Hardy was one of the famous silent comedians of the 20th century. He won the hearts of millions with his funny plays. Oliver is a very successful comedian in the history of America. And as one can imagine, success requires a lot of hard work and busy hours.
Hardy would always be busy practicing and writing plots. He was so devoted to his comedy career that he didn’t even watch his health. And as he didn’t give much attention, his weight continued to increase.
Although his body had some element of obesity since a very young age and working those busy hours made it worse. With the passage of time, he became so obese that merely moving was becoming a problem.
Later, in the last years of his life, he became so much overweighed that he would just sit at his home. Because of this heavyweight, Hardy suffered a heart attack in the May of 1954. Which was, thankfully, mild but it was an alarm.
After the heart attack, the doctor advised Hardy to lose some weight as it might become a threat to his mere life. And the way Oliver lost weight is worth discussing. Within a few months of the heart attack, Hardy succeeded in losing 150 pounds.
Also, find out the inspiring stories of comedians, Larry Joe Cambell, Lavell Crawford, and Miranda May.
How did Hardy lose weight?
After hearing from the doctor that he had to lose weight, Oliver became very critical of what he was consuming the whole day. He started analyzing his daily consumption of food. He adopted a crash diet and lost an incredible amount of weight.
That crash diet was very effective for Hardy in the short run but it proved to be very costly in the long run (mentioned later).
He limited the amount of food he was eating on daily basis. He also started doing some exercise to burn calories. This effort prevented the chances of heart attack and boosted his health for some period.
How much Hardy did weigh at his heaviest?
At his heaviest, Hardy weighed around 350 pounds which was a very dangerous number given his age and his health.
How did Hardy die?
On the evening of Sept 14, 1956, Hardy suffered a major stroke. Which caused him to confine to bed. He also became unable to speak for several months. He had two other major strokes. Suffering these Oliver died on Aug 7, 1957.
Later, Hardy’s dearest friend who, for most of his life, worked with him, Stan Laural, said that “My dear pal had terminal cancer”. Some experts say that the strokes Oliver suffered from were likely because of that crash diet.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that Oliver Hardy is one of the big names of all time in Comedy. He will always be remembered in the hearts of his fans from all around the world.
