In January 1965, Stan Laurel underwent a series of x-rays for an infection on the roof of his mouth. He died on 23 February 1965, aged 74, four days after suffering a heart attack on 19 February. Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!" A few minutes later, the nurse looked in on him again and found that he had died quietly in his armchair.
At his funeral, silent screen comedian Buster Keaton said, "Chaplin wasn't the funniest, I wasn't the funniest, this man was the funniest." Dick Van Dyke gave the eulogy as a friend, protégé, and occasional impressionist of Laurel during his later years; he read "The Clown's Prayer". Laurel had quipped, "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again." He was interred in Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery.
At Forest Lawn Cemetery, a plaque was placed reading:
STAN LAUREL
1890 - 1965
A MASTER OF COMEDY
HIS GENIUS IN THE ART OF HUMOR BROUGHT GLADNESS TO THE WORLD HE LOVED.
1890 - 1965
A MASTER OF COMEDY
HIS GENIUS IN THE ART OF HUMOR BROUGHT GLADNESS TO THE WORLD HE LOVED.
Joining the Laurel and Hardy appreciation society, the Sons Of The Desert, I was fortunate enough to meet Stan Laurel's daughter, Lois Laurel Hawes and visit Stan's final resting place with her, back in 1980, during the Sons of the Desert Second International Convention in Hollywood.
God Bless Stan Laurel!
