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Charlie Hall

Charlie Hall

Actor · 1899 – 1959 · Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, UK

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.

Movies24

  • Movie7.6

    King Kong

    1933 · 1.7K votes

  • Movie7.3
  • Movie7.9

    Limelight

    1952 · 615 votes

  • Movie6.7

    Bonnie Scotland

    1935 · 73 votes

  • Movie7.1

    Sons of the Desert

    1933 · 275 votes

  • Movie7.3

    Top Hat

    1935 · 344 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Bachelor Mother

    1939 · 81 votes

  • Movie6.5

    The Lodger

    1944 · 99 votes

  • Movie6.7

    Dressed to Kill

    1946 · 143 votes

  • Movie5.8

    The Big Street

    1942 · 21 votes

  • Movie6.8

    Les Carottiers

    The Chiselers

    1931 · 6 votes

  • Movie6.8

    Saps at Sea

    1940 · 91 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Babes in Toyland

    1934 · 164 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Politiquerías

    Playing at Politics

    1931 · 9 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Hellzapoppin'

    1941 · 112 votes

  • Movie5.8

    One Night in the Tropics

    1940 · 23 votes

  • Movie6.9

    A Chump at Oxford

    1940 · 115 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Without Reservations

    1946 · 21 votes

  • Movie6.8

    Pack Up Your Troubles

    1932 · 75 votes

  • Movie6.4

    Bacon Grabbers

    1929 · 26 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Our Relations

    1936 · 124 votes

  • Movie6.2

    Morning Glory

    1933 · 59 votes

  • Movie6.7

    Movie Night

    1929 · 3 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Five Came Back

    1939 · 42 votes

Series5

  • TV7.8

    Alfred Hitchcock Presents

    1955 · 265 votes

  • TV6.2

    Cheyenne

    1955 · 26 votes

  • TV4.8

    No Hiding Place

    1959 · 4 votes

  • TV7.2
  • TV6.1

    Topper

    1953 · 9 votes