Charlie Hall
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| Charlie Hall | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 19, 1899 Birmingham, England |
| Died | December 7, 1959 (aged 60) Santa Monica, California |
| Spouse(s) | Wilda George |
Charlie Hall (August 19, 1899 - December 7, 1959) was a movie actor.
Charlie Hall was born in Birmingham, England. He learned carpentry as a trade, but as a teenager he became a member of the Fred Karno troupe of stage comedians. In his late teens visited his sister in New York City and stayed there finding employment as a stagehand. While working behind the scenes, he met the comic actor Bobby Dunn and they became friends and Dunn convinced Hall to take a stab again at acting, which he did. By the mid-1920s Hall was working for Hal Roach. Stan Laurel, one of Roach's comedy stars, was also a graduate of the Karno troupe.
As an actor Charlie Hall worked with such comedians as Buster Keaton and Charley Chase but is best remembered as a comic foil for Laurel and Hardy. He appeared in nearly 50 of their films, sometimes in bit parts but often as a mean landlord or opponent in many of their memorable tit-for-tat sequences. Unlike the usual villains in Laurel and Hardy movies, who were big and burly, Charlie Hall (billed as "Charley" Hall in the Roach comedies) was a little fellow, standing five feet, four inches tall. His slight stature and slight British accent allowed him to be convincingly cast as a college student, despite being 40 years old, in Laurel and Hardy's A Chump at Oxford.
Hall almost never played starring roles; the exception was in 1941, when he was teamed with character comedian Frank Faylen by Monogram Pictures. Hall continued to play bits and supporting roles in short subjects and features through the 1940s. He died in North Hollywood, California on December 7, 1959.
There is a public house in Erdington, near Birmingham, England, called The Charlie Hall as a tribute to him.
[edit] Further reading
- McKeown, Dean (2009). The Charlie Hall Picture Archive. The Nutty Nut News Network Press.
[edit] External links
- Charlie Hall at the Internet Movie Database
- The Charlie Hall Picture Archive
- Charlie Hall at The Laurel and Hardy Forum
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