Film-maker, born in Elmira, New York, USA. After an adventurous life as a mule-skinner and gold prospector in Alaska, he entered the film industry as a stuntman and extra in 1911. He began producing short comedy films, becoming an expert in the mechanics of slapstick, and helped to foster the careers of Laurel and Hardy. He also devised the series of Our Gang films, and won Oscars for The Music Box (1932) and Bored of Education (1936). His range of full-length productions includes Way Out West (1937), Of Mice and Men (1939), and One Million BC (1940), which he co-directed. After World War 2 he diversified into television production. His final film was the compilation feature The Crazy World of Laurel and Hardy (1967), and in 1984 he received a special Academy Award.
Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. (January 14, 1892–November 2, 1992) was an American film and television producer from the 1910s to the 1980s.
Biography
Early life and career
Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York into an Irish Catholic family. A presentation by the great American humorist Mark Twain impressed Roach as a young grade school student.
After an adventurous youth that took him to Alaska, Hal Roach arrived in Hollywood in 1912 and began working as an extra in silent film.
Success as a comedy producer
Unable to expand his studios in downtown Los Angeles because of zoning, Roach purchased what became the Hal Roach Studios from Harry Culver in Culver City, California.
Roach released his films through Pathé until 1927, when he went to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In the days before dubbing, foreign language versions of the Roach comedies were created by re-shooting each film to create Spanish, French, and sometimes Italian and German dialogue phonetically. Hardy film Pardon Us, Roach began producing full-length features. The Our Gang series continued until 1938, when Roach sold the contracts of the Our Gang cast members and the series name to MGM. Roach turned wholly to producing features, the most memorable of which were Topper (1937), Of Mice and Men (1939) and One Million B.C. (1940).
World War II and television
Hal Roach, Sr. The studios were leased to the U.S. Army Air Forces, and the First Motion Picture Unit made 400 training, morale and propaganda films at "Fort Roach".
In 1947, Hal Roach became the first Hollywood studio to go to an all-color production schedule, making four short features in Cinecolor, although the increased production costs did not result in increased revenue. In 1948, with his studio deeply in debt, Roach re-established his studio for television production, with Hal Roach, Jr.
Later years
Roach retired in the late 1950s. For two more decades Roach resumed producing, occasionally working on projects related to his past work and was planning a comeback comedy at age 96. Hal Roach was a guest on Late Night with David Letterman in 1982, where he recounted experiences with such stars as Stan Laurel and Jean Harlow; In the spring of 1992, not long after his 100th birthday, Roach once again appeared at the Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Billy Crystal.
Hal Roach was two months away from his one-hundred-and-first birthday, when he died on November 2, 1992, at his home in Bel Air, California from pneumonia.
Hal Roach Studios
In 1955, Roach sold his share of the debt-ridden studio to his son, Hal Roach, Jr., who in 1962 lost it to creditors. Hal Roach Studios, reduced to a film library, was bought by a Canadian company that primarily handling the business of keeping the library in the public eye and licensing products based upon the classic film series.
In the early 1980s, Hal Roach Studios was one of the first studios to venture into the controversial business of film colorization, creating digitally colored versions of several Laurel and Hardy features, the Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life and other popular films. In the 1980s, Hal Roach Studios produced Kids Incorporated in association with old business partner MGM. From 1988–1990, while producing Kids Incorporated, Hal Roach Studios renamed itself Qintex.
In the years that followed, the Roach company changed hands several more times. In that same decade, a new incarnation of Hal Roach Studios (operated by the Roach Trust) was established, and today this new version of the company has released classic films on DVD, many of which are from Roach's own archival prints of his films, while others are public domain titles mastered from the best available 35 mm elements. A History of the Hal Roach Studios.
User Comments Add a comment…