Lou Costello

Louis Francis Cristillo (Paterson, New Jersey, March 6, 1906 - Los Angeles, California, March 3, 1959), known simply as Lou Costello, was a renowned American comedian. He formed the popular comedy duo Abbott and Costello in the 1940s with Bud Abbott.

Costello moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s and after working in different jobs, he was hired by the Metro Goldwyn Mayer company to work as a stuntman, becoming Tim McCoy's double.

After working as a stuntman in sixty films, Cristillo began to gain weight, which is why he lost his job at Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Deciding to change course, he changed his name to Lou Costello, beginning his career as a comedian at Music Hall until meeting Bud Abbott in 1936.

Together with Bud Abbott he formed the comic duo Abbott and Costello, one of the most famous couples in Hollywood comedy, where he was the soul of said couple, playing a fearful and somewhat ridiculous chubby man who kept being used by his counterpart. It was enormously popular in the United States and also in Latin America. In Spain, even though it enjoyed great success, it never reached the majority of the public's tastes. The peculiar duo that he formed with Bud Abbott gave rise to counterparts such as the duo later starring Jerry Lewis (Joseph Levitch) and Dean Martin.

After her separation from Bud Abbott, he began his solo career, demonstrating dramatic aptitudes, but in this new facet he was only able to shoot one film because death suddenly surprised him on March 3, 1959, dying from a heart attack a few days after filming ended. .
Years later, in 1967, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera produced a series of cartoons based on their characters, in the style of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.