Actor and Vaudevillian. At the age of fifteen he left school in Birmingham, England, to become a carpenter like his father. While still in his teens he joined Fred Karno’s famous vaudeville troupe, whose members also included Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. In the early Twenties he went to New York to visit his sister, and began working as a stagehand, using his carpentry skills. What started out as a friendly visit turned into a permanent stay in the United States, and a long-running career as a character actor in comedies. While working as a stagehand, he met Bobby Dunn, who worked at Keystone Studios. Dunn, a comedian, and his boss Mack Sennett persuaded Charlie to give up the carpentry for acting. In the mid-Twenties he signed a contract with Hal Roach Studios. He found himself working once again with Stan Laurel, who remembered him from their British vaudeville days and helped his old friend in his newfound career. Hall would go on to co-star with Laurel and Hardy a total of 47 times, more than any of their other supporting players. He appeared with them in such shorts as ‘Leave ‘Em Laughing’ (1928), ‘Love ‘Em and Weep’ (1927), ‘Two Tars’ (1928), ‘Angora Love’ (1929), ‘Be Big!’ (1931), ‘The Music Box’ (1932), ‘Busy Bodies’ (1933), ‘The Live Ghost’ (1934), and ‘Them Thar Hills’ (1934). He also appeared in a number of their features, such as ‘A Chump at Oxford’ (1940), ‘Pardon Us’ (1931), ‘Babes in Toyland’ (1934), ‘The Bohemian Girl’ (1936), and ‘Pack Up Your Troubles’ (1932). Hall also co-starred in a number of Stan Laurel’s earlier solo shorts, such as ‘Near Dublin’ (1924) and ‘Mother’s Joy’ (1923). Although he was cast as their foil, offscreen the three of them were good friends. He also worked with a number of other comedians, among them Will Rogers, Abbott and Costello, Charley Chase, and Leon Errol. In the early and mid-Forties, he worked for 20th Century Fox, although by this point in his career, it was getting harder to find work as a character actor in short subjects. Nearly every studio had gotten rid of their short subjects departments or were phasing them out, and feature-length movies had become the norm. The films he appeared in from 1946 onwards were few and far between. He passed away at the end of 1959 at the age of sixty. (bio by: Carrie-Anne)