Editing Laurel and Hardy (section)

===Oliver Hardy===
{{Main|Oliver Hardy}}
[[File:Yes, Yes, Nanette03.jpg|thumb|Oliver Hardy without his trademark moustache in ''Yes, Yes, Nanette'' (1925)]]
[[Oliver Hardy]] (January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was born Norvell Hardy in [[Harlem, Georgia]], United States.<ref>{{harvnb|Louvish|2001|p=37}}</ref> By his late teens, Hardy was a popular stage singer and he operated a movie house in [[Milledgeville, Georgia]], the Palace Theater, financed in part by his mother.<ref name="Bergen26">{{harvnb|Bergen|1992|p=26}}</ref> For his stage name he took his father's first name, calling himself "Oliver Norvell Hardy", while offscreen his nicknames were "Ollie" and "Babe".<ref>{{harvnb|Cullen|Hackman|McNeilly|2007|p=661}}</ref> The nickname "Babe" originated from an Italian barber near the [[Lubin Manufacturing Company|Lubin Studios]] in [[Jacksonville, Florida]], who would rub Hardy's face with [[talcum powder]] and say "That's nice-a baby!" Other actors in the Lubin company mimicked this, and Hardy was billed as "Babe Hardy" in his early films.<ref>{{harvnb|McIver|1998|p=36}}</ref><ref name="McCabe1989p19">{{harvnb|McCabe|1989|p=19}}</ref>

Seeing film comedies inspired him to take up comedy himself and, in 1913, he began working with Lubin Motion Pictures in Jacksonville. He started by helping around the studio with lights, props, and other duties, gradually learning the craft as a script-clerk for the company.<ref name="Bergen26" /> It was around this time that Hardy married his first wife, Madelyn Saloshin.<ref>{{harvnb|Everson|2000|p=22}}</ref> In 1914, Hardy was billed as "Babe Hardy" in his first film, ''[[Outwitting Dad]]''.<ref name="McCabe1989p19" /> Between 1914 and 1916 Hardy made 177 [[Short film|shorts]] as Babe with the [[Vim Comedy Company]], which were released up to the end of 1917.<ref>{{harvnb|McCabe|1989|p=30}}</ref> Exhibiting a versatility in playing heroes, villains and even female characters, Hardy was in demand for roles as a supporting actor, comic villain or [[Double act|second banana]]. For 10 years he memorably assisted star comic and [[Charlie Chaplin]] imitator [[Billy West (silent film actor)|Billy West]], and appeared in the comedies of [[Jimmy Aubrey]], [[Larry Semon]], and [[Charley Chase]].<ref>{{harvnb|Louvish|2001|pp=107–108}}</ref> In total, Hardy starred or co-starred in more than 250 silent shorts, of which roughly 150 have been lost. He was rejected for enlistment by the Army during World War I due to his large size. In 1917, following the collapse of the Florida film industry, Hardy and his wife Madelyn moved to California to seek new opportunities.<ref>{{harvnb|McCabe|1989|p=32}}</ref><ref name="Liberty">{{cite web |last=Nizer |first=Alvin |title=The comedian's comedian |url=http://www.libertymagazine.com/comedians_nizer.htm |website=Liberty Magazine |date=Summer 1975 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102191839/http://www.libertymagazine.com/comedians_nizer.htm |archive-date=January 2, 2014 |access-date=December 3, 2013}}</ref>