According to Eddie Deezen (via Neatorama), the Oliver Hardy would never leave the bed in which Lucille began to nurse him, though he would receive visits from long-standing professional partner Stan Laurel. The pair reportedly communicated through mimes.
Deezen writes that Hardy reached 350 pounds before embarking on an intense diet, but that the sudden loss of weight seemed to have been detrimental to his health. Both Laurel and Hardy were also heavy smokers. According to the Leicester Mercury, the pair stopped at the Bull Inn, a pub in Leicestershire, England, during a tour of the country in the early 1950s. “Ollie and Stan pulled pints behind the bar… both smoking like chimneys,” the newspaper reported. This habit, too, contributed to Hardy’s declining health.
According to Danny Lawrence, author of “The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood,” Laurel confided in a letter to a friend that “his illness cost over thirty thousand Dollars in 11 months, even lost his home.” Ultimately, though, Hardy’s tragic, protracted death bought him peace. As Laurel wrote to Bob and Marie Hatfield in August of 1957 (per Letters From Stan), “he has been suffering very much these last few weeks and in terrible pain (Cancer condition),” stating that he was sure his dear friend would be glad to finally be at rest.
