Oliver Hardy died of a massive stroke on August 7, 1957, at the age of 65. Stan Laurel reportedly did not attend his former partner’s funeral, saying, “Babe [Hardy’s nickname] would understand” (via Time magazine). Despite Laurel’s lifelong obsession with film work, he never appeared in another film without Hardy.
In 1955, Laurel suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed for the remainder of his life, per the Desert Sun. A decade later, on February 23, 1965, he died of a heart attack at age 74, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. The night before his death, he suffered a heart seizure that was so severe he could not be transported to a hospital. Instead, he was cared for at home by Ralph Downs, the same nurse that had cared for Hardy shortly before his death eight years prior.
Dr. John H. Parrot visited Laurel at home the morning before he died. “It was the first time I’d seen him that he didn’t crack some kind of a joke,” Parrot told the L.A. Times. “He’d had severe illnesses before, but they never stopped him from joking.”
