Keaton's personal favorite was the series' debut, Pest from the West, a shorter, tighter remake of Keaton's little-viewed 1934 feature The Invader; it was directed not by White but by Del Lord, a veteran director for Mack Sennett. Childhood & Early Life. He recovered in the 1940s, remarried, and revived his career as an honored comic performer for the rest of his life, earning an Academy Honorary Award in 1959. [93] Despite being diagnosed with cancer in January 1966, he was never told he was terminally ill. Keaton thought that he was recovering from a severe case of bronchitis. From acclaimed cultural and film historian James Curtis--a major biography, the first in more than two decades, of the legendary comedian and filmmaker who elevated physical comedy to the highest of arts and whose ingenious films remain as startling, innovative, modern--and irresistible--today as they . MGM had been featuring comical musician Cliff Edwards in Keaton's films. Advertisement. Joseph Frank Keaton (1895 - 1966) that MGM fired him after the filming was completed, despite the film being a commercial hit. Then, the facade of a two-story building toppled forward on top of Keaton. In today's dollars that would be the equivalent of more than $600,000making it the most . The studio replaced Edwards, who had substance-abuse problems, with nightclub comedian Jimmy Durante. Between 1947 and 1954, the couple appeared regularly in the Cirque Medrano in Paris as a double act. [92] The marriage lasted until his death. This will be the festival's return to Iola. [29] Keaton later said[where?] They eventually had two sons, Joseph and Robert. This knockabout style of comedy led to accusations of child abuse, and occasionally, arrest. His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton who had a traveling show called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company, which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side. [13] The General has placed highly on the Sight & Sound poll, and Our Hospitality, Sherlock Jr. and The Navigator also received multiple votes. Critic Dana Stevens published a cultural history of Keaton's life and work, Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. Pioneer in Film Industry. His first was a parody of the famous D.W. Griffith film Intolerance (1916), entitled The Three Ages. Vance, Jeffrey. Keaton said he was lucky if he used only six hats in making a film. Keaton was born into a vaudeville family. Several times I'd have been killed if I hadn't been able to land like a cat. Keaton had designed and built a modest but comfortable, cottage-like home as a surprise wedding gift for his bride. Buster that the judge thought my mother was the bride! Battling Butler (1926), a boxing movie, was a commercial success. "[77] Critic Anthony Lane also noted Keaton's body language: The traditional Buster stance requires that he remain upstanding, full of backbone, looking ahead [in The General] he clambers onto the roof of his locomotive and leans gently forward to scan the terrain, with the breeze in his hair and adventure zipping toward him around the next bend. [73] The film's opening intertitles give it its mock-serious tone, and are taken from "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" by Robert W. The first ten minutes of The General tell us everything we need to know about its embrace of the Confederacy and its white supremacy. The theatrical feature film The Misadventures of Buster Keaton was fashioned from the series. Buster Keaton, original name Joseph Frank Keaton IV, (born October 4, 1895, Piqua, Kansas, U.S.died February 1, 1966, Woodland Hills, California), American film comedian and director, the "Great Stone Face" of the silent screen, known for his deadpan expression and his imaginative and often elaborate visual comedy. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Garry Moore recalled, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all those falls, and he said, 'I'll show you.' [49], Keaton accepted various character roles in both "A" and "B" features. Keaton's writers included Clyde Bruckman, Joseph Mitchell, and Jean Havez, but the most ingenious gags were generally conceived by Keaton himself. Keaton became the new head of the company, which was owned by Joseph Schenck (who later became Keaton's brother in law). In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine show that included family friend, illusionist Harry Houdini. Early Days in Vaudeville - 1895-1917. [96] Keaton has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: 6619 Hollywood Boulevard (for motion pictures); and 6225 Hollywood Boulevard (for television). Keaton also appeared in a comedy routine about two inept stage musicians in Charlie Chaplin's Limelight (released in 1952), recalling the vaudeville of The Playhouse. It's true that Keaton was born in Piqua on October 4, 1895but it wasn't his home. After this failure, Schenck sold his contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), where his son, Nicholas, just happened to be in charge. "It was as long as War and Peace," Keaton recalled. Buster Keaton was one of three great silent film comedians (along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd). Keaton and Arbuckle became close friends, and Keaton was one of few people, along with Charlie Chaplin, to defend Arbuckle's character during accusations that he was responsible for the death of actress Virginia Rappe. [45] In another telling, Keaton was fired after MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer "raided" Keaton's dressing room during a wild party with Keaton's "cronies and their girlfriends" and Keaton "angrily ordered Mayer to get out." Keaton was such a natural in his first film, The Butcher Boy, he was hired on the spot. In 1920, Keaton made his first full-length feature, The Saphead, playing the straight man, Bertie "The Lamb" Van Alstyne. Working with independent producer Joseph M. Schenck and filmmaker Edward F. Cline, Keaton made a series of successful two-reel comedies in the early 1920s, including One Week (1920), The Playhouse (1921), Cops (1922), and The Electric House (1922). [47], Keaton's personal life had stabilized with his 1940 marriage to MGM dancer Eleanor Norris, and now he was taking life a little easier, abandoning Columbia for the less strenuous field of feature films. [23], The act ran up against laws banning child performers in vaudeville. By the age of 5, Buster is part of his family's vaudeville act, and only 6 months later the Atlanta Constitution names him as "the star of the Keaton aggregation of three". [25], Keaton served in the American Expeditionary Forces in France with the United States Army's 40th Infantry Division during World War I. Harold Lloyd made us laugh as much, Charlie Chaplin moved us more deeply, but no one had more courage than Buster."[103]. This is discussed in the TCM documentary Buster Keaton: So Funny it Hurt, with Keaton complaining about having to shoot lousy films not just once, but three times. [70], One of his most biting parodies is The Frozen North (1922), a satirical take on William S. Hart's Western melodramas, like Hell's Hinges (1916) and The Narrow Trail (1917). Keaton's character emerged unscathed, due to a single open window. Because of Keaton's success, and a notorious scandal involving Arbuckle, Comique Films was renamed Buster Keaton Productions. I Image: Wikimedia Commons. Most of these 16 films are simple visual comedies, with many of the gags supplied by Keaton himself, often recycling ideas from his family vaudeville act and his earlier films. None of them were very good. ", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Keaton, http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/buster-keaton.html, http://www.biography.com/articles/Buster-Keaton-9361442, http://www.answers.com/topic/buster-keaton. No Beer? Keaton is often described as having been ahead of his time; Anthony Lane wrote "He was just too good, in too many ways, too soon No action thriller of the last, blood-streaked decade has matched the kinetic violence at the end of Steamboat Bill, Jr., in which a storm pulls Keaton through one random catastrophe after another. Actor: The General. (Arbuckle was eventually acquitted, with an apology from the jury for the ordeal he underwent.[30]). in Piqua, Kansas, USA , United States, Died on February 01, 1966 $49.99. Father of Private and James Talmadge Shortly after his son's birth, Joseph Keaton changed his son's name to Joseph Francis Keaton. When a grant that funded the program ended in 2017, the festival moved to Kansas City for a year. Keaton's widow, Eleanor, attended for a couple of years. The General, set during the American Civil War, combined physical comedy with Keaton's love of trains,[33] including an epic locomotive chase. Beginning in his early twenties, he enjoyed a decade-long stretch as the director, star, stuntman, editor, and all-around mastermind of some of the greatest silent comedies . Buster Keaton was an American actor, comedian, stage artist, writer, and director who has been credited as "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies" by critic and historian Roger Ebert. Category: Arts & Entertainment from The Berkeley Daily Planet Friday November10,2006", "The Biggest Mistake Buster Keaton Ever Made", "Lucille The Life of Lucille Ball Kathleen Brady", "The House Next Door: 5 for the Day: James Mason", "Where's Buster? A century has passed since Buster Keaton entered the plum decade of his career. He was forced to make several films as a straight man to Jimmy Durante, including Free and Easy (1930). His impassive features gave him the nickname "The Great Stone Face.". Buster Keaton and Phyllis Haver in The Balloonatic (1923) - publicity still. Free shipping for many products! Meanwhile, the eldest scion of "fun's funniest family" traveled on to New York and Ehrich House, where he arrived, according to his datebook, on January 18, 1917. . [16][17][18] According to a frequently repeated story, which may be apocryphal,[19] Keaton acquired the nickname Buster at the age of 18 months. She filed for divorce in 1935 after finding him with Leah Clampitt Sewell, the wife of millionaire Barton Sewell,[88] in a hotel in Santa Barbara. Keaton then refused to appear at a publicity event, and was fired 48 hours later. A great primer about the history of Buster Keaton b. You are the only one who doesn't.' Comedy director Leo McCarey, recalling the freewheeling days of making slapstick comedies, said, "All of us tried to steal each other's gagmen. He was handed a script titled Sidewalks of New York (1932), in which he played a millionaire becoming involved with a slum-neighborhood girl and a gang of rowdy kids. The sequence furnished one of the most memorable images of his career. [87], With the failure of his marriage and the loss of his independence as a filmmaker, Keaton descended into alcoholism. Buster KEATON from tree Compton-Queen Family Tree_2011-02-01. Keaton played every role in the movie, which was set in a theater. Buster Keaton as a child with his parents . Michigan, but due to Covid-19 it will be online, with screenings, rare footage and appearances by family members. ", "The Narrative-Machine: Buster Keaton's Cinematic Comedy, Deleuze's Recursion Function and the Operational Aesthetic", "Keaton Chose $40 in Films to $750 on Stage", Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase: A Biography, "My Career at the Rear / Buster Keaton in World War I", "Muskegon: Buster Keaton documentary to focus on early life in Muskegon", "Reviews: The General/Steamboat Bill Jr", "Velocipede used by Buster Keaton in the film Our Hospitality", "Moving Pictures: Buster Keaton's 'General' Pulls In To PFA. After the child fell down a long flight of stairs without injury, an actor friend named George Pardey remarked, "Gee whiz, he's a regular buster! Three Kids. In 1920, The Saphead was released, in which Keaton had his first starring role in a full-length feature. [26][27], Keaton spent the summers of 19081916 "at the 'Actor's Colony' in the Bluffton neighborhood of Muskegon, along with other famous vaudevillians. They were popular, and contrary to Keaton's later reputation as "The Great Stone Face", he often smiled and even laughed in them. Realizing that his bride wanted a palace, he sold the cottage to MGM executive Eddie Mannix at cost, and commissioned Gene Verge Sr. in 1926 to build a 10,000-square-foot (930m2) estate in Beverly Hills for $300,000, which was later owned by James Mason and Cary Grant. Keaton's wife Eleanor also was seen in the series (notably as Juliet to Keaton's Romeo in a little-theater vignette). Keaton made his first full-length feature film, "Our Hospitality," in 1923. Buster Keaton is an American actor, known in the world of cinema as "The Great Stone Face" The popularity of the artist at the peak of his career was comparable to the demand of Charlie Chaplin. Keaton was convinced to star in a short film with Arbuckle, called The Butcher Boy (1917). While his films were technically and creatively interesting, they were either critical or box office failures. She has been credited with salvaging his life and career. His marriage to actress Natalie Talmadge, with whom he had two sons, fell apart, and he became plagued with issues related to alcoholism and depression. "[76] Gilberto Perez commented on "Keaton's genius as an actor to keep a face so nearly deadpan and yet render it, by subtle inflections, so vividly expressive of inner life. Keaton invented comedy bits where Johnson keeps trying to apologize to a seething Garland, but winds up messing up her hairdo and tearing her dress. After Robert's birth, the marriage began to suffer. [38] But, given Schenck's desire to keep things "in the family" and Keaton's having to admit that his independent pictures hadn't done well, Keaton agreed to sign with MGM. Imitators of our act don't last long, because they can't stand the treatment. Buster Keaton and Marceline Day in The Cameraman, 1928. Keaton found his footing with his next film, One Week (1920), which focused on the tribulations of a do-it-yourself house. in Woodland Hills, California, USA, This form allows you to report an error or to submit additional information about this family tree: Buster KEATON (1895), Copyright Wikipdia authors - This article is under licence CC BY-SA 3.0. [69] Three Ages (1923), his first feature-length film, is a parody of D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), from which it replicates the three inter-cut shorts structure. Record information. Joseph Frank Keaton IV was born October 4, 1895, in Piqua, Kansas. He was drafted by the United States Army in 1918, and served for over a year with the 40th Infantry in France. ), Keaton was so demoralized during the production of 1933's What! They are the work of a man who, after decades of obscurity, found a way to perpetuate his comic images by embracing a new medium." By 1917, Joseph Keaton had developed severe problems with alcohol and the family's act was dissolved. His first directorial effort, The High Sign, was a short that apparently did not work very well. Afterward, I only gradually realized what kind of family I was inheriting. He received the nickname "Buster" while still an infant. Buster Keaton Remembered. "[20]:17 After this, Keaton's father began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster. The film version was released as "A Buster Keaton Production" in 1931. But not MGM. He was a student at Blackfox Military Academy and a graduate of Santa Monica High School. Wrong username or password. In 1949, Keaton appeared on television for the first time. 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