Both Laurel and Hardy were supposed to be very, very nice. Two of my very favorites.
I think, maybe, we’re talking about stand up comedians as opposed to actors. Of course, Danny Kaye was a performer, not a standup, so go figure.
Yes, I love Laurel and Hardy, too. I met Stan’s daughter Lois several times, and had some nice discussions with her.
Might be a valid point about stand-up type performers as opposed to actors. The track-record seems far worse with them. But as with performers, before Danny Kaye, there was the equally insufferable Frank Fay.
And then there’s also the generational aspect. So many performers from the pre-war days lived through some pretty hard times. Working on farms, fighting in wars, going to bed with empty stomachs. I mean, David Niven, just a few short years before becoming a “movie star” was digging ditches in a road-construction crew. Glenda Farrell had to use potato sacks for diapers for her baby. So many stories like this. It was virtually the norm for that older crowd. Hence, when these people achieved fame and success, they really APPRECIATED it. No sense of ‘entitlement’ with them, and they knew full well it was the fans that made them, and they behaved with people and the public accordingly, for the most part.