Oliver Norvell Hardy was an American comic actor and one half of Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Stan Laurel in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles. He was credited with his first film Outwitting Dad in 1914. In most of his silent films before joining producer Hal Roach, he was billed on screen as Babe Hardy.
About Oliver Hardy in brief
Oliver Norvell Hardy was an American comic actor and one half of Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Stan Laurel in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles. He was credited with his first film Outwitting Dad in 1914. In most of his silent films before joining producer Hal Roach, he was billed on screen as Babe Hardy. Hardy was a big man, standing 6-foot 1-inch and weighing up to 300 pounds, and his size placed limits on the roles that he could play. His older brother Sam drowned in the Oconee River; Hardy pulled him from the river but was unable to resuscitate him. His father Oliver was a Confederate veteran who had been wounded at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862 and was a recruiting officer for Company K, 16th Georgia Regiment. His mother Emily Norvell was the daughter of Thomas Benjamin Norvell and Mary Freeman, descended from Captain Hugh Norvell of Williamsburg, Virginia. The elder Oliver Hardy and Norvell married March 12, 1890; it was her second marriage and his third. The family moved to Madison, Georgia in 1891 before Norvell’s birth. He had little interest in formal education, although he acquired an early interest in music and theater.
He joined a theatrical group and later ran away from a boarding school near Atlanta to sing with the group. In 1910, The Palace, a motion picture theater, opened in Hardy’s hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia, and he became the projectionist, ticket taker, janitor and manager. He soon became obsessed with the new motion picture industry and was convinced he could do a better job than the actors that he saw. In 1913, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where some films were being made, which he did in 1913. By 1915, Hardy had made 50 short films at Lubin. He moved to New York and made films for the Pathé, Casino, and Edison Studios. In 1917, Hardy moved to Los Angeles, working for several freelance studios and made more than 40 films. He continued playing villains for Wests Wests, often imitating Eric Campbell’s Wests Chaplin. He then worked for Billy Ruge, Billy West, Ethel Palmer and comedic actress Ethel Burton. He later worked for the Bee King studio and bought Vim King, which bought Vim Bee King. In his personal life he was known as ‘Babe’ Hardy, and was billed as ‘Oliver’ Hardy in many of his later films.
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