Charlie Hall

Birthday

1899-08-19

Place of Birth

Birmingham, England, UK

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charlie Hall (19 August 1899 – 7 December 1959) was an English film actor. He is best known as the "Little Nemesis" of Laurel and Hardy and appeared in nearly 50 films with them, so that Hall was the most frequent supporting actor of their films. Hall was born in Ward End, Birmingham, Warwickshire, and 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, he visited his sister in New York 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 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 TV, appearing very briefly in Charlie Chaplin's final American film, Limelight (1952). In 1956 he played a small but important part in the TV show Cheyenne, season 1, episode 11, "Quicksand", starring Clint Walker, with Dennis Hopper, John Alderson, Wright King and Peggy Webber. His last role was in a Joe McDoakes short film starring George O'Hanlon, So You Want to Play the Piano, in 1956. Hall died in North Hollywood, California, on 7 December 1959. A J D Wetherspoon's public house in Erdington, is named The Charlie Hall as a tribute to him.
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All Movies List

Twice Two

Twice Two

1933 6.9
Twice Two

as Delivery Boy

1933
Busy Bodies

Busy Bodies

1933 7.6
Busy Bodies

as Shop Worker (uncredited)

1933
Be Big!

Be Big!

1931 6.7
Be Big!

as Bellboy

1931
Come Clean

Come Clean

1931 7.2
Come Clean

as Ice Cream Attendant

1931
Laughing Gravy

Laughing Gravy

1931 7.3
Laughing Gravy

as Landlord (uncredited)

1931
Blotto

Blotto

1930 7.4
Blotto

as Cabdriver

1930
The Real McCoy

The Real McCoy

1930 5.8
The Real McCoy

as Mountain Man (uncredited)

1930
Berth Marks

Berth Marks

1929 6.9
Berth Marks

as Train Passenger (uncredited)

1929
The Hoose-Gow

The Hoose-Gow

1929 7
The Hoose-Gow

as Treetop Lookout (uncredited)

1929
Came the Dawn

Came the Dawn

1928 5.2
Came the Dawn

as Little Moving Man (uncredited)

1928