Biography for
Hal Roach

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Date of Birth

14 January 1892, Elmira, New York, USA

Date of Death

2 November 1992, Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia)

Birth Name

Harry Eugene Roach

Mini Biography

Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York in 1892. After working as, among other things, mule skinner, wrangler and gold prospector, he wound up in Hollywood and began picking up jobs as an extra in comedies, where he met comedian Harold Lloyd in 1913 in San Diego. Roach came into a small inheritance and began producing, directing and writing a series of short film comedies under the banner, Phun Philms, starring Lloyd around 1915. Initially these were abysmal, but with effort, the quality improved enough to be nominally financed and distributed by Pathe and the Roach/Lloyd team proved quite successful after the creation of Lloyd's now-famous 'Glasses Character,' enabling Roach to start his own production company and eventually bought his own studio. Hal Roach Productions became a unique entity in Hollywood; it operated as a sort of paternalistic boutique studio, releasing a surprising number of wildly popular shorts series and a handful of features. Quality was seldom compromised and his employees were treated as his most valuable asset. Roach's relationship with his biggest earner, Harold Lloyd, was increasingly acrimonious after 1920. After achieving enormous success with features, Lloyd had achieved superstar status by the standards of Roaring Twenties and wanted his independence. The two men severed ties with Roach maintaining re-issue rights for Lloyd's shorts for the remainder of the decade. Despite facing the prospect of losing his biggest earner, Roach was already preoccupied by the cultivating his new kiddie series, Our Gang, which was an immediate hit with the public. By the time he was 25, Roach was wealthy and increasingly away from his studio, traveling extensively across Europe. By the early 1920s he had eclipsed Mack Sennett as the King of Comedy and created many of the most memorable comic series of all time, even by today's standards. These include the team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, ''Snub' Pollard' and especially the long running Our Gang (AKA "The Little Rascals" in TV distribution) series. After his studio's distributor, Pathe, disintegrated in the U.S. after it's domestic representative Paul Brunet returned to France in 1927, Roach was able to secure an even better deal with MGM (his key competitor, Mack Sennett, was also distributed by Pathe, but was unable to land a deal, ultimately declaring bankruptcy in 1933). For the next eleven years Roach shored up MGM's bottom line, although the deal was probably more beneficial to Roach. In the mid-1930's Roach became inexplicably enamored with Benito Mussolini, and sought to secure a business alliance with the fascist government's recently completed film complex, Cinecitta. After Roach asked for (and received) assurances from Mussolini that Italy wasn't about to seek sanction against the Jews, the two men formed RAM ("Roach And Mussolini") Productions--- a move that appalled the powers at MGM parent Leow's Inc. These events coincided with Roach selling off Our Gang to MGM and committing himself solely to feature film production. In September 1937, Il Duce's son, Vittorio Mussolini visited Hollywood and his studio threw a lavish party celebrating his 21st birthday. Soon afterward, the Italian government took on an increasingly anti-Semitic stance and in retribution, Leow's chairman, Nicholas Schenck canceled his distribution deal. He signed an adequate deal with United Artists in May 1938 and redeemed his previous record of feature misfires with a string of big hits: Topper (1937) (and it's lesser sequels), the prestigious Of Mice and Men (1939) and, most significantly, One Million B.C. (1940), which became the most profitable movie of the year. Despite the near-unanimous condemnation by his industry peers, Roach stubbornly refused to re-examine his attitudes over his dealings with Mussolini, even in the aftermath of WW2 (he proudly displayed an autographed portrait of the dictator in his home up until his death). His tried and true formula for success was tested by audience demands for longer feature-length productions, and by the early 1940's he was forced to try his hand at making low budget full-length screwball comedies, musicals and dramas, although he still kept turning out two-reel comedies, he tagged as "streamliners," they failed to catch on with post-war audiences. By the 1950s he was producing mainly for television. He made a stab at retirement but his son, Hal Jr., proved an inept businessman and drove the studio to the brink of bankruptcy by 1959. Roach returned and focused on facilities leasing and managing the TV rights of his film catalog. In 1983 his company developed the first successful digital colorization process. Roach then became a producer for many TV series on the Disney Channel, and his company still produces most of their films and videos.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Matt Barry

Spouse

Marguerite Nichols	(1915 - 17 March 1941) (her death) 2 children
Lucille Prin	(? - ?)

Trivia

Father of Hal Roach Jr.

Played saxophone.

He had frequently told the story of sitting in his office in 1921 and watching some kids playing in a nearby lot. The kids were playfully arguing over a stick as if were the most important thing in the world. He realized that he had been fascinated over their antics and was amazed to realize he'd failed how much time had passed watching these kids at play. The led to the idea for the "Our Gang" comedies, which became--- after Harold Lloyd (who'd soon leave for independent production), Roach's most profitable property and, with innumerable cast changes, the longest running short series in Hollywood history (sold to MGM in 1937 and continuing through 1944).

Father of Margaret Roach

Grandfather of Addison Randall

Developed appendicitis during the filming of Babes in Toyland (1934).

His product was initially distributed by U.S. branch of Pathe. Ironically, this was the same distributor his arch-rival Mack Sennett. Once the French firm imploded in the mid-1920's, Sennett's fate was sealed while Hal Roach's boutique studio retained enough clout through the "Our Gang" franchise (amongst others) to secure a lucrative deal with MGM, despite his break with Harold Lloyd.

Personal Quotes

"In those days, there was one secret to making good comedy. If it made the audience laugh, it was a good comedy."

"The greatest comedies that were made by anybody were made in two reels, I don't care who it was."

"Harold Lloyd was not a comedian. But he was the finest actor to PLAY a comedian that I ever saw."

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