Arthur Stanley Jefferson
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Awards
Stan Laurel, born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in 1890, began his career as Charlie Chaplin’s understudy in Fred Karno’s vaudeville company. He teamed with Oliver Hardy in 1926, producing over 100 comedies. In 1960, he received a Special Academy Award for his creative pioneering in cinema comedy. He died in 1965, five years after that honor.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Stan Laurel — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Stan Laurel by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Stan Laurel — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Stan Laurel made his stage debut at age 16 at Pickard’s Museum in Glasgow. The future comedian was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson on June 16, 1890 in Ulverston, Lancashire, England, to a theatrical family; his father Arthur J. Jefferson was an actor and theatre manager. He attended several schools including Kings Priory School and Queen’s Park Secondary School in Glasgow. His early exposure to the stage through his father’s work set him on a career in comedy.
Laurel traveled with Fred Karno’s vaudeville company to the United States in 1910 and again in 1913, serving as Charles Chaplin’s understudy. He remained in the US after being cast in the two-reel comedy Nuts in May 1917. His first film with Oliver Hardy was The Lucky Dog 1921, though their official pairing began with 45 Minutes from Hollywood 1926. Their first star billing came in From Soup to Nuts 1928, and their first feature-length starring roles in Pardon Us 1931. After leaving Hal Roach Studios and MGM, they made The Bullfighters 1945, their last US film together. Despite a later French production, Utopia 1951, their partnership effectively ended with Hardy’s death in 1957.
Laurel was married five times: to Lois Nelson 1926–1935, Virginia Ruth Rogers 1935–1937 and again 1941–1946, Vera Ivanova Shuvalova 1938–1940, and Ida Kitaeva 1946 until his death. He had two children: a daughter Lois Laurel 1927–2017 and a son Stanley Robert who died shortly after birth in 1930. Off-screen, he kept his phone number in the phone book and responded to fan mail personally. A heavy smoker, he quit around age 70. He enjoyed fishing, raising ducks, and hydroponic gardening.
Buster Keaton called Stan Laurel the greatest, surpassing Chaplin. Peter Sellers credited Laurel as inspiration for his gardener character in Being There 1979. In 1960, he received a Special Academy Award for his creative pioneering in cinema comedy. In 1991, he and Oliver Hardy appeared on a US commemorative postage stamp. Laurel and Hardy’s films remain popular, still entertaining audiences worldwide.
The complete filmography of Stan Laurel — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Stan Laurel — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Stan Laurel — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
If Any of You Cry at My Funeral, I’ll Never Speak to You Again!
A Friend Once Asked Me What Comedy Was. That Floored Me. What Is Comedy? I Don’t Know. Does Anybody? Can You Define It? All I Know Is That I Learned How to Get Laughs, and That’s All I Know About It. You Have to Learn What People Will Laugh At, Then Proceed Accordingly.
Crazy Humor Was Always My Type of Humor, but It’s the Quiet Kind of Craziness I Like. the Rough Type of Nut Humor Like the Marx Brothers I Could Never Go For.
What Business Do We Have Telling People Who to Vote For? They Probably Know More About It Than We Do.
People Have Always Loved Our Pictures. I Guess That’s Because They Saw How Much Love We Put into Them.
I Don’t Deserve to Be Mentioned in the Same Sentence with Charles Chaplin.
What’s There to Say? It’s Shocking of Course. Ollie Was Like a Brother. That’s the End of the History of Laurel and Hardy.
Little-known facts about Stan Laurel — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
When Oliver Hardy died, Stan swore he would never perform comedy again. Over the next eight years, he repeatedly turned down many offers to do public appearances.
On February 23, 1965, Laurel told his nurse he would not mind going skiing right then. The nurse, taken aback, said she did not know he was a skier. He replied he would rather be doing that than have all the needles stuck into him. Minutes later, the nurse checked on him and found he had quietly passed away.
Upon Stan Laurel’s death, Buster Keaton said to forget Chaplin, that Stan was the greatest.
In his later years, he was arguably the most approachable of all movie stars, keeping his phone number in the phone book, welcoming visitors, and responding to his fan mail personally.
While rarely credited as a writer or director, he was the driving creative force behind Laurel and Hardy. Oliver Hardy always directed questions about gags or plot lines to Laurel. Laurel often worked into the night writing and editing their films.
At the time of Oliver Hardy’s death in 1957, Stan was too ill to attend the funeral.
In his later years, he was close friends with Dick Van Dyke. Van Dyke delivered the eulogy at Stan’s funeral.
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 not sensitive to blue. Hal Roach cameraman George Stevens, later a successful producer and director, knew of panchromatic film and got a supply from Chicago. This new film recorded Laurel’s eyes more naturally. Stevens became Laurel’s cameraman at Roach Studios. When Laurel teamed with Oliver Hardy, they made Stevens their cameraman of choice.
Hal Roach Studio was smaller than the major studios, with indoor sets close together. Actors often visited other sets between takes. Matthew Beard, nicknamed Stymie, picked up Stan’s derby hat and wore it. Stan eventually gave Stymie a hat, which became his trademark.
According to his friends, he never fully recovered from Oliver Hardy’s death.
Stan’s famous hairstyle was created by accident. He and Oliver Hardy shaved their heads for The Second 100 Years 1927. His hair grew back unevenly and refused to stay down. Others laughed, so he cultivated the look. Offscreen, he combed it straight back, as did Hardy.
He always thought his whining face was humiliating. The public loved it, so producers forced him to do it in most movies.
Stan removed the heels from his shoes while filming to accentuate his humorous walk.
He had two children with his first wife Lois: a daughter Lois Laurel 1927–2017 and a son Stanley Robert May 7, 1930 – May 16, 1930, born two months prematurely.
Abbott and Costello, dissatisfied with scripts from Universal’s writers, would bring them to Stan for the three to work on together.
Laurel first appeared with Oliver Hardy in The Lucky Dog 1921, filmed in 1919 and released in 1921.
Many think of Stan Laurel as very short and skinny, but he was average height, about 5 feet 8 inches, and normal weight. Next to Oliver Hardy, who stood about six feet and weighed nearly double, Stan looked short and skinny by comparison.
When Stan’s daughter Lois was little, she hated Oliver Hardy because she saw him bullying her father in films. That led Stan to incorporate a revenge scene in One Good Turn 1931.
He was a heavy smoker until he gave up around age 70.
In Spain, Stan and Ollie were known as El Gordo y El Flaco.
He appears on the sleeve of The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Oliver Hardy was an inveterate golfer, often putting a little putting green on set to practice between takes. Stan once joked to a reporter that golf was Hardy’s only bad habit. When asked about his own bad habits, Stan pointed to his five marriages.
Peter Sellers claimed that the Laurel character inspired his gardener character in Being There 1979.
Jerry Lewis was a big fan. In the early 1960s, he repeatedly tried to hire Stan for his creative team, but Stan refused despite the impressive salary. Lewis would send scripts and Stan would write suggestions in the margins.
Laurel insisted that the quote about his hobbies being his marriages was invented by the publicity department.
Stan helped Marcel Marceau’s career. After seeing Marceau perform in Paris in 1950, Stan praised him and helped him gain attention in the French press.
He and Charles Chaplin went to America in 1910 on a cattle boat and shared a room in a boarding house upon arrival.
Stan and Ollie believed they got most laughs by combining dumbness with dignity, making the audience feel superior.
He suffered a stroke in June 1955.
Entertainment Weekly voted him and Oliver Hardy the 45th Greatest Movie Star of all time.
His will, signed in 1947, showed an estate worth $55,062.
Of all impersonations done of him, Stan Laurel liked Dick Van Dyke’s the best. Van Dyke performed that impersonation on The Dick Van Dyke Show 1961. After it aired, he called Laurel for his opinion. Laurel said he liked everything but the hat. Van Dyke found Laurel’s number in a Santa Monica phone book.
In Italy, Laurel and Hardy are known as Stanlio e Ollio.
Ray Bradbury, known for his science fiction works, was a big fan of Laurel and Hardy, attending Sons meetings when possible. He wrote short stories about them, including The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair, The Laurel and Hardy Alpha Centauri Farewell Tour, and Another Fine Mess, set on the Music Box Steps.
Stan Laurel appeared on one of five 29-cent US commemorative postage stamps issued on August 29, 1991, celebrating comedians. He is shown with Oliver Hardy. The stamps were designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. Other comedians honored were Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy, Jack Benny, Fanny Brice, and Abbott and Costello.
Outside of filming, Stan enjoyed fishing, raising ducks, and hydroponic gardening growing plants in chemical solutions. He once cross-bred a potato and an onion but could not get anyone to sample the results.
One of Stan’s favorite practical jokes was a trick toilet that sank into the floor when flushed.
The comedian openly opposed racial segregation.
Jim Plunkett portrayed him in Harlow 1965.
His brother Edward Jefferson appeared in small roles in Laurel’s early films.
When Stan wiggled his ears in films, the effect was achieved by filming his ears normally, then holding them forward with putty and restarting the camera. The two sections were joined and repeated many times, then filmed in slow motion and projected at normal speed, making his ears wave vigorously. His face stayed fixed in one position for a long time. The technique was not new; Georges Melies discovered it in 1896.
Charlotte Mae Dahlberg, part of a double act with Stan, claimed she gave him his surname. She saw a picture of a Roman general with a laurel wreath. Stan was superstitious and his name had 13 letters, so he gladly adopted the name Laurel.
He was a huge fan of westerns. His company Stan Laurel Productions financed musical westerns starring Fred Scott. The films were released by Spectrum Pictures, not Hal Roach Studios or MGM. They seldom made money, but his enthusiasm never waned. When accountants showed the financial drain, he reluctantly dropped them.
He was educated at Bishop Auckland Grammar School, Gainford Academy, and Queen’s Park Secondary School, Glasgow.
Matthew Cottle portrayed him in Chaplin 1992.
According to Movie Mirror 1933, Oliver Hardy bought the rights to their signature tune Cuckoo from composer Marvin Hatley for $25. Stan said he thought it funny.
Jerry Lewis once offered Stan $100,000 to write for him part-time. Stan turned him down.
In Germany, Stan and Ollie were known as Dick und Doof.
He was cremated at Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery, and his urn was buried there.
When asked why his number was in the phone book, he said how would people find him if it wasn’t. At his apartment building, he would go down to collect his mail rather than have it brought up.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Stan Laurel.
Celebrities similar to Stan Laurel — same craft, ranked by reach.
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