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Oliver Hardy
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Oliver Hardy was born Oliver Norvell Hardy on January 18th, 1892 in Harlem, Georgia to a non show business family. The family moved to Florida when he was a child. As a lad he showed a talent for singing and by the age of eight he was performing with minstrel shows. His parents wanted Oliver (nicknamed "Babe") to be a lawyer but he decided to run a movie theater instead. Oliver tried to break into films when the film company Lubin arrived in Florida, and the company hired him as a comedy actor due to his large girth and expressive facial features. Oliver's debut film was 1913's "Outwitting Dad". During 1914-15 he was in the "Pokes and Jabbs" series of comedy shorts; 1916-18 saw him in the "Plump and Runt" series of two reelers; during 1919-21 he was in the "Jimmy Aubrey" series, and from 1921-25 he worked as an actor and co-director of comedy shorts for Larry Semon.
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Oliver Hardy (born Norvell Hardy) was an American actor, most remembered for his role in one of the world's most famous double acts, Laurel and Hardy, with his friend Stan Laurel. He did not adopt the name "Oliver" until 1914. He did so as a tribute to his father, who died when Hardy was an infant. Hardy's parents were of English and Scottish descent. His father, Oliver, was a Confederate veteran wounded at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. After the war he worked as a foreman for the Georgia Southern Railroad, supervising the building of a rail line between Augusta and Madison.
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Oliver Hardy had a terrific singing voice, as demonstrated in many films. Which of the following songs is your favorite? Select the button next to the film of your choice, then select the "cast your vote" button at the bottom. Remember, every vote counts but please only vote once.
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From All Movie Guide: Unlike his future screen partner Stan Laurel, American comedian Oliver Hardy did not come from a show business family. His father was a lawyer who died when Hardy was ten; his mother was a hotel owner in both his native Georgia and in Florida. The young Hardy became fascinated with show business through the stories spun by the performers who stayed at his mother's hotel, and at age eight he ran away to join a minstrel troupe. Possessing a beautiful singing voice, Hardy studied music for a while, but quickly became bored with the regimen; the same boredom applied to his years at Georgia Military College (late in life, Hardy claimed to have briefly studied law at the University of Georgia, but chances are that he never got any farther than filling out an application). Heavy-set and athletic, Hardy seemed more interested in sports than in anything else; while still a teenager, he umpired local baseball games, putting on such an intuitively comic display of histrionics that he invariably reduced the fans to laughter. In 1910, he opened the first movie theater in Milledgeville, Georgia, and as a result became intrigued with the possibilities of film acting.
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Before his historical--and hysterical--pairing with Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel shined in the solo spotlight with a series of side-splitting silent short films. This two-disc set collects 17 of Laurel's funniest works, including "Oranges and Lemons" (1923), "Short Kilts" (1924), "Near Dublin" (1924), "The Snow Hawk" (1925), his directorial debut "Chasing the Chaser" (1925), and more. 6 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: music score. Silent with music score.
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Oliver Hardy had been destined for a military career, but opened a movie theater in Milledgeville, Georgia, instead. He next found work as an actor in Jacksonville, Florida, home of the Lubin film company. Hardy later moved to Hollywood, and by the mid 1920s, he was working as an all-purpose comic at the Hal Roach studio.
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Oliver Hardy