Summary
On the 50th anniversary of Oliver Hardy's death, JIM GILCHRIST pays tribute to the Hollywood legend. Behind the fat, bowler-hatted buffoon of the silent screen was a comic genius
SOME grainy home movie footage shot in 1956 shows the greatest comedy duo of the 20th century, Laurel and Hardy, five years after their last film, Atoll K, had been dogged by production problems and their own poor health.See the full content of this document
Extract
Finesse for a Fine Mess
Oliver Hardy had suffered a stroke and purposely lost an enormous amount of weight. Stan Laurel looks aged - he was suffering from diabetes and prostrate trouble - but was still unmistakably the wee guy with the shrug and the sappy grin. Hardy, however, even as he flicks his partner's tie with a flash of the old disdain, looks a different man, stringy-necked and hitching trousers up over his startlingly reduced girth. At the peak of his career, he had been more than 6ft tall and weighed 21 stone. Within a year...
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