| # | Fact |
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| 1 | David Jason is one of his, along with Oliver Hardy's biggest fans. When Jason put on weight after playing Pop Larkin in The Darling Buds of May (1991), he couldn't fit into a dinner jacket for the BAFTA Awards; he claimed he looked like Hardy wearing something belonging to Laurel. |
| 2 | In Spain, Stan and Ollie were known as El Gordo y El Flaco. |
| 3 | In Holland, Stan and Ollie were known as Dikke und Dunne. |
| 4 | In Germany, Stan and Ollie were known as Dick und Doof. |
| 5 | He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960. |
| 6 | The character Mickey in Maurice Sendak's book "Mickey in the Night Kitchen" is a caricature of Stan Laurel, while the bakers are caricatures of Oliver Hardy. |
| 7 | Stan's famous hairstyle was created by accident. He and Babe had shaved their heads to play convicts in The Second 100 Years (1927), and it grew back very unevenly and refused to stay down. Others on the Roach lot laughed, so Stan began to cultivate the new look. Offscreen, he combed it straight back, as did Oliver Hardy. |
| 8 | Stan removed the heels from his shoes while filming. It helped him accent his already humorous walk. |
| 9 | Because the Roach studio was smaller than the majors, the indoor sets were relatively close to each other, and the actors often visited other sets between takes. Matthew "Stymie" Beard picked up Stan's Irish children's derby and wore it whenever Stan put it down. Stan eventually gave Stymie a hat, which became Stymie's trademark as much as it was Stan's. |
| 10 | Laurel insisted that the quote attributed to him, "You know my hobbies; I married them all." was actually dreamed up by the publicity department. |
| 11 | He was a heavy smoker until he suddenly gave up when he was about seventy. |
| 12 | He was a staunch Democrat. |
| 13 | A comedian until the very last, Stan Laurel, just minutes away from death on February 23, 1965, 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 Stan, "I'd rather be doing that than have all these needles stuck into me!" A few minutes later, the nurse looked in on him again and found that Stan had quietly passed away. |
| 14 | Although Stan is recorded as being born in Ulverston Cumbria, he never knew it. He was actually born in Ulverston Lancashire. Ulverston became part of Cumbria under the "Local Government Act 1972" and became part of Cumbria two years later in 1974; nine years after Stan died. |
| 15 | Suffered a stroke in June 1955. |
| 16 | His partner Oliver Hardy was an inveterate golfer, often setting up his own little putting green on the set so he could practice between takes. Laurel once joked to a reporter interviewing him that golf was Hardy's only "bad habit". When the reporter asked if he had any bad habits, Laurel--who had been married and divorced five times--replied, "Yes, and I married them.". |
| 17 | In his later years, he was arguably the most approachable of all movie stars, keeping his phone number in the phone book, welcoming all sorts of visitors, and responding to his fan mail personally. |
| 18 | While rarely credited as a writer or director, he was the driving creative force behind the team of he and Oliver Hardy--whenever Hardy was asked a question about a gag, story idea, plotline, etc., he always pointed to Laurel and said, "Ask Stan." Laurel often worked well into the night, writing and editing their films. |
| 19 | Stan was greatly admired by Peter Sellers. Sellers claimed that the "Laurel" character was his inspiration when he created the "gardener" character in Being There (1979). |
| 20 | Is portrayed by Matthew Cottle in Chaplin (1992). |
| 21 | He was greatly admired by Jerry Lewis. When Lewis had his own production company in the early 1960s, he repeatedly tried to hire Stan for his creative team. Stan refused, despite the impressive salary. According to Lewis, he would send scripts to Stan who would read them and write suggestions in the margins. |
| 22 | In his later years, he was a close friends with Dick Van Dyke. Dick delivered the eulogy at Stan's funeral. |
| 23 | Is portrayed by Jim Plunkett in Harlow (1965). |
| 24 | An extra named John Wood from the film Babes in Toyland (1934) sued him and his stunt double, Ham Kinsey, claiming back injuries after Laurel and Kinsey threw him in the ducking pond on the set. The lawsuit specified $40,500 in damages, but was settled out-of-court. |
| 25 | Fell off a platform and tore ligaments in his right leg during the filming of Babes in Toyland (1934). |
| 26 | He and Oliver Hardy have been and continue to be very popular in Germany under the name of "Dick und Doof" (Fatty and Stupid). |
| 27 | The death of his partner Oliver Hardy left him a broken man, so much so that he fell into a deep depression and swore never to do comedy again. He didn't. In the eight years between Hardy's death and his own, he repeatedly turned down offers to do public appearances. |
| 28 | He was voted, along with comedy partner Oliver Hardy, the 45th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly. |
| 29 | His and Oliver Hardy's films had and still have great success in Italy where they are known as "Stanlio e Ollio". |
| 30 | Had said that out of all the impersonations done of him, he liked actor Dick Van Dyke's the best. Van Dyke even got to perform that impersonation on one of the episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) and after it premiered, he called Laurel to ask his opinion. Laurel said he liked everything but one detail, the hat wasn't right. Van Dyke said he found Laurel's number in a Santa Monica, California, phone book. |
| 31 | At the time of Oliver Hardy's death in 1957, Stan was too ill to attend his late partner's funeral. |
| 32 | He and Mae Laurel lived as a common-law couple, as Mae was legally married to someone in her native Australia when she met Stan in 1918. They parted in 1925 by mutual consent and Mae returned to Australia. |
| 33 | Appears on sleeve of The Beatles' album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". |
| 34 | Subject on one of five 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating famous comedians, issued in booklet form 29 August 1991. He is shown with his partner Oliver Hardy. The stamp designs were drawn by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. The other comedians honored in the set are Edgar Bergen (with alter ego Charlie McCarthy); Jack Benny; Fanny Brice; and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. |
| 35 | Had always been a huge fan of westerns, and after he became a success, his company, Stan Laurel Productions, financed a series of low-budget musical westerns starring singing cowboy Fred Scott. The films were made for and released by the independent Spectrum Pictures rather than Hal Roach Studios, which made Laurel's and Oliver Hardy's films, or MGM, which released them. The Scott westerns seldom, if ever, made any money, but Laurel's enthusiasm for them never waned until his accountants showed him that they were getting to be a major drain on his finances, at which time he reluctantly dropped his participation. |
| 36 | Turned down a cameo role in Stanley Kramer's gigantic farce It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). |
| 37 | Suffered a nervous breakdown on the death of his longtime film partner and friend, Oliver Hardy, and according to his friends, never fully recovered. |
| 38 | Interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA. |
| 39 | He always thought that his "whining face" was humiliating, but the producers forced him to do it in most of his movies since the public loved it. |
| 40 | Laurel first appeared with his future partner, Oliver Hardy, in The Lucky Dog (1921), which was filmed in 1919, but not released until 1921. |
| 41 | Had two children with his first wife, Lois: a daughter, Lois Laurel; and a son, Stanley Robert (born May 7, 1930; died May 16, 1930), who was born two months prematurely and died nine days later. |
| 42 | His light blue eyes almost ended his movie career before it began. Until the early 1920s, filmmakers used black-and-white Orthochromatic film stock, which was "blue blind". Hal Roach cameraman George Stevens (the same George Stevens who would later become an acclaimed producer/director) knew of panchromatic film and was able to get a supply of it from Chicago. This new film was sensitive to blue and recorded Laurel's pale blue eyes in a more natural way. Stevens became Laurel's cameraman on his short films at Roach. When Laurel teamed with Oliver Hardy, the team made Stevens their cameraman of choice. |
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