Lau Lauritzen, Sr.

Lauritz ( Lau ) Lauritzen ( sr. ) ( born March 13, 1878 in Silkeborg, † July 2, 1938 in Copenhagen) was a Danish film director and author. Among his works included, among other things, the Laurel and Hardy series.

Life

Lauritzen was originally a professional officer, but decided to switch to acting. In 1907, he debuted in Aarhus and then played among others in Vejle. He was also active as a theater director. 32- year old, he got in 1910 a commitment for five years as a director in Copenhagen.

In 1911, he received as a screenwriter access to the film. In 1914 he came to the Europe-wide Nordisk film and received his first directorial job. His talent for comic movies, he was able to take full advantage, although by the First World War was lost the foreign market. Lauritzen had with his film comedies, thrillers and melodramas great success, he wrote the screenplays, directed the films and cut them yourself So he came in the five years to 204 silent films, he temporarily turned over 40 films per year. Of course, many of these productions were very short.

He became the artistic director of the palladium film company Due to its popularity in film circles after the war of 1919. He insisted on his idea of ​​a comedy duo, which must consist of a small thickness and a long thinning. With Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen as Laurel and Hardy, he found this duo and made it in Europe under the name Lighthouse and trailers known. Especially in German-speaking countries, the two were very popular.

By 1932, Lauritzen was responsible for all films with Laurel and Hardy, then the duo also worked with other directors. In 1936, Lauritzen retired from the film business. His son, Lau Lauritzen (1910-1977) was also a film director.