Stan Laurel
1890 - 1965Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson, 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was part of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles.
Laurel began his career in music hall, where he developed a number of his standard comic devices, including the bowler hat, the deep comic gravity, and the nonsensical understatement. His performances polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. He was a member of "Fred Karno's Army", where he was Charlie Chaplin's understudy. He and Chaplin arrived in the United States on the same ship from the United Kingdom with the Karno troupe.
Laurel began his film career in 1917 and made his final appearance in 1951. From 1928 onwards he appeared exclusively with Hardy, and Laurel officially retired from the screen following his comedy partner's death in 1957.
In 1961 Laurel was given a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award for his pioneering work in comedy, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Blvd.
In 2009, a bronze statue of the Laurel and Hardy duo was unveiled in Laurel's hometown of Ulverston, England.
Omnibus - Cuckoo: A Celebration of Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy
Robert Vas
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy
Narrated by Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, this documentary about "Laurel and Hardy", one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema. It features interviews with Jerry Lewis, Dick Van Dyke, Babe London, Marcel Marceau, Lucille Hardy (Ollie's wife), Bob Monkhouse, Hal Roach, Marvin T Hatley, Jack McCabe and many more.
Omnibus - Cuckoo: A Celebration of Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy
The Music Box
James Parrott
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy
The Laurel & Hardy Moving Co. have a challenging job on their hands (and backs): hauling a player piano up a monumental flight of stairs to Prof. von Schwarzenhoffen's house. Their task is complicated by a sassy nursemaid and, unbeknownst to them, the impatient Prof. von Schwarzenhoffen himself. But the biggest problem is the force of gravity, which repeatedly pulls the piano back down to the bottom of the stairs.
The Music Box
Helpmates
James Parrott
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy
Ollie's house is a mess after a wild party from the previous night. Ollie receives a telegram from his wife (who is on vacation in Chicago), which tells him that she is returning home in the afternoon. Fearing his wife's wrath he calls Stan over to help him clean up. Things go downhill and they make more mess not less.
Helpmates
Way Out West
James W. Horne
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy
Stan and Ollie try to deliver the deed to a valuable gold mine to the daughter of a dead prospector. Unfortunately, the daughter's evil guardian is determined to have the gold mine for himself and his saloon-singer wife.
Way Out West
Big Business
James W. Horne, Leo McCarey
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy
Stan and Ollie play door-to-door Christmas tree salesmen in California. They end up getting into an escalating feud with grumpy would-be customer James Finlayson, with his home and their car being destroyed in the melee.
Big Business
Going Bye-Bye!
Charley Rogers
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy
In a packed courtroom, Butch Long vows revenge on 'squealers' Laurel and Hardy whose evidence has helped to send him to prison. Frightened, the boys plan to leave town and advertise for someone to share expenses with them. The woman who answers the ad is actually Butch's girlfriend. Meanwhile Butch escapes and hides in a trunk in his girlfriend's apartment where he gets locked inside. Not realizing who it is, Stan and Ollie finally manage to get the trunk open and then Butch exacts his revenge.
Going Bye-Bye!
4 Clowns
Robert Youngson
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy
Robert Youngson once again compiles scenes from the golden age of comedy's silent film era. Laurel and Hardy are shown battling a gum machine, and Hardy is a debaucherous Romeo whose amorous plans are thwarted by Rex, the Wonder Horse. Charley Chase is hampered by hiccups and a female professor, and he fleeces a drunken Oliver Hardy with a mannequin in a nightclub. The third part finds bachelor Buster Keaton desperately trying to get married by 7:00 PM in order to collect a $7-million-dollar inheritance. Keaton is pursued by money-hungry prospects in one of the best chase scenes ever filmed. Narration is provided by Jay Jackson.
4 Clowns
Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
Baby Peggy, Heather Linville
Among the pieces featured in Fragments are the final reel of John Ford's The Village Blacksmith (1922) and a glimpse at Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh (1927), the only Oscar®-winning performance in a lost film. Fragments also features clips from such lost films as Cleopatra (1917), starring Theda Bara; The Miracle Man (1919), with Lon Chaney; He Comes Up Smiling (1918), starring Douglas Fairbanks; an early lost sound film, Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), filmed in early Technicolor, and the only color footage of silent star Clara Bow, Red Hair (1928). The program is rounded out with interviews of film preservationists involved in identifying and restoring these films. Also featured is a new interview with Diana Serra Cary, best known as "Baby Peggy", one of the major American child stars of the silent era, who discusses one of the featured fragments, Darling of New York (1923).
Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20's
Robert Youngson
Jay Jackson, Stan Laurel
A compilation of primarly Laurel and Hardy shorts---From Soup to Nuts, Wrong Again, Putting the Pants on Philip, The Finishing Touch, Sugar Daddies and short clips from others---plus Max Davidson's Call of the Cuckoo and Dumb Daddies, with some cross-over Charley Chase footage, which, along with Robert Youngson's previous "The Golden Age of Comedy", "When Comedy Was King", "Days of Thrills and Laughter", led to a renewed interest in and a revival of television showings of Laurel and Hardy shorts. The cast was billed in order of their appearance: Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, Vivien Oakland (with a Vivian typo), Glen Tyron, Edna Murphy, Anita Garvin, Tiny Sanford, Jimmy Finlayson, Charlie Chase, Viola Richard, Max Davidson, Del Henderson, Josephine Crowell, Anders Randolf (as Anders Randolph), Edgar Kennedy, Dorothy Coburn, Lillian Elliott and "Spec" O'Donnell.
Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20's
That's Entertainment! III
Bud Friedgen, Michael J. Sheridan
June Allyson, Cyd Charisse
Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.
That's Entertainment! III
