Stan Laurel
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Born	Arthur Stanley Jefferson (1890-06-16)16 June 1890 Ulverston, Cumbria.
Died	23 February 1965(1965-02-23) (aged 74) Santa Monica, California
Other names	Stan Jefferson
Occupation	Actor, writer, comedian, entertainer, film director
Years active	1917–1955
Influenced	Dick Van Dyke,[1] George Stevens,[2] Fred Leedon Scott[3]
Spouse	Lois Neilson (m.1926-1935) Virginia Ruth Rogers (m.1935-1937; 1941-1946; divorced twice) Vera Ivanova Shuvalova (m.1938-1940; divorced) Ida Kitaeva Raphael (m.1946-1965; his death)
Partner	Mae Charlotte Dahlberg (1919-1925)
Signature
Website
http://www.laurel-and-hardy.com/

Arthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson (16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965), known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy.^[4] His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film The Music Box (1932). In 1961, Laurel was given a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award for his pioneering work in comedy. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Blvd.

Early life[link]

Arthur Stanley Jefferson was born in his grandparents' house on 16 June 1890 at 3 Argyle Street, Ulverston,^[5] then in Lancashire. He had two brothers and a sister.

His parents, Arthur and Margaret ("Madge") Jefferson, were both active in the theatre and always very busy. In his early years, he spent much time living with his grandmother Sarah Metcalfe. Stan Jefferson attended school at King James I Grammar School, Bishop Auckland, County Durham^[6] and the King's School, Tynemouth, before moving with his parents to Glasgow, where he completed his education at Rutherglen Academy. His father managed Glasgow's Metropole Theatre where he began work. At the age of 16, with a natural affinity for the theatre, Jefferson gave his first professional performance on stage at the Panopticon in Glasgow.^[7]

In 1910, with the stage name of "Stan Jefferson", he joined Fred Karno's troupe of actors, which also included a young Charlie Chaplin. For some time, he acted as Chaplin's understudy. The Karno troupe toured America, and brought both Chaplin and Jefferson to the United States for the first time. From 1916 to 1918, he teamed up with Alice Cooke and Baldwin Cooke, who became lifelong friends. Amongst other performers, Jefferson worked briefly alongside Oliver Hardy in a silent film short The Lucky Dog. This was before the two were a team.^[5]

Scene from "The Lucky Dog", Stan Laurel (left) and Oliver Hardy (center) in their first appearance onscreen together

Short clip of Mud and Sand parody

It was around this time that Jefferson met Mae Dahlberg. Around the same time he adopted the stage surname of Laurel, at Dahlberg's suggestion.^{[N 1]} The pair were performing together when Laurel was offered $75.00 per week to star in two-reel comedies. After the making of his first film, Nuts in May, Universal offered him a contract. The contract was soon cancelled, however, during a reorganisation at the studio. Among the films Dahlberg and Laurel appeared in together was the 1922 parody, Mud and Sand, of which a short clip can be seen at the left. By 1924, Laurel had given up the stage for full-time film work, under contract with Joe Rock for 12 two-reel comedies. The contract had one unusual stipulation, that Dahlberg was not to appear in any of the films as it was felt her temperament was hindering Laurel's career. In 1925, when she started interfering with Laurel's work, Rock offered her a cash settlement and a one-way ticket back to her native Australia, which she accepted.^{[citation needed]}

Laurel and Hardy[link]

Laurel went on to join the Hal Roach studio, and began directing films, including a 1926 production called Yes, Yes, Nanette. He intended to work primarily as a writer and director, but fate stepped in. In 1927, Oliver Hardy, another member of the Hal Roach Studios Comedy All Star players, was injured in a kitchen mishap and Laurel was asked to return to acting. Laurel and Hardy began sharing the screen in Slipping Wives, Duck Soup and With Love and Hisses. The two became friends and their comic chemistry soon became obvious. Roach Studios' supervising director Leo McCarey noticed the audience reaction to them and began teaming them, leading to the creation of the Laurel and Hardy series later that year.

Together, the two men began producing a huge body of short films, including The Battle of the Century, Should Married Men Go Home?, Two Tars, Be Big!, Big Business, and many others. Laurel and Hardy successfully made the transition to talking films with the short Unaccustomed As We Are in 1929. They also appeared in their first feature in one of the revue sequences of The Hollywood Revue of 1929 and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in a lavish all-color (in Technicolor) musical feature, The Rogue Song. In 1931, their own first starring feature, Pardon Us was released, although they continued to make both features and shorts until 1935, including their 1932 three-reeler The Music Box which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.

Trouble at Roach Studio[link]

During the 1930s, Laurel was involved in a dispute with Hal Roach, which resulted in the termination of his contract. Since Roach maintained separate contracts for Laurel and Hardy that expired at different times, Hardy remained at the studio and was "teamed" with Harry Langdon for the 1939 film Zenobia. There was also talk about a series of films co-starring Hardy with Patsy Kelly called "The Hardy Family." But Laurel sued Roach over the contract dispute. Eventually, the case was dropped and Laurel returned to Roach. After returning to Roach studios, the first film Laurel and Hardy made was A Chump at Oxford. Subsequently, they made Saps at Sea, which was their last film for Roach.

Stan Laurel in still from Tree In A Test Tube, US Department of Agriculture (1943)

Fox Studios[link]

In 1939, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox to make one motion picture and nine more over the following five months. During the war years, their work became more standardised and less successful, though The Bullfighters, Great Guns and A-Haunting We Will Go did receive some praise. Laurel discovered he had diabetes, so he encouraged Oliver Hardy to make two films without him. In 1946, he divorced Virginia Ruth Rogers and married Ida Kitaeva Raphael.

In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film, a French-Italian co-production titled Atoll K, was a disaster. (The film was titled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning home, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they toured Europe again in 1953. During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks.^[9]

In May 1954, Oliver Hardy had a heart attack and canceled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series, Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables, based on children's stories, but the plans were delayed after Laurel suffered a stroke on 25 April, from which he recovered. But as he was planning to get back to work, Oliver Hardy had a massive stroke on 14 September 1956. Paralyzed and bedridden for several months, Hardy was unable to speak or move.^{[citation needed]}

Hardy's death[link]

On 7 August 1957, Oliver Hardy died. Laurel was too ill to attend his funeral, stating, "Babe would understand"^{[citation needed]}. People who knew Laurel said he was devastated by Hardy's death and never fully recovered from it, refusing to perform ever again after his partner's death.

Life after Laurel and Hardy[link]

In 1961, Stan Laurel was given a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award for his pioneering work in comedy. He had achieved his lifelong dream as a comedian and had been involved in nearly 190 films. He lived his final years in a small apartment in the Oceana Hotel in Santa Monica, California.

Always gracious to fans, Laurel spent much time answering fan mail. His phone number was listed in the telephone directory, and fans were amazed that they could dial the number and speak to Stan Laurel. Dick Van Dyke told a similar story to Jerry Lewis'. When Van Dyke was just starting his career, he looked up Laurel's phone number, called him, and then visited him at his home. Lewis was among the comedians to visit Laurel, who offered suggestions for Lewis' production of The Bellboy (1960). Lewis had even paid tribute to Laurel by naming his main character Stanley in the film, and having Bill Richmond play a version of Laurel as well.^[10] Van Dyke played Laurel on "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals" episode of the The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Personal life[link]

Laurel had a rich marital history. He had four wives and married one of them twice.^[11]

In 1928, during the early years of Laurel and Hardy's partnership, Laurel and first wife Lois had a baby girl, also named Lois, who married actor Rand Brooks. In May 1930, their second child, Stanley Robert Laurel, died after nine days.^[12]

In 1935, Laurel divorced Lois and married Virginia Ruth Rogers. In 1938, he divorced Virginia and married Vera Ivanova Shuvalova. By 1941, he had divorced Vera and re-married Virginia. In 1946, he divorced Virginia and married Ida Kitaeva Raphael, whom he did not divorce.

Death[link]

Laurel was a heavy smoker until suddenly quitting around 1960.^[13] In January 1965, he underwent a series of x-rays for an infection on the roof of his mouth.^[14] He died on 23 February 1965, aged 74, four days after suffering a heart attack on 19 February.^[15] Just minutes away from death, Laurel told his nurse he would not mind going skiing right at that very moment. Somewhat taken aback, the nurse replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!" A few minutes later the nurse looked in on him again and found that he had died quietly.^[16]

At his funeral, silent screen comedian Buster Keaton was overheard giving his assessment of the comedian's considerable talent: "Chaplin wasn't the funniest, I wasn't the funniest, this man was the funniest." Dick Van Dyke, a friend, protege and occasional impressionist of Laurel's during his later years, gave the eulogy, reading A Prayer for Clowns.^[17]

Laurel had written his own epitaph: "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again." A similar statement was later found: "If anyone cries at my funeral, I will never speak to him again."^{[citation needed]}

Laurel is interred in Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery.

Legacy[link]

Statue of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy outside the Coronation Hall Theatre, Ulverston, Cumbria, England

In 1989, a statue of Laurel was erected in Dockwray Square, North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England where he lived at No. 8 from 1897 to 1902, and where the steps down from the Square to the North Shields Fish Quay were said to have inspired the piano-moving scene in The Music Box. In 2006, BBC Four showed a drama called Stan, based on Laurel meeting Hardy on his deathbed and reminiscing about their career.^[18] There is a plaque on the Bull Inn, Bottesford, Leicestershire, England, recording how Laurel and Hardy while appearing in Nottingham over Christmas 1952, stayed with Laurel's sister, Olga, who was the landlady of the pub.^[19] In 1999, merchandiser Larry Harmon produced the direct-to-video film All New Adventures of Laurel and Hardy: For Love or Mummy starring Bronson Pinchot and Gailard Sartain as the descendants of the comedy duo. In 2008, a statue of Stan Laurel was unveiled in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on the site of the Eden Theatre.^[20] In April 2009, a bronze statue of Laurel and Hardy was unveiled in Ulverston, Cumbria.^[21] There is a Laurel and Hardy Museum in Stan's hometown of Ulverston. There is also a small Laurel and Hardy Museum in Hardy's hometown of Harlem, Georgia. Laurel and Hardy are featured on the cover of the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Filmography[link]

Biography portal

• Stan Laurel filmography (films of Stan Laurel as an actor without Oliver Hardy)
• Laurel and Hardy filmography (filmography of Laurel and Hardy together)

References[link]

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stan Laurel

• The Laurel and Hardy Forum
• The Laurel and Hardy Magazine
• The Official Laurel and Hardy website
• Stan Laurel at the Internet Movie Database
• Stan Laurel at Find a Grave
• Laurel and Hardy Museum, Ulverston
• The Stan Laurel Correspondence Archive Project
• The Laurel and Hardy Discussion Group at Yahoo!Groups
• Stan Laurel's Eulogy
• Stan's tempestuous love life