Hardy was at his heaviest, and suffered heart problems as well as a serious bout of the flu, while Stan Laurel was dealing with his diabetes and a prostate condition. There were language barriers and a terrible script to contend with - but the truly tragic aspect was Laurel and Hardy's health.
Oliver Hardy died surprisingly broke, and New Statesman reveals that in 1946, Stan Laurel was forced to admit he only had $2,000 in his bank account - and $200 a month to live on.Īccording to Norbert Aping, after World War II ended, Laurel and Hardy's celebrity suddenly took off internationally as their films were finally widely distributed, and so it was decided that there was potential to relaunch their film careers with a French-Italian co-production that eventually became known as Atoll K. By the 1950s, Laurel and Hardy had to embark on a live tour of English music halls to try to pay some bills - which failed when Hardy took ill and the tour had to be canceled. Roach also ensured that they never held any of the copyrights, or got any screenwriting credits, although they usually took a very active role in the writing and directing of their films.Īs both men went through several divorces, alimony payments piled up, and Oliver Hardy developed a gambling problem. He paid them a flat wage instead of a percentage of the profits. For example, he staggered the expiration dates of their contracts so they could never negotiate as a team, which allowed Roach to consistently undervalue them. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Roach managed to keep the upper hand through shrewd negotiating. In fact, as the tragic history of Laurel and Hardy will show, they might have had more than their fair share of both.įrom that point on, the pair rose to stardom under Roach's guidance - but Roach was a sharp businessman, and Laurel and Hardy were.
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After changing film studios in the early 1940s, their popularity fell (along with the perceived quality of their films), but television kept them in the public eye and ensured their work would never be forgotten.Īs is often the case with our funniest performers, however, the lives of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were hardly free from tragedy and sorrow. After winning an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Subject for 1931's The Music Box, the comedy team proceeded to make hit after hit during the 1930s, mostly working in short films of forty minutes or less. Those comedy fundamentals have allowed the duo to endure in popular culture long after their death. Few performing acts successfully transitioned from the Silent Era into the age of sound, but Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel used a combination of visual contrast - the rotund and imposing Hardy standing next to the thin, angular Laurel - peerless physical comedy, and sharp comic timing to become one of the most popular comedy acts of the 1930s. Eighty years after their heyday, Laurel and Hardy remain icons of comedy.
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