Biografie

Usually played a childishly bossy man who barely tolerated his friend, Stan Laurel, but still valued him as someone to whom he could feel superior. With Stan Laurel, they often had a scene in their films where they would get into a fight with another person that consisted solely of destroying property.The duo would destroy something the opponent values while the opponent looks on and does not resist. When they are done, the opponent does the same to the duo, while they refrain from resisting and so on.

Black hair always combed forward and a small mustache

The "slow burn" - looking into the camera, often with an expression of exasperated suffering over what his on-screen partner had just done.

The tie-twiddle, used to convey a sense of coyness or embarrassment

Every puddle his character stepped in appeared to be endlessly deep (He would step into a small puddle and would suddenly be over his head in water)

When he died in 1957, his partner, Stan Laurel, pledged he would never perform again. Despite offers, he never did.

At clubs and restaurants, he pointed out the stars he recognized as if he were a tourist to Hollywood. "Look, there's Norma Shearer", he would say. It never occurred to him that he was as famous as the people who fascinated him.

While he and Stan Laurel were between contracts with Hal Roach, John Wayne asked him to co-star in In letzter Sekunde (1949), a film Wayne was producing. Wayne and Hardy had previously appeared together on stage for a wartime benefit, and Wayne knew the value of comedy in his pictures. Hardy at first refused, fearing rumors of a breakup with Stan; but Laurel encouraged his partner to take the role and Hardy delivered a memorable light comedy performance.

An avid sportsman, he became interested in hunting. After he shot his first deer, he walked to the animal expecting to field-dress it. However, the deer was still alive, and looked Hardy directly in the eyes. He never picked up a gun again.

Suffered a severe stroke on 9/12/56 that left him paralyzed and unable to speak.