Portrayed by Matthew Cottle in Chaplin (1992).
Stan Laurel was an avid Western fan. His son-in-law, Rand Brooks, is best known for doing Westerns.
Stan removed the heels from his shoes while filming. It helped him accent his already humorous walk.
Stan was greatly admired by Peter Sellers. Sellers claimed that the "Laurel" character was his inspiration when he created the "gardener" character in Being There (1979).
Subject on one of five 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating famous comedians, issued in booklet form 29 August 1991. He is shown with his partner Oliver Hardy. The stamp designs were drawn by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. The other comedians honored in the set are Edgar Bergen (with alter ego Charlie McCarthy); Jack Benny; Fanny Brice; and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.
Suffered a nervous breakdown on the death of his long time film partner and friend, Oliver Hardy, and according to his friends, never fully recovered.
Suffered a stroke in June 1955.
The 1937 Laurel and Hardy comedy Way Out West parodied the famous hitch-hiking scene from It Happened One Night, with Stan Laurel managing to stop a stage coach using the same technique.
The death of his partner Oliver Hardy left him a broken man, so much so that he fell into a deep depression and swore never to do comedy again. He didn't. In the eight years between Hardy's death and his own, he repeatedly turned down offers to do public appearances.
There is a plaque on the Bull Inn, Bottesford, Leicestershire, England, recording how Laurel and Hardy (while appearing in Nottingham over Christmas 1952) stayed with Laurel's sister, Olga, who was the landlady of the pub.
There is a small Laurel and Hardy Museum in Stan's hometown of Ulverston. Cumbria, UK on Brogden Street. http://www.laurel-and-hardy.co.uk/index.php
Turned down a cameo part in Stanley Kramer''s gigantic farce It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963).
While rarely credited as a writer or director, he was the driving creative force behind the team of he and Oliver Hardy--whenever Hardy was asked a question about a gag, story idea, plot line, etc., he always pointed to Laurel and said, "Ask Stan." Laurel often worked well into the night, writing and editing their films.