The son of a British showman, Stan Laurel had been raised in British music halls. In 1910 he made his first trip to America as a member of the Fred Karno musical-comedy troupe, which also included Charlie Chaplin.  Both He and Chaplin arrived from the UK on the same ship.  Laurel stayed in the United States, touring in vaudeville and landing an occasional movie job.  By 1924, Stan Laurel had given up the stage for full time film work, under contract with Joe Rock for 12 two-reel comedies.

The 12 two-reel comedies were Mandarin Mix-Up (1924), Detained (1924), Monsieur Don't Care (1924), West of Hot Dog (1924), Somewhere in Wrong (1925), Twins (1925), Pie-Eyed (1925), The Snow Hawk (1925), Navy Blue Days (1925), The Sleuth (1925), Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1925), Half a Man (1925).

Laurel next signed with the Hal Roach studio, where he started sharing screen time with Oliver Hardy (who had already been in over 200 films at this point).

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy officially teamed at the Hal Roach studios in the mid / late 1920's (although had been in films together earlier) and one of the best love film comedy duos was created.

Together, the two men began producing a huge body of short films, including The Battle of the Century, Should Married Men Go Home?, Two Tars, Be Big!, Big Business, and many others. Laurel and Hardy successfully made the transition to talking films with the short Unaccustomed As We Are in 1929. They also appeared in their first feature in one of the revue sequences of The Hollywood Revue of 1929, and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in a lavish all-colour (in Technicolor) musical feature, The Rogue Song. In 1931, their first starring feature, Pardon Us was released. They continued to make both features and shorts until 1935, including their 1932 three-reeler The Music Box, which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.