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Charlie Hall (actor, born 1899)

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Charlie Hall
Hall in Love 'em and Weep, 1927
Born(1899-08-19)19 August 1899
Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
Died7 December 1959(1959-12-07) (aged 60)
North Hollywood, California, U.S.
Years active1921–1956
Spouses
  • Wilda George
Dolly Gray
​
(died 1937)​

Charlie Hall (also credited Charley Hall; 19 August 1899 – 7 December 1959) was an English film actor. He is best known as the "Little Nemesis" of Laurel and Hardy. He performed in nearly 50 films with them, making Hall the most frequent supporting actor in the comedy duo's productions.

Life and career

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Hall was born in Ward End, Birmingham, Warwickshire, and learned carpentry as a trade;[citation needed] however, as a teenager, he became a member of the Fred Karno troupe of stage comedians.[1] In his late teens, he 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; 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, Hall worked with such comedians as Buster Keaton and Charley Chase, but he 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 films, who were big and burly, Charlie Hall (billed as "Charley" Hall in the Roach comedies) was of short stature, standing 5 ft 5 in tall. His height and slight English 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 and 1950s, occasionally on television, and appearing briefly in Charlie Chaplin's final American film, Limelight (1952).

In 1956 he played his final roles,[citation needed] firstly in the TV show Cheyenne, season 1, episode 11, "Quicksand", and finally in a Joe McDoakes short, So You Want to Play the Piano.

Death and legacy

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Hall died of colon cancer at his home in North Hollywood, California on 7 December 1959 and was buried three days later in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in nearby Glendale.[2][3] On the retired actor's official death certificate—registered by the California Department of Public Health on December 10, 1959—his "Last Occupation" is cited as "Prop Maker" at "Warner Brothers Studio".[2]

A J D Wetherspoon's public house in the Erdington suburb of Birmingham is named The Charlie Hall in tribute to him.[4]

Selected filmography

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Further reading

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  • McKeown, Dean (2009). The Charlie Hall Picture Archive. The Nutty Nut News Network Press.
  • Ullah, John (2012). This is More Than I Can Stand: A Biography of Charlie Hall. Brewin Books. ISBN 978-1-858-58483-6.

References

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  1. ^ Gordon, Dr Roger L. (2018). Supporting Actors in Motion Pictures: Volume II. Dorrance Publishing. ISBN 9781480958418. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  2. ^ a b "California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994", certificate of death no. 7053–22839, Charles Hall, 7 December 1959, registered by California Department of Public Health, Sacramento, 10 December 1959; online database with images, FamilySearch archives, Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  3. ^ Ellenberger, Allan R. (2001). Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory. McFarland. p. 53. ISBN 0-7864-0983-5.
  4. ^ "The Charlie Hall". www.jdwetherspoon.com. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
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