![]() ![]() However, Buster Keaton was always able to show the authorities that he had no bruises or broken bones. This knockabout style of comedy led to accusations of child abuse, and occasionally, arrest. The act evolved as Keaton learned to take trick falls safely he was rarely injured or bruised on stage. A suitcase handle was sewn into Keaton's clothing to aid with the constant tossing. The young Keaton would goad his father by disobeying him, and the elder Keaton would respond by throwing him against the scenery, into the orchestra pit, or even into the audience. Myra played the saxophone to one side, while Joe and Buster performed on center stage. He first appeared on stage in 1899 in Wilmington, Delaware. Keaton retold the anecdote over the years, including during a 1964 interview with the CBC's Telescope.Īt the age of three, Keaton began performing with his parents in The Three Keatons. After this, it was Keaton's father who began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience, Houdini remarked, "That was a real buster!" According to Keaton, in those days, the word "buster" was used to refer to a spill or a fall that had the potential to produce injury. Keaton told interviewer Fletcher Markle that Harry Houdini happened to be present one day when the young Keaton took a tumble down a long flight of stairs without injury. Buster Keaton was born in Piqua, Kansas, the small town where his mother, Myra Keaton (née Myra Edith Cutler), happened to go into labor.Īccording to a frequently-repeated story, which may be apocryphal, Keaton acquired the nickname "Buster" at about eighteen months of age. Joe Keaton owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini called the "Mohawk Indian Medicine Company", which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side. Later, Keaton changed his middle name to "Francis". His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton, a native of Vigo County, Indiana. He was named "Joseph" to continue a tradition on his father's side-he was sixth in a line bearing the name Joseph Keaton-and "Frank" for his maternal grandfather, who disapproved of the parents' union. Keaton was born Joseph Frank Keaton into a vaudeville family. Three other Keaton films received votes in the magazine's survey: Our Hospitality, Sherlock, Jr., and The Navigator. Orson Welles stated that Keaton's The General is "the greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made."Ī 2002 worldwide poll by Sight & Sound ranked Keaton's The General as the 15th best film of all time. ![]() Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, he worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies." His career declined afterward with a dispiriting loss of his artistic independence when he hired on to MGM which fueled a crippling alcoholism that ruined his family life. However, he later recovered in the 1940s, remarried and successfully revived his career to a degree as an honored comic performer for the rest of his life, earning plaudits like an Academy Honorary Award in 1958. Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".īuster Keaton (his lifelong stage name) was recognized as the seventh-greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. In 1999, theAmerican Film Institute ranked Keaton the 21st-greatest male star of all time. ![]()
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