanley Robert (May 7, 1930-May 16, 1930), who was born two months prematurely.

Their first feature-length starring roles were in Pardon Us (1931). Their work became more production-line and less popular during the war years, especially after they left Roach and MGM for Twentieth Century-Fox.

He fell off a platform and tore ligaments in his right leg while filming March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934).

Their last movie together was The Bullfighters (1945) except for a dismal failure made in France several years later (Utopia (1950)).

Stan was instrumental in Marcel Marceau's career. After seeing Marceau perform in Paris in 1950, Stan praised him as an unsung genius and helped him gain attention in the French press.

At the time of Oliver Hardy's death in 1957, Stan was too ill to attend his late partner's funeral.

Jerry Lewis was a big fan. When Lewis had his own production company in the early 1960s, he repeatedly tried to hire Stan for his creative team. Stan refused, despite the impressive salary. According to Lewis, he would send scripts to Stan, who would read them and write suggestions in the margins.

Had said that out of all the impersonations done of him, he liked actor Dick Van Dyke's the best. Van Dyke even got to perform that impersonation on one of the episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) and after it premiered, he called Laurel to ask his opinion. Laurel said he liked everything but one detail, the hat wasn't right. Van Dyke said he found Laurel's number in a Santa Monica, California, phone book.

Turned down a cameo role in Stanley Kramer's gigantic farce It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).

On February 23, 1965, Laurel told his nurse he wouldn't mind going skiing right at that very moment. Somewhat taken aback, the nurse replied that she didn't know he was a skier. "I'm not," said Stan, "I'd rather be doing that than have all these needles stuck into me!" A few minutes later, the nurse looked in on him again and found that Stan had quietly passed away.

Many sources say Stan was born in Ulverston, Cumbria. He was actually born in Ulverston, Lancashire. Ulverston became part of Cumbria in 1974, 2 years after England's Local Government Act of 1972.

Peter Sellers claimed that the "Laurel" character was his inspiration for the "gardener" character in Being There (1979).

In Alex Norton's television play Dramarama: Stan's First Night (1987), Paul Oldham played Stan, and William Hoyland played his father, Arthur.

Subject on one of five 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating famous comedians, issued in booklet form 29 August 1991. He is shown with his partner Oliver Hardy. The stamp designs were drawn by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. The other comedians honored in the set are Edgar Bergen (with alter ego Charlie McCarthy); Jack Benny; Fanny Brice; and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.