Buster Keaton Biography
Film Actor, Comedian (1895–1966)
Comedian and director Buster Keaton was popular for his
pioneering silent comedies in the 1920s.
Synopsis
Film comedian and director Buster Keaton was born on October 4, 1895, in Piqua,
Kansas. Born to vaudeville performers, he began performing at age 3. He was introduced
to film when he was 21 and eventually directed and starred in films in the 1920s. The
talkies eventually pushed him out of demand, but he made a comeback in the 1940s and
'50s, when he starred as himself in films like Sunset Boulevard.
Early Years
Actor, director. Considered one of the groundbreaking comedians of the early film era,
Joseph Frank Keaton IV was born October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas. His parents, Joe and
Myra, were both veteran vaudevillian actors and Keaton himself first began performing at
the age of three when he was incorporated into their act.
As legend has it, he earned the name of "Buster" at the age of six months, after falling
down a flight of stairs. Magician Harry Houdini scooped up the child and turning to the
boy's parents quipped, "What a buster."
Keaton quickly grew used to being knocked around a bit. Working with his parents in an
act that prided itself on being as rough as it was funny, Keaton was tossed around by his
father frequently. During these performances Keaton would learn to display the deadpan
look that would later become a hallmark of his comedy career.
"It was the roughest knockout act that was ever in the history of the theatre," he later
said of the performances he did with his parents.
The Filmmaker
Even in Keaton's first film, a 1917 two-reeler called "The Butcher Boy" starring Roscoe
("Fatty") Arbuckle, Keaton was extreme slapstick, with the young actor getting subjected to
range of abuses, from being submerged in molasses to getting bit by a dog.
Still, film called to Keaton and for the next two years he continued to work closely with
Arbuckle for $40 a week. It was an apprenticeship
of sorts and through it, Keaton was given full
access to the movie making process.
In 1920 Keaton struck out on his own as a
filmmaker, first with a series of two-reelers that
included now classics such as The Cameraman,
Steamboat Bill, Jr., and The Passionate Plumber.
In 1923 Keaton started making full features such
as The Three Ages (1923) and Sherlock, Jr.
(1924). The line up also included perhaps his
finest creation, The General (1927), which starred
Keaton as a train engineer in the Civil War. Keaton
was the full force behind the film, writing and
directing it. But while movie proved initially to be a
commercial disappointment it was later hailed as a
pioneering piece of filmmaking.
Woven into his films of course, was Keaton's
trademark comedy, brilliant timing and patented
facial expressions. In his early two-reelers the
laughing making included a mastery of the
slapstick pie.
His work also included Keaton's penchant for doing his own stunts. He became
somewhat of a Hollywood legend not just for his falls but his lack of injuries.
At the height of his career, which was in the mid 1920s, Keaton experienced some of
the same kind of celebrity as another silent film star, Charlie Chaplin. His salary reached
$3,500 a week and he eventually built a $300,000 home in Beverly Hills.
Career Undone
In 1928 Buster Keaton made the move that would later call the mistake of his life. With
the advent of talkies, Keaton signed on with MGM, where he proceeded to make a string
of new sound comedies that fared decently at the box office but lacked the kind of Keaton
punch the filmmaker had come to expect from his work.
The reason for that largely stemmed from the fact that in signing in the deal, Keaton had
forked over part of the filmmaking control to his bosses. His life quickly spiraled downward.
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.
In 1934, with his contract with MGM now
terminated, Keaton filed for bankruptcy. His listed
assets totaled just $12,000. One year later he
divorced his second wife, Mae Scribbens.
Career Rebound
In 1940 Keaton's life started to move upward
again. He got married for a third time, to a 21year-old dancer named Eleanor Morris, who
many credited with bring him stability. The two
would remain together until Keaton's death in
1966.
A return to fame came in the 1950s, a revival that
was sparked by British television, where the
ageing comedian appeared on a string of English
programs. In the States, too, American audiences
became reacquainted with Keaton after he played
himself in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) and then in Chaplin's Limelight (1952).
He also raised his profile through a string of American programs and commercials. In
1956 he was paid $50,000 by Paramount for the film rights to The Keaton Story, which
follows the performer's life from his vaudeville days through his work in Hollywood.
During this time film fans also rediscovered Keaton's work from the silent film era. In
1962, Keaton, who'd retained full rights to his older films, reissued The General and
watched with awe as it drew praise from fans and critics from all over Europe.
In October 1965 the Keaton comeback reached its height after he was invited to the
Venice Film Festival, where he showed his latest project, Film, a 22-minute silent movie
based on a Samuel Becket screenplay. Keaton had made movie the year before in New
York. When the film concluded, Keaton received a five-minute standing ovation from the
audience.
"This is the first time I've been invited to a film festival," a teary-eyed Keaton proclaimed.
"But I hope it won't be the last."
A survivor to the end, the hard working Keaton was, toward the end of his life making
more than $100,000 a year just from doing commercials. In all, Keaton, who was honoured
in 1959 with a special Academy Award, claimed he had more work than he could handle.
Keaton, who suffered from cancer, passed away in his sleep in his home in Hollywood
Hills, California, on February 1, 1966.
http://www.biography.com/people/buster-keaton-9361442#career-rebound