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). 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). 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. Their last
movie together was
The Bullfighters (1945) except
for a dismal failure made in France several years later
(Utopia (1950)). In 1960 he was given a
special Oscar "for his creative pioneering in the field of cinema
comedy". He died five years later.
