Biography for
Buster Keaton Nickname: The Great Stone Face
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Height: 5' 6"
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Mini biography
When at six months he tumbled down a flight of stairs unharmed he was given the name "Buster" by
'Harry Houdini' who, along with W.C. Fields, Bill Robinson (I) ("Bojangles"), Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson shared headlines with The Three Keatons: Buster, his father Joe Keaton and mother Myra Keaton. Their
act, one of the most dangerous in vaudeville, was about how to discipline a prankster child. Buster was thrown all over the stage and even into the audience. No matter what the stunt, he was poker-faced. By age 21 his
father was so alcoholic the stunts became too dangerous to perform and the act dissolved. He first saw a movie studio in March 1917 and on April 23 his debut film, 'Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle''s Butcher Boy, The (1917),
was released. He stayed with Fatty through fifteen two-reelers even though he was offered much more to sign with Fox or Warner after returning from ten months with the 40th Infantry in France. His first feature length
Saphead, The (1920) established him as a star in his own right. By the middle of 1921 he was starring, directing and scripting through Buster Keaton Productions. General, The (1927), his favorite, was one of the last
over which he had artistic control. In 1928 he signed with MGM and his fame dwindled. By 1932 he was divorced, reduced to co-starring, and alcoholic. In 1935 he entered a mental hospital. [By 1937 he had been re-hired
by MGM as a $100-a-week gagman.] In 1947 his career rebounded with a live appearance at Cirque Medrano in Paris. In 1952 James Mason, who then owned Keaton's Hollywood mansion, found a secret store of presumably lost
nitrate stock films of Buster's; Raymond Rohauer began serious collection/preservation of his films. In 1957 he appeared with Charles Chaplin in Limelight (1952) and his film biography Buster Keaton Story, The (1957)
was released. Two years later he received a special Oscar for his life work in comedy. Festivals the world over acknowledged Buster until his death at age seventy.
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Spouse
'Eleanor Norris' (1940 - 1 February 1966) (his death)
'Mae Scribbens' (1933 - 1936) (divorced)
Natalie Talmadge (1921 - 1932) (divorced); 2 sons
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Trade mark
Porkpie hat, slapshoes, deadpan expression
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Trivia
Son of Joe Keaton
Son of Myra Keaton
Father of Buster Keaton Jr.
Brother of Harry Keaton and Louise Keaton.
Keaton's older son was born Joe Keaton but was renamed James Talmadge in 1933 when Keaton was divorced by his sons' mother, Natalie Talmadge.
Heavy Smoker.
Hollywood Handicap is a TERRIBLE two reeler made by MGM in 1938, directed by Keaton. Interesting only to see the depths he was forced to in his career. Very brief, nonspeaking cameo appearances by Mickey Rooney, Al
Jolson, Ruby Keeler, Bing Crosby, Stu Erwin, Robert Montgomery, Charles Butterworth, Edmund Lowe. Two music numbers by black combo, The Original Sing Band. Much of film appears to be newsreel footage of horserace.
Unlike many silent movie stars, Buster was eager to go into sound considering he had a fine baritone voice with no speech impediments and years of stage experience, so dialogue was not a problem.
Interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Personal quotes
"No man can be a genius in slapshoes and a flat hat."
"The only person who has the right attitude about boxing in the movies for me was Buster Keaton." - Martin Scorsese, director of Raging
Bull (1980)
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
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Salary
Jail Bait (1937) $2500
Love Nest on Wheels (1937) $2500
Ditto (1937) $2500
Chemist, The (1936) $2500
Blue Blazes (1936) $2500
Mixed Magic (1936) $2500
Three on a Limb (1936) $2500
Grand Slam Opera (1936) $2500
Timid Young Man, The (1935) $2500
Tars and Stripes (1935) $2500
Palooka from Paducah (1935) $2500
E-Flat Man, The (1935) $2500
Hayseed Romance (1935) $2500
One Run Elmer (1935) $2500
Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
Actor, director, screenwriter. (b. Oct. 4, 1895, Piqua, Kans., as Joseph Francis Keaton; d. Feb. 1, 1966.) The silent screen's "Great Stone Face," and
arguably its greatest comic player, Buster Keaton possessed a prodigious talent that, fortunately, was properly utilized as much as it was abused-which, owing to the comedian's personal demons, was frequently. On stage
from infancy in his family's knockabout vaudeville act, he came to films in 1917 after visiting the New York studio where Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was making two-reelers for producer Joseph M. Schenck. Keaton
made his film debut supporting Arbuckle inThe Butcher Boy (1917), and over the next two years appeared with the rotund comic in more than a dozen shorts.
When the Arbuckle company moved to California, Keaton
followed, and when "Fatty" signed with Paramount in 1920, Schenck turned his Comique Studio over to Keaton. The short, slender, sad-faced performer initially producedThe High Sign (1920), but it was held up
for release; audiences first sawOne Week a bizarre tale of newlyweds trying to assemble a prefabricated house kit that has been sabotaged by the hero's rival. He turned out nearly 20 two-reelers in three years (taking
time out to star in a partially successful, if conventional, feature for Metro calledThe Saphead in 1920).The Boat (1921),Cops (1922), andThe Balloonatic (1923) set the pattern for Keaton films to come, each one full of
inventive gags and surreal imagery.
Unlike his greatest competitor, Charlie Chaplin (who used the camera merely to record his brilliant performances), Keaton immersed himself in the medium of film, learning by
experimentation how to use the mechanics of cinema to enhance his comedies. Schenck, for his part, gave Keaton free rein in making the films, and even though the comedian often collaborated with directors Eddie Cline
and Mal St. Clair, he was largely responsible for guiding his own work.
Buster graduated to features in 1923 withThe Three Ages a sendup of the DeMille historical flashback genre.Our Hospitality (also 1923)
combined the visual appeal of a lovingly recreated early steam train with a strong dramatic story about a family feud.Sherlock, Jr (1924) was a wild gag comedy about a projectionist who dreamed himself onto the theater
screen; it delineated, in sharp relief, both his fascination with things mechanical and his remarkable grasp of motionpicture grammar and artifice.The Navigator (also 1924) found Buster on an abandoned ocean liner
adrift with only a single companion, andSeven Chances (1925) climaxed with a tremendous chase showing Keaton pursued by hundreds of jilted brides (and an avalanche of rocks and boulders).Go West (also 1925) andBattling
Butler (1926) were weak efforts, butThe General (also 1926), a picturesque retelling of a Civil War railroad raid, showed the star at his best in a meticulously constructed comedy that also reflected his almost
fetishistic penchant for historical accuracy. AlthoughThe General fared poorly with audiences of the day, it is generally considered Keaton's greatest work.Steamboat Bill, Jr (1927) was another top-notch comedy, and
featured as its highlight an hysterical and, at the same time, terrifying tornado sequence. By comparison,College (1927) seemed a minor effort, even though it too was packed with laughs.
In 1928 Joe Schenck sold
Keaton's contract to MGM, which was headed by his brother Nicholas Schenck. The star's first MGM vehicle,The Cameraman (1928), was up to his very best work, but increasing interference (by a studio that was accustomed
to having its stars follow orders, not create their own movies) and Keaton's own losing battle with alcoholism contributed to a steady decline thereafter.Spite Marriage (1929) had many fine moments, and the star's first
talkie,Free and Easy (1930), showed promise. ButDoughboys (also 1930) was dismal, and inParlor, Bedroom, and Bath (1931), Keaton-the ostensible star-was relegated to comic relief. By the time ofWhat! No Beer? (1933), he
was forced to team with Jimmy Durante, as the studio had lost faith in his ability to carry a picture alone. Keaton completed seven talkies for Metro, all pale imitations of his silent work, but all moneymakers.
Finally fired for embarrassing alcoholrelated escapades, Keaton could find employment only in low-budget two-reel shorts, first with Educational Pictures and then, late in the decade, for Columbia. (He also traveled
abroad in 1935 to appear in two interesting but unsatisfying comedies, the English-madeAn Old Spanish Custom and the French-madeLe Roi des ChampsElysées Although there were flashes of the old Keaton brilliance in such
shorts asAllez Oop (1934) andGrand Slam Opera (1936), generally these three-day wonders only served to diminish Keaton's earlier achievements.
By the late 1930s and early 1940s Keaton was reduced to playing bit
parts (most notably as himself in 1939'sHollywood Cavalcade and working as a screenwriter. He supplied gags forThe Jones Family in Hollywood (1939), directed by his old friend Mal St. Clair. Returning to MGM in virtual
anonymity during the 1940s, he did the same on several Red Skelton comedies, and served as a comedy troubleshooter at the studio. He had occasional roles in features (1940'sLi'l Abner 1943'sForever and a Day 1944'sSan
Diego, I Love You and even though most of them were minor, he brought to each a flash of Keatonesque invention that proved his mind was still fertile. He also appeared as one of the "waxworks" in an
all-too-brief cameo inSunset Blvd (1950), and did a much-anticipated but sadly unsatisfying star turn with Charlie Chaplin inLimelight (1952).
Television, however, provided both a new vehicle of employment, and a
chance to regain lost ground. He starred in his own live half-hour series in Los Angeles, and then filmed another series of half-hours that were later edited into an ersatz feature titledThe Misadventures of Buster
Keaton (1950) for foreign release. TV commercials, series guest shots, theater appearances in a revival of "Merton of the Movies," and cameos in feature films kept Keaton before the public.The Buster Keaton
Story (1957), starring Donald O'Connor, was a typically whitewashed and ill-conceived screen biopic, but the fee paid to Buster enabled him to buy a comfortable house in which he lived out his years.
In the
1960s, a rediscovered Keaton found himself in ever-increasing demand. Canadian filmmaker Gerald Potterton directed him in a silent-film-style short,The Railrodder (1965), while another crew chronicled the production in
a poignant documentary calledBuster Keaton Rides Again He appeared in Stanley Kramer's all-starIt's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (though his best scenes wound up on the cutting-room floor), and a series of Beach Party movies
(1965'sBeach Blanket Bingo andHow to Stuff a Wild Bikini to name two), in which he was allowed to devise his own sight gags. Director Richard Lester hired him, in spite of failing health, to appear inA Funny Thing
Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), and American-International Pictures (producers of the Beach Party movies) released an Italian-made comedy with Buster's name above the title,War, Italian Style (1967).
Had
he lived, there is no question that other projects-perhaps even better ones-would have followed. A posthumous biography, "Keaton," by Rudi Blesh received Keaton's full cooperation and became the life story the
comedian himself should have written. (His official autobiography, 1960's "My Wonderful World of Slapstick," was ghostwritten.) In 1959 Keaton received a special Oscar "for his unique talents which
brought immortal comedies to the screen." |
