Inside comedy duo Laurel & Hardy’s offscreen roles as real-life best friends.
THE CLASSIC COMEDY TEAM DIDN’T JUST PLAY BEST FRIENDS ON-SCREEN — THEY WERE CLOSE PALS IN REAL LIFE
There was no “I” in Laurel & Hardy. “People don’t just laugh at Laurel & Hardy — people love Laurel & Hardy,” biographer Randy Skretvedt tells Closer. “And the reason we love them is because they loved each other so much.” Unlike other comedy teams such as Abbott & Costello and Martin & Lewis, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy felt no ill will for each other on or offscreen. In their classic slapstick films, “they were these two kindred souls, children who never quite grew up, united against the cold, harsh world,” Skretvedt says. And in real life, “they actually became better friends over the 30 years of their partnership.”
It took them quite a while to form that team. Stan was raised by a theatrical family in England, while Oliver grew up as the son of a hotel manager mom in small-town Georgia. Both found their way into films, and Oliver robbed Stan in the 1921 short The Lucky Dog. Five years later, they started to appear in more films together, and Our Gang producer Hal Roach paired them off. “Every other comedy team came to movies from some other medium — Broadway, vaudeville or radio,” says Skretvedt. “But you can see Laurel & Hardy create the team on film.”
Behind the scenes, the two comedians took very different approaches to their work. “Stan was always more active in terms of writing, directing and editing,” Skretvedt says. “Oliver was happy to go home at 5 p.m. and golf.” As a result, Stan got paid almost twice as much as Oliver — $3,500 vs. $2,000 a week in 1934 — but “we were together 30 years and we never had an argument,” Oliver said.
They weren’t so lucky in their love lives. Stan and Oliver endured multiple divorces before finding happiness with Ida and Lucille, their fourth and third wives, respectively. Stan doted on his daughter, Lois (who passed away in July at 89), while Oliver “was 48 years old when he finally found marital bliss and possibly felt he was getting a bit old to be a father,” biographer Michael Ehret tells Closer.
ANOTHER FINE MESS
Stan and Oliver had a vibrant screen career, starring in The Music Box, the first live-action short to win an Oscar, and in such hits as Way Out West and Babes in Toyland. After they quit making films in the ’50s, they toured Europe and cemented their friendship.
They supported each other through health struggles offstage. Oliver, who had battled weight and heart problems, lost 150 pounds on an allbeets diet, but suffered a stroke afterward, in 1956. Near the end of Oliver’s life, “Stan would communicate with him in mime, because Oliver was no longer able to speak,” Skretvedt says. Stan had a stroke of his own and was unable to attend Oliver’s funeral in 1957. Still, he was devastated by his partner’s death and told fans whose letters he answered he would not continue performing if Oliver couldn’t be with him.
Stan lived out his final years happily with Ida in a Santa Monica, Calif., apartment. Lifelong fan Dick Van Dyke found his address in the phone book and befriended him — one of many admirers who cited Laurel & Hardy as comic influences. (Others include Johnny Carson, Dick Martin and Tim Conway.) Plus, “The Honeymooners’ Norton and Kramden are very much like Laurel & Hardy,” Skretvedt says. “Even Lucy and Ethel have their Laurel & Hardy moments.” An upcoming biopic, Stan & Ollie, will pay tribute to the team.
Their bond endures on film to this day. “That indelible friendship is something people respond to,” Skretvedt says. “It wouldn’t have worked if there wasn’t real affection between these two men. You can’t fake that — the camera doesn’t lie.”
— Bruce Fretts, with reporting by Katie Bruno
“The world
has lost a comic genius. I’ve lost my best friend.”
— Stan Laurel, when Oliver Hardy
died in 1957