Then in his twenties, he had outgrown his family vaudeville act, whose violent acrobatics had relied on a size . It was too dramatic for some filmgoers expecting a lightweight comedy, and reviewers questioned Keaton's judgment in making a comedic film about the Civil War, even while noting it had a "few laughs. Record information. Keaton's other 1924 film, The Navigator, was shot on an ocean liner and directed with Donald Crisp. [80], On May 31, 1921, Keaton married Natalie Talmadge, his leading lady in Our Hospitality, and the sister of actresses Norma Talmadge (married to his business partner Joseph M. Schenck at the time) and Constance Talmadge, at Norma's home in Bayside, Queens. Joseph Frank Keaton (1895 - 1966) That's the way it always had been, until his mother . . Vance, Jeffrey. [104], Keaton's Sherlock Jr., in which he walks into the movie he is projecting, was an influence Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo, in which a character walks out of a movie and into real life. In College (1927), Keaton was engaged in every athletic sport except football, but it was a disappointment. Battling Butler (1926), a boxing movie, was a commercial success. Six of his films have been included in the National Film Registry, making him one of the most honored filmmakers on that list: One Week (1920), Cops (1922), Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), Steamboat Bill, Jr., and The Cameraman (both 1928)[97], A 1957 film biography, The Buster Keaton Story, starring Donald O'Connor as Keaton was released. In a British television documentary about his career, his widow Eleanor told producers from Thames Television that Keaton was up out of bed and moving around, and even played cards with friends who came to visit the day before he died. The 21st Annual International Buster Keaton Convention will be held Oct 2-3, in Muskegon, MI, and The Humphrey Bogart Film Festival will be held October 21-25, in Key Largo, FL. "I went over (Weingarten's) head and appealed to Irving Thalberg to help get me out of the assignment. The Society's nickname, the "Damfinos," draws its name from a boat in Keaton's 1921 comedy, The Boat. 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. Buster joined his family's act at a very young age. As a baby, he tumbled all the way down a flight of stairs to the landing below. the Number One enemy by giving generously te the Heart Fuad. Educational Pictures, also known as Educational Film Exchanges, Inc. or Educational Films Corporation of America, was an American film production and film distribution company founded in 1916 by Earle (E. W.) Hammons (1882-1962). Born on October 4, 1895, in Piqua, Kansas, as Joseph Francis Keaton. The break brought new opportunities for Keaton. Two of Keaton's . Father of Private and James Talmadge Buster Keaton in a still from the 1927 film The General. The series benefited from a company of veteran actors, including Marcia Mae Jones as the ingenue, Iris Adrian, Dick Wessel, Fuzzy Knight, Dub Taylor, Philip Van Zandt, and his silent-era contemporaries Harold Goodwin, Hank Mann, and stuntman Harvey Parry. The only time he ever laughed on screen was in an Arbuckle movie, Fatty at Coney Island (1917). Cox remembers him as being a lot of fun, and she always enjoyed visits to . Named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker, Publishers Weekly, and NPR In this genre-defying work of cultural history, the chief film critic of Slate places comedy legend and acclaimed filmmaker Buster Keaton's unique creative genius in the context of his time. The laconic Keaton and the rambunctious Durante offered enough contrast to function as a team, resulting in three very successful films: Speak Easily (1932), The Passionate Plumber (1932), and What! He returned to the program in 1965 in the episode "Now You See It, Now You Don't". 'Camera Man' unspools the colorful life of silent film star Buster Keaton: By age 5, Keaton was a star in his family's vaudeville act; he went on to star in and direct silent films, performing jaw . . "[44] Keaton made the film anyway, and was amazed that it became his biggest box office success. He lost creative control of his pictures, and, like his father before him, developed a nasty drinking problem. . Born the same year as the film industry in 1895, Buster Keaton began his career as the child star of a family slapstick act reputed . In 1965, Keaton appeared in a short film written and shot by French existentialist playwright Samuel Beckett entitled simply Film. Known as "The Great Stone Face," Keaton got big laughs out of his relentlessly blank expression in silent film comedies like The Saphead (1920), Sherlock, Jr. (1924), and his famous The General (1927). Rami Malek and Buster Keaton Samir Hussein/WireImage/John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images. "[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. Buster Keaton and Ernest . His film career was briefly interrupted by military service during World War I. ), Keaton was so demoralized during the production of 1933's What! Aerial stuntmen and daredevils from around 1920s - 1940s. Free shipping. The Day the Laughter Stopped. On May 29, 1940, Keaton married Eleanor Norris, who was 23 years his junior. Keaton played every role in the movie, which was set in a theater. CAMERA MAN Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, . Piqua, Kansas's greatest claim to fame is that it's the birthplace of Buster Keaton. Sherlock Jr. will be Keaton's most enduring commentary on the art of cinema. Though it would come to be regarded as Keaton's greatest achievement, the film received mixed reviews at the time. On May 31, 1921, Keaton was married time to Natalie Talmadge. Though this was a partnership, Cline later acknowledged that Keaton did much of the work. By the time he was three, Keaton had become part of his parents' act, renamed "The Three Keatons." A scene from "Our Hospitality," the feature film at the 2013 Buster Keaton Convention in Muskegon. Keaton's art has inspired full academic study. His greatest works from . In 1920, Keaton made his first full-length feature, The Saphead, playing the straight man, Bertie "The Lamb" Van Alstyne. Who was I to say I was right and everyone was wrong? He also began using a moving camera, at a time when many of his peers continued to use stationary ones. In this film, he broke his neck, but did not discover it until ten years later. Early Days in Vaudeville - 1895-1917. 616: Ruth Carbaugh 201; Elaine Weigle 513. [71] Keaton directed the film, along with Edward F. Cline. In 1939, Columbia Pictures hired Keaton to star in 10 two-reel comedies; the series ran for two years, and comprise his last series as a starring comedian. Keaton then moved to full-length features. [3][4] Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruption" as having made him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies". He was, in fact, the star and a skilled acrobat. Comedy director Leo McCarey, recalling the freewheeling days of making slapstick comedies, said, "All of us tried to steal each other's gagmen. No Beer? [94] He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California.[95]. Genealogy for Joseph Frank Keaton, VI (1895 - 1966) family tree on Geni, with over 240 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. Buster Keaton and Marceline Day in The Cameraman, 1928. 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. But it's even more pleasurable to get back to the presentwhere brooding, miserable, non-smiling Humphrey Bogart really shines. United States, 1924. Keaton's widow, Eleanor, attended for a couple of years. Buster Keaton With Family Rare Candid 8x10 Photo. They were popular, and contrary to Keaton's later reputation as "The Great Stone Face", he often smiled and even laughed in them. In Go West (1925), he is stared down by a herd of cattle. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Buster Keaton With Family Rare Candid 8x10 Photo at the best online prices at eBay! 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. 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 . In one sequence, Keaton even danced with himself. The Colony celebrate Joe Keaton's birthday with a parade through Bluffton. I Image: Wikimedia Commons. Alone in New York City, Buster was walking down the street when he encountered Lou Anger, an old family friend from their days on the road. The following year, United Artists hired Keaton; he made ten shorts in the next two years. By Kelly Braun. "Gee whiz," said George Pardey, an unknown Midwestern actor and a Keaton family friend, adding, "He's a regular buster!" The baby's father said, "I'm going to call him by it." Keaton was such a natural in his first film, The Butcher Boy, he was hired on the spot. Myra played the saxophone to one side, while Joe and Keaton performed center stage. But we had no luck with Keaton because he thought up his best gags himself and we couldn't steal him! Era By BOB THOMAS H list grows thin. Keaton's character emerged unscathed, due to a single open window. Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. 3, Thames Television, 1987, Perez Gilberto 'The Material GhostOn Keaton and Chaplin' 1998. [100] Hirschfeld said that modern film stars were more difficult to depict, that silent film comedians such as Laurel and Hardy and Keaton "looked like their caricatures". In 1920, Arbuckle left Comique Films for Paramount. [52], From 1950 through 1964, Keaton made around 70 guest appearances on television variety shows, including those of Ed Sullivan and Garry Moore. The act was mainly a comedy sketch. Buster Keaton. Joseph Talmadge Keaton was the first son born to comic actor Buster Keaton and his wife, actress Natalie Talmadge; he was also a nephew of silent screen actresses Norma and Constance Talmadge. He re-enacted a famous Keaton stunt for the finale of Jackass Number Two. 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 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. Buster that the judge thought my mother was the bride! Within the family it had become a joke. Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. [13] The General has placed highly on the Sight & Sound poll, and Our Hospitality, Sherlock Jr. and The Navigator also received multiple votes. [57] In August 1960, Keaton played mute King Sextimus the Silent in the national touring company of the Broadway musical Once Upon A Mattress. His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton, a native of Vigo County, Indiana. Evolved from the knockabout upbringing of the vaudeville stage, Keaton's comedy is a whirlwind of hilarious, technically precise, adroitly executed, and surprising gags, very often set against a backdrop of visually stunning set pieces and locationsall this masked behind his unflinching, stoic veneer. His first directorial effort, The High Sign, was a short that apparently did not work very well. This will be the festival's return to Iola. [26][27], Keaton spent the summers of 19081916 "at the 'Actor's Colony' in the Bluffton neighborhood of Muskegon, along with other famous vaudevillians. [78], Buster Keaton's comedy endures not just because he had a face that belongs on Mount Rushmore, at once hauntingly immovable and classically American, but because that face was attached to one of the most gifted actors and directors who ever graced the screen. [101], In his essay Film-arte, film-antiartstico, artist Salvador Dal declared the works of Keaton to be prime examples of "anti-artistic" filmmaking, calling them "pure poetry". Poker-Faced Comedian of Films", "Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (American Masters)", Dada, Surrealism, and the Cinematic Effect, "Mel Brooks on Buster Keaton--The Lybarger Links Interview", "The Strange Behavior of Johnny Knoxville", "Keaton Weekend in L.A. Celebrates the Great Silent Comedian", "City of Los Angeles to declare June 16, 2018 "Buster Keaton Day", Barnett, Ryan and Matthew Tavares (Illustrator), Buster Keaton and the Muskegon Connection, Buster Keaton's Silent Shorts (19201923) by James L. Neibaur and Terri Niemi, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Buster_Keaton&oldid=1142053518, United States Army personnel of World War I, Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills), Male actors from Beverly Hills, California, Articles with dead external links from March 2022, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Vague or ambiguous geographic scope from June 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2022, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, TCMDb name template using numeric ID from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Who are Buster Keaton grandchildren? Keaton had designed and built a modest but comfortable, cottage-like home as a surprise wedding gift for his bride. Harold Lloyd made us laugh as much, Charlie Chaplin moved us more deeply, but no one had more courage than Buster."[103]. [45] The latter was Keaton's last starring feature in his home country. He kept getting it mixed up. Keaton was born into a vaudeville family. It was clear that Mr. Keaton and Mrs. Keaton had different ideas and lifestyles. Garry Moore recalled, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all those falls, and he said, 'I'll show you.' I n the shadow of a massive dune known as Pigeon Hill. "[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. While it's debatable Keaton's family life was the root of his deterioration, one factor that certainly bothered him was his marriage. After returning to the U.S. in 1919, Keaton appeared in several more Arbuckle short films such as A Country Hero (1919). The one-story house, built in 1947, was bought with the $50,000 given to Buster by Paramount for the screen rights to his life story. Buster Keaton's full name is Joseph Frank Keaton and his nickname is Buster Keaton. Keaton, however, did not own any part of the company. On June 16, 2018, the International Buster Keaton Society laid a four-foot plaque in honor of both Keaton and Charles Chaplin on the corner of the shared block (1021 Lillian Ave) where each had made many of their silent comedies in Hollywood. Unfortunately, his one attempt at a strong dramatic role, the lead in the weak biopic The Buster Keaton Story (1957) proved to be . Keaton is rumored to have gotten the name Buster from Harry Houdini himself. The son of . Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. 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