This was a BBC Television program about the Grand Order of Water Rats, a British variety organization. Get all the day's most vital news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. A biopic titled Stan & Ollie directed by Jon S. Baird and starring Steve Coogan as Stan and John C. Reilly as Oliver was released in 2018 and chronicled the duo's 1953 tour of Great Britain and Ireland. Another regular catchphrase, cried out by Ollie in moments of distress or frustration, as Stan stands helplessly by, is "Why don't you do something to help me? It contains no audio and is three minutes in length.[88]. There were hundreds of boats blowing whistles and mobs and mobs of people screaming on the docks. [12][13] Laurel said of Karno, "There was no one like him. [42] Numerous variations of the quote appeared on film. James Redford, a filmmaker, activist and son of actor Robert Redford, has died of liver cancer at the age of 58. Search Obituaries & Guest Books on Legacy.com, Honor a loved one, place an obituary notice, Tony nominee and L.A. stage regular Anthony Chisholm dies at 77. Oliver Hardy and his friends dived into the river and pulled Sam out. occurred in the Ullman short "Punching Bag" (1988). This could be with their wives—often played by Mae Busch, Anita Garvin, or Daphne Pollard—or with a neighbor, often played by Charlie Hall or James Finlayson. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Stan Laurel, the skinny and bewildered half of the famed Laurel and Hardy comedy team, died Tuesday of a heart attack. Most Laurel and Hardy films have survived and are still in circulation. By the 1950s, Stan Laurel had been struggling with his own health. [71] While many enthusiasts claim the superiority of The Music Box, their 1929 silent film Big Business is by far the most consistently acclaimed. Stories of Hollywood stars piling up marriages and divorces are common enough, but Stan Laurel stands out. Oliver Hardy, left, and Stan Laurel during a break in the filming of “Towed in a Hole.”. [36] The characters' normal attire called for wing collar shirts, with Hardy wearing a neck tie which he would twiddle and Laurel a bow tie. Patterson, Michael in Brewer, Mary F. (2009), Salamon, Julie. Laurel was experiencing painful prostate complications as well. Norvell Hardy was born in Georgia in 1892. "[50] Their first "official" film together as a team was Putting Pants on Philip,[51] released on December 3, 1927. [30] In total, Hardy starred or co-starred in more than 250 silent shorts, of which roughly 150 have been lost. [115] His animated versions of Laurel and Hardy guest-starred in a 1972 episode of Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies. The partnership of Laurel and Hardy was unique in that they never quarreled. As author Raymond Valinoti, Jr., notes, he embarked on a crash diet that led to a weight loss of 150 pounds. Laurel lived until 1965 and survived to see the duo's work rediscovered through television and classic film revivals. One day, out of curiosity he looked in the phone book and discovered the home number for Stan Laurel, who invited him over for the afternoon. A 2005 poll by fellow comedians and comedy insiders of the top 50 comedians for The Comedian's Comedian, a TV documentary broadcast on UK's Channel 4, voted the duo the seventh-greatest comedy act ever, making them the top double act on the list. Although Laurel felt he hadn’t made a good film since the 1930s, he was proud of the mail. He also co-produced a series of Laurel and Hardy cartoons in 1966 with Hanna-Barbera Productions. When he became especially agitated or depressed, his wife would invite Stan to visit. [11] In 1909, Laurel was employed by Britain's leading comedy impresario Fred Karno as a supporting actor, and as an understudy for Charlie Chaplin. Cullen, Frank, Florence Hackman and Donald McNeilly. Funeral services are pending at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park Hollywood Hills. The humor of Laurel and Hardy was highly visual, with slapstick used for emphasis. They became well known during the late 1920s to the mid-1940s for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy and childlike friend of the pompous bully Hardy. According 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. The production was a fiasco.