Oliver Hardy - ©Theda Bara

The name I bring to you in this post is that of the American comic actor Oliver Hardy, who formed, alongside the British comic actor Arthur Stanley Jefferson - Stan Laurel (1890-1965), the famous duo “Laurel & Hardy” (from 1917 until the mid-1951s), one of the most popular in American cinema, acting from the silent film era until the beginning of the Golden Age of Hollywood. But Oliver also worked in TV series until his death in 1957.

His love for cinema began in his teens, when a movie theater opened in his hometown, Milledgeville, and he sold tickets at the box office.

Oliver Hardy has a star on the Los Angeles Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street in the Motion Picture category. However, he never received an Oscar or any other award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a great injustice for this talent who began working in the cinema as an extra in films in 1910, but his first experience as a professional actor came in 1914, for the Lubin studios, using the name: O. N. Hardy, he made his first short film, “Outwitting Dad”, playing the character “Reggie Kewp”.

Oliver Norvell Hardy Jr., born January 18, 1892, in Milledgeville, Georgia, United States, died August 7, 1957, in North Hollywood, California, United States, at the age of 65.

Oliver Hardy lost a son in the first months of his life. After this sad experience, he never wanted to have children again, despite having married three times: the first time to the Spanish theatrical pianist Madelyn Hardy Saloshin (1896-1941), from 1913 to 1921, four years older than him, and ended up divorcing Madelyn in a tumultuous manner in 1921, so that he could marry a second time; now with a younger woman, the American actress Myrtle Reeves (1897-1983) from 1921 to 1937, from whom he also divorced; his third marriage was with the American actress from a wealthy Texas family, Virginia Lucille Jones (1909-1986) from 1940 to 1957, from whom Virginia was widowed.