Stanley "Stan" Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson, 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965), was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as one half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. Laurel began his career in the British music hall where he took a number of his standard comic devices: the bowler hat, the deep comic gravity, and the nonsensical understatement. He was a member of "Fred Karno's Army" where he was Charlie Chaplin's understudy.[5][6] The two arrived in the US on the same boat from Britain with the Karno troupe.[7] His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film The Music Box (1932).