original names, respectively, Arthur Stanley Jefferson and Oliver Norvell Hardy, Jr. known as Laurel and Hardy
born June 16, 1890, Lancashire, Eng.
died Feb. 23, 1965, Santa Monica, Calif., U.S.
born Jan. 18, 1892, Harlem, Ga., U.S.
died Aug. 7, 1957, North Hollywood, Calif.
U.S. film comedians.
Laurel performed in circuses and vaudeville before settling in the U.S. (1910), where he began appearing in silent movies. Hardy, son of a Georgia lawyer, owned a movie house and acted in silent comedy films from 1913. They joined Hal Roach 's studio in 1926 and began performing together in early short films such as Putting Pants on Philip (1927). They made more than 100 comedies, including Leave 'em Laughing (1928), The Music Box (1932), Sons of the Desert (1933), and Way Out West (1937), and are considered Hollywood's first great comedy team. The skinny Laurel played the bumbling and innocent foil to the heavy, pompous Hardy as they converted simple, everyday situations into disastrous tangles of stupidity.