Buster Keaton
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Piqua, Kansas, USA
Although his career lacked the resilience of Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton may well have been the most gifted comedian to emerge from the cinema's silent era. And while his skills as a gag writer and physical comic were remarkable, Keaton was one clown whose understanding of the film medium was just as great as his talent for taking a pratfall. Keaton, however, had a roller-coaster career in which he fell just as far as he rose, though he was fortunate enough to enjoy a comeback in the later years of his life. Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895, to Joseph Hallie Keaton and Myra Cutler Keaton, a pair of vaudeville performers. Spending his childhood on the road with his family, he earned the nickname Buster at the age of six months; as legend has it, after the young Keaton fell down a flight of steps at a theater, a magician on the bill, Harry Houdini, said to the lad's father, "What a buster your kid took!" The name stuck, and, by the age of three, the youngster was appearing as part of his parents act whenever they could evade child labor laws. In vaudeville, Keaton developed remarkable talents as an acrobatic comedian with a superb sense of timing, and became a rising star by his teens. His father, however, had developed a serious drinking problem, which strained his relationship with his son and caused serious problems with their very physical stage act, which, in early 1917, Buster left. He appeared in a Broadway comic revue later that year, but the key to Keaton's future came when he met a fellow vaudeville comedian. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was starring in a low-budget two-reel screen comedy, The Butcher Boy, and invited Keaton to play a small role in the picture. The two hit it off and became a successful onscreen team, starring in a long string of comic hits. Fascinated by the medium of film, Keaton soon began writing their pictures, and assisted in directing them; Keaton was soon starring in his own films, as well, though he and Arbuckle remained lifelong close friends. Keaton developed a distinctive comic style which merged slapstick with a sophisticated sense of visual absurdity, and often included gags which made the most of the film medium, involving props, sets, and visual trickery that would have been impossible on the vaudeville stage. Keaton also developed his personal visual trademark, an unsmiling deadpan demeanor which made his epic-scale gags even funnier. Beginning with his first solo short subjects in 1920, The High Sign and One Week, Keaton became a major star, and after a series of successful two-reelers, including Cops and The Balloonatic, Keaton moved up to feature-length comedies in 1923 with the farcical The Three Ages. Keaton reached the peak of his craft with the features which followed, including Sherlock Jr., Seven Chances, The Navigator, Steamboat Bill, Jr., and the Civil War comedy The General, now universally regarded as Keaton's masterpiece. Independent producer Joseph M. Schenck was the man behind Fatty Arbuckle's comedies when Keaton came aboard, and they continued to work together when Keaton struck out on his own. Schenck believed in the comic's talent and allowed him to work without interference, resulting in a string of creative and popular triumphs. Then, in 1928 -- and with Keaton's approval -- Schenck sold his contract to the biggest studio in Hollywood, Metro Goldwyn Mayer. While Keaton's first vehicle for MGM, The Cameraman, was up to his usual high standards, he chafed at the studio's interference and insistence that the filmmaker work within the same boundaries as its other employees. With outside writers and directors controlling Keaton with a strong hand, his work suffered tremendously. Coupled with a crumbling marriage (to Natalie Talmadge, whom he wed in 1920), Keaton began to drink heavily. With the advent of sound, MGM seemed to have even less of an idea of what to do with the actor/director, and starred him in a series of second-rate come
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | Il Monello vs. Sherlock Jr. |
|
— | 2016 |
94% | Notfilm |
|
— | 2015 |
No Score Yet | Les Burlesques Americains |
|
— | 2011 |
No Score Yet | 5 Burlesques |
|
— | 2010 |
No Score Yet | The Forgotten Films of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle |
|
— | 2005 |
No Score Yet | An Afternoon With Buster Keaton |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | Hidden Hollywood, Vol. 2: More Treasures From the 20th Century Fox Vaults |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Oh, Doctor! |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Slapstick, Too! |
|
— | 1998 |
100% | That's Entertainment! III |
|
— | 1994 |
No Score Yet | Memories of Hollywood |
|
— | 1990 |
86% | A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum |
|
— | 1966 |
No Score Yet | Buster Keaton Rides Again |
|
— | 1965 |
No Score Yet | Sergeant Deadhead |
|
— | 1965 |
No Score Yet | How to Stuff a Wild Bikini |
|
— | 1965 |
No Score Yet | The Railrodder (The Railroader) |
|
— | 1965 |
73% | Beach Blanket Bingo |
|
— | 1965 |
No Score Yet | Film |
|
— | 1965 |
33% | Pajama Party |
|
— | 1964 |
70% | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World |
|
— | 1963 |
No Score Yet | 30 Years of Fun |
|
— | 1963 |
No Score Yet | A Few Moments with Buster Keaton & Laurel & Hardy |
|
— | 1963 |
No Score Yet | The Great Chase |
|
— | 1962 |
No Score Yet | The Sound of Laughter |
|
— | 1962 |
No Score Yet | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
|
— | 1960 |
No Score Yet | When Comedy Was King |
|
— | 1960 |
69% | Around the World in 80 Days |
|
— | 1956 |
97% | Limelight |
|
— | 1952 |
98% | Sunset Boulevard |
|
— | 1950 |
No Score Yet | The Misadventures of Buster Keaton |
|
— | 1950 |
62% | In the Good Old Summertime |
|
— | 1949 |
No Score Yet | The Lovable Cheat |
|
— | 1949 |
No Score Yet | Boom in the Moon |
|
— | 1946 |
No Score Yet | San Diego, I Love You |
|
— | 1944 |
100% | Two Girls and a Sailor |
|
— | 1944 |
No Score Yet | Forever and a Day |
|
— | 1943 |
No Score Yet | Tales of Manhattan |
|
— | 1942 |
No Score Yet | Li'l Abner |
|
— | 1940 |
No Score Yet | The Villain Still Pursued Her |
|
— | 1940 |
No Score Yet | New Moon |
|
— | 1940 |
No Score Yet | Pardon My Berth Marks |
|
— | 1940 |
No Score Yet | Hollywood Cavalcade |
|
— | 1939 |
No Score Yet | Old Spanish Custom |
|
— | 1936 |
No Score Yet | Allez Oop |
|
— | 1934 |
No Score Yet | What! No Beer? |
|
— | 1933 |
No Score Yet | Speak Easily |
|
— | 1932 |
No Score Yet | The Passionate Plumber |
|
— | 1932 |
No Score Yet | Casanova wider Willen |
|
— | 1931 |
No Score Yet | Sidewalks of New York |
|
— | 1931 |
No Score Yet | The Stolen Jools |
|
— | 1931 |
No Score Yet | Parlor, Bedroom and Bath |
|
— | 1931 |
No Score Yet | Doughboys |
|
— | 1930 |
No Score Yet | Free and Easy (Easy Go) |
|
— | 1930 |
43% | The Hollywood Revue of 1929 |
|
— | 1929 |
100% | Spite Marriage |
|
— | 1929 |
100% | Steamboat Bill Jr. |
|
— | 1928 |
100% | The Cameraman |
|
— | 1928 |
90% | College |
|
— | 1927 |
92% | The General |
|
— | 1927 |
82% | Battling Butler |
|
— | 1926 |
100% | Go West |
|
— | 1925 |
94% | Seven Chances |
|
— | 1925 |
92% | Sherlock Jr. |
|
— | 1924 |
100% | The Navigator |
|
— | 1924 |
100% | The Three Ages |
|
— | 1923 |
No Score Yet | The Love Nest |
|
— | 1923 |
No Score Yet | Balloonatic |
|
— | 1923 |
96% | Our Hospitality |
|
— | 1923 |
No Score Yet | Daydreams |
|
— | 1922 |
No Score Yet | Electric House |
|
— | 1922 |
No Score Yet | My Wife's Relations |
|
— | 1922 |
No Score Yet | Cops |
|
— | 1922 |
No Score Yet | The Frozen North |
|
— | 1922 |
No Score Yet | The Blacksmith |
|
— | 1922 |
No Score Yet | Seeing Stars |
|
— | 1922 |
No Score Yet | Paleface |
|
— | 1922 |
No Score Yet | The Playhouse |
|
— | 1921 |
No Score Yet | The Goat |
|
— | 1921 |
No Score Yet | Hard Luck |
|
— | 1921 |
No Score Yet | The Haunted House |
|
— | 1921 |
No Score Yet | The Boat |
|
— | 1921 |
No Score Yet | The 'High Sign' |
|
— | 1921 |
No Score Yet | The Scarecrow |
|
— | 1920 |
No Score Yet | Convict 13 |
|
— | 1920 |
No Score Yet | One Week |
|
— | 1920 |
No Score Yet | The Garage |
|
— | 1920 |
No Score Yet | Neighbors |
|
— | 1920 |
57% | The Saphead |
|
— | 1920 |
No Score Yet | The Hayseed |
|
— | 1919 |
No Score Yet | Back Stage |
|
— | 1919 |
No Score Yet | The Cook |
|
— | 1918 |
No Score Yet | Good Night, Nurse! |
|
— | 1918 |
No Score Yet | The Bell Boy |
|
— | 1918 |
No Score Yet | Out West |
|
— | 1918 |
No Score Yet | Coney Island |
|
— | 1917 |
No Score Yet | The Rough House |
|
— | 1917 |
No Score Yet | The Butcher Boy |
|
— | 1917 |
No Score Yet | An Evening With Buster & the Boys |
|
— |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
82% |
The Twilight Zone
1959-1964
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Playhouse 90
|
|
|
Quotes from Buster Keaton's Characters
Luke Shannon: | This is my dressing room. |
Man in Dressing Room: | Shut up...or it'll be your coffin! |
Man in Dressing Room: | Shut up... or it'll be your coffin! |