Stan Laurel

Stan Laurel (born June 16, 1890, Ulverston, England—died February 23, 1965, Santa Monica, California, U.S.) was an English comedic film actor best known as half of the legendary Laurel and Hardy team. Although he played a simpleminded bumbler, Stan Laurel was actually the major creative force behind the comedy duo. Laurel made some 100 comedies with Oliver Hardy between 1921 and 1950.

Stan Jefferson, the son of a theatrical manager and performer, became a music-hall comedian during his teenage years and performed in circuses, musicals, and dramas. By 1910 he was understudying Charlie Chaplin in Fred Karno’s traveling comedy troupe. After the Karno company disbanded during an American tour in 1913, Jefferson worked in American films and vaudeville for several years, during which time he changed his surname to Laurel after deciding that a stage name with 13 letters was bad luck. His first movie short was Nuts in May (1917). He found minor success as the star of his own series of comedy shorts in the early 1920s, but, within a few years, acting took second place to work as a director and gag writer. He signed with Hal Roach Studios in 1925 with the understanding that his primary duties would be behind the cameras. A year later he and Oliver Hardy both became members of Roach’s “All-Stars,” an ensemble of screen comedians. Laurel was soon coaxed back in front of the camera, and by 1927 he was teamed with Hardy. Their first successful joint comedy was the silent movie Putting Pants on Philip (1927).

In their comedies they played two friends who were naive and eternally optimistic. As Laurel himself described it, they were “two minds without a single thought.” Laurel was the skinny guileless nitwit who caused most of their troubles, while Hardy was the robust and self-important windbag whose plans always went awry. Armed with impeccable slapstick timing and an arsenal of hilarious facial expressions, they typically managed to convert a simple, everyday situation into “another nice mess.” Innocent, harmless, and utterly incompetent, Laurel was frequently knocked around by the irascible Hardy. He was known for his signature whimpering cry, dramatically blank stare, and iconic toothless smile. He characteristically sported a too-small bowler hat, under which he housed a head of unkempt hair that he would frequently tousle. As the silent film era ended, the pair achieved great popularity in comedies such as The Battle of the Century (1927), Leave ’Em Laughing (1928), Two Tars (1928), Liberty (1929), and Big Business (1929).

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Unlike many other stars of the silent era, Laurel and Hardy were able to successfully make the transition to sound motion pictures. Laurel’s British accent was well suited to his character and contrasted nicely with Hardy’s Southern accent. Continuing to work for the Roach studio, the two made talking shorts at first. The Music Box (1932) won an Academy Award for best short subject. Starting with Pardon Us (1931), they also made full-length feature films. Of their features, Sons of the Desert (1933), Babes in Toyland (1934), and Way Out West (1937) are generally regarded as classics.

The films done by Laurel and Hardy for the Roach studio had a number of directors, most notably Leo McCarey. But Laurel himself, a comedy perfectionist, was largely responsible for the look and the feel of the films. He was also the de facto head writer and created most of the two men’s comic routines. Unfortunately, Laurel did not have as much control over their later films made for other studios in the 1940s, and these are less highly regarded by critics and fans. In 1961, after Hardy’s death, Laurel received an honorary Academy Award for “creative pioneering in the field of cinema comedy.”