Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American actor, comedian and director. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".
Laurel and Hardy were a British-American comedy team during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo in the silent film era, they later successfully transitioned to "talkies". From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy's pompous bully. Their signature theme song, known as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku", or "The Dance of the Cuckoos" was heard over their films' opening credits, and became as emblematic of them as their bowler hats.
The Music Box is a Laurel and Hardy short film comedy released in 1932. It was directed by James Parrott, produced by Hal Roach and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film, which depicts the pair attempting to move a piano up a long flight of steps, won the first Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (Comedy) in 1932. In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film is widely seen as the most iconic Laurel and Hardy short, with the featured stairs becoming a popular tourist attraction.
Thelma Alice Todd was an American actress and businesswoman who carried the nicknames "The Ice Cream Blonde" and "Hot Toddy". Appearing in about 120 feature films and shorts between 1926 and 1935, she is remembered for her comedic roles opposite ZaSu Pitts, and in films such as Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers and a number of Charley Chase's short comedies. She co-starred with Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante in Speak Easily. She also had roles in several Wheeler and Woolsey and Laurel and Hardy films, the last of which featured her in a part that was cut short by her sudden death in 1935 at the age of 29.
Stan Laurel was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was one half of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles.
Silent comedy is a style of film, related to but distinct from mime, invented to bring comedy into the medium of film in the silent film era (1900s–1920s) before a synchronized soundtrack which could include talking was technologically available for the majority of films. Silent comedy is still practiced, albeit much less frequently, and it has influenced comedy in modern media as well.
The following is a complete list of the 220 Our Gang short films produced by Hal Roach Studios and/or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer between 1922 and 1944, numbered by order of release along with production order.
James Henderson Finlayson was a Scottish actor who worked in both silent and sound comedies. Balding, with a fake moustache, he had many trademark comic mannerisms—including his squinting, outraged double-take reactions, and his characteristic exclamation: "D'ooooooh!" He is the best remembered comic foil of Laurel and Hardy.
James Wesley Horne was an American actor, screenwriter, and film director.
You're Darn Tootin' is a silent short subject directed by E. Livingston Kennedy starring comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. It was released on April 21, 1928, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Call of the Cuckoo (1927) is a Hal Roach two reel silent film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film's principal star is comedian Max Davidson, though the film is just as well known for cameos from other Roach stars at the time. These cameos include renowned supporting player Jimmy Finlayson, the oft underrated/ignored Charley Chase, and a pre-teaming Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
The Battle of the Century is a 1927 silent short film starring comedy double act Laurel and Hardy, who appeared in 107 films between 1921 and 1951. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2023.
Another Fine Mess is a 1930 short comedy film directed by James Parrott and starring Laurel and Hardy. It is based on the 1908 play Home from the Honeymoon by Arthur J. Jefferson, Stan Laurel's father, and is a remake of their earlier silent film Duck Soup.
Robert Youngson was a film producer, director, and screenwriter, specializing in reviving antique silent films.
Pick a Star is a 1937 American musical comedy film starring Rosina Lawrence, Jack Haley, Patsy Kelly and Mischa Auer, directed by Edward Sedgwick, produced by Hal Roach and released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and filmed by Norbert Brodine. A reworking of Buster Keaton's first talkie, Free and Easy, the film is mostly remembered today for two short scenes featuring Laurel and Hardy.
Ted Okuda is an American non-fiction author and film historian. He has many books and magazine features to his credit, under his own name and in collaboration with others.
The Comic is a 1969 American Pathécolor comedy-drama film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Carl Reiner. It stars Dick Van Dyke as Billy Bright, Michele Lee as Bright's love interest, and Reiner himself and Mickey Rooney as Bright's friends and work colleagues. Reiner wrote the screenplay with Aaron Ruben; it was inspired by the end of silent film era and, in part, by the life of silent film superstar Buster Keaton.
The Golden Age of Comedy (1957) is a compilation of silent comedy films from the Mack Sennett and Hal Roach studios, written and produced by Robert Youngson.
Kewpie Morgan was an American silent film comedian who also performed in a few early sound films. He appeared in 99 films from 1915 to 1936. He appeared in the films of such comedians as Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. He posthumously appeared in Robert Youngson compilations of the 1960s highlighting silent film comedy.
