The audience roared. Later, Keaton changed his middle name to "Francis". Two of Keaton's . Buster Keaton's most dangerous stunt (Steamboat Bill Jr., 1928) by Shpongo Loid on YouTube In 1927, at the peak of his fame and success, Keaton made what he later called "the worst mistake of my . Also, soundstages were then at a premium, and MGM usually reserved them for dramatic productions. [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. He made me believe in make-believe." "[40], When the studio began making talking films, Keaton was enthused about the new technology and wanted to make his next film, Spite Marriage, with sound. "[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. "It was as long as War and Peace," Keaton recalled. The high point in the Educational series is Grand Slam Opera (1936), featuring Keaton in his own screenplay as an amateur-hour contestant. [98] A 1987 documentary, Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, directed by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, won two Emmy Awards.[99]. "[22], Keaton said he had so much fun that he sometimes began laughing as his father threw him across the stage. Explore genealogy for Buster Keaton born 1895 Piqua, Woodson, Kansas, United States died 1966 Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States including ancestors + children + 8 photos + 1 family memories + questions + more in the free family tree community. Everybody else in the studio likes the story. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Director William Asher recalled: I always loved Buster Keaton. He would bring me bits and routines. Reaction was strong enough for a local Los Angeles station to offer Keaton his own show, also broadcast live, in 1950. He amazed the cast and crew by doing many of his own stunts, although the Thames Television documentary reported that his increasingly ill health did force the use of a stunt double for some scenes. [4] In 1996, Entertainment Weekly recognized Keaton as the seventh-greatest film director, writing that "More than Chaplin, Keaton understood movies: He knew they consisted of a four-sided frame in which resided a malleable reality off which his persona could bounce. He was named "Joseph" to continue a tradition on his father's sidehe was sixth in a line bearing the name Joseph Keatonand "Frank" for his maternal grandfather, who disapproved of the parents' union. Keaton's writers included Clyde Bruckman, Joseph Mitchell, and Jean Havez, but the most ingenious gags were generally conceived by Keaton himself. It's true that Keaton was born in Piqua on October 4, 1895but it wasn't his home. Garry Moore recalled, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all those falls, and he said, 'I'll show you.' Buster Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. [69] Other favorite targets were cinematic plots, structures and devices. In 2018 filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich released The Great Buster: A Celebration, a documentary about Keaton's life, career, and legacy. A suitcase handle was sewn into Keaton's clothing to aid with the constant tossing. His large, deep eyes are the most eloquent feature; with merely a stare, he can convey a wide range of emotions, from longing to mistrust, from puzzlement to sorrow. No Beer? This combination of talents proved felicitous when Keaton inevitably aged out of the family act and started making movies. 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. They became enthralled with the area, and beginning in 1907, the family returned annually. in Piqua, Kansas, USA , United States, Died on February 01, 1966 Fairbanks recommended Keaton to take the role[citation needed] for the remake five years later, since the film was to have a comic slant. He made a series of two-reel comedies, including One Week (1920), The Playhouse (1921), Cops (1922), and The Electric House (1922). The act evolved as Keaton learned to take trick falls safely; he was rarely injured or bruised on stage. (The restored version of that film, released in 2013, contains a scene where Jimmy and Culpeper talk on the telephone. Though this was a partnership, Cline later acknowledged that Keaton did much of the work. They were married in Mexico on January 1, 1932, before his divorce was final; then again legally in 1933. This equilibrium came into play with The Playhouse (1921), which he also wrote and directed with Cline. Last year, she went to Germany for a Buster Keaton Film Festival. As for The General, where do you start? 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. [90] After undergoing aversion therapy, he stopped drinking for five years.[91]. Get 'em for me.' "I took out 40 useless characters and a couple of subplots. In Seven Chances (1925), he faces a rockslide. Educational primarily distributed short subjects; it is best known for its series of comedies starring Buster Keaton (1934-37) and the earliest screen appearances . Comment. Still, he continued to find new situations in which to put his long-suffering face. [60], In 1961, Keaton appeared in promotional films for Maryvale, a housing development in the western part of Phoenix. TCM voice-over, October 2011, "Buster Keaton Month". . A great primer about the history of Buster Keaton b. [13] The General has placed highly on the Sight & Sound poll, and Our Hospitality, Sherlock Jr. and The Navigator also received multiple votes. "[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. Keaton made his first full-length feature film, "Our Hospitality," in 1923. Throughout the story, a simple good-guys-versus-bad-guys schema is applied to the Civil War, with the Confederates being the good guys, and Johnnie's hometown of Marietta depicted as a sort of bland, folksy utopia. In 1925, Dal produced a collage titled The Marriage of Buster Keaton featuring an image of the comedian in a seated pose, staring straight ahead with his trademark boater hat resting in his lap. [59] In 1961, he starred in The Twilight Zone episode "Once Upon a Time", which included both silent and sound sequences. By the time he was five, Buster was formally added to the family act and instantly made "The Three Keatons" a success. By the time he left the act to star in motion pictures with Fatty Arbuckle at age 22, he had already been doing slapstick comedy for over 86% of his life. [39], Welcomed to the studio by Irving Thalberg, with whom he initially had a relationship of mutual admiration,[40] Keaton realized too late that the studio system MGM represented would severely limit his creative input. "[28], In February 1917, he met Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle at the Talmadge Studios in New York City, where Arbuckle was under contract to Joseph M. Schenck. Keaton starred in five films for American International Pictures: Pajama Party (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, and Sergeant Deadhead (all 1965), and War Italian Style (1966, co-starring the Italian comedy team of Franco and Ciccio). (Read Lillian Gish's 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.) He had his sound debut in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, then made eight more films under his Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract. Caryn James wrote in The New York Times, "Keaton's television appearances . After Keaton's successful work with Arbuckle, Schenck gave him his own production unit, Buster Keaton Productions. In 1933, he married his nurse Mae Scriven during an alcoholic binge about which he afterwards claimed to remember nothing. A Buster Keaton Granddad. Csblnc Flashback Open.mov. Employing picturesque locations, the film's storyline reenacted an actual wartime incident. [19] He was briefly institutionalized, according to the Turner Classic Movies documentary So Funny It Hurt. Who was I to say I was right and everyone was wrong? . [7] The General is viewed as his masterpiece: Orson Welles considered it "the greatest comedy ever madeand perhaps the greatest film ever made". Buster Keaton was born in Piqua, Kansas, the small town where his mother, Myra Edith Cutler, happened to go into labor. On February 1, 1966, Keaton died of lung cancer in Woodland Hills, California. In this film, he broke his neck, but did not discover it until ten years later. Wayne Barker on Piano. Keaton was such a natural in his first film, The Butcher Boy, he was hired on the spot. 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? Her sister, Norma Talmadge, was married to Joseph Schenck, owner of Comique Films the company that Keaton managed. Buster Keaton and Ernest . Although forces opposed to child labor tried to keep him off the stage, Keaton soon became an integral part of the show. His wife divorced him, and he descended into alcoholism. Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life. However, Thalberg did allow Keaton to stage the gags, including long stretches of pantomime, and agreed to send a crew to Keaton's own mansion for exterior shots. Maltin, Leonard, The Great Movie Comedians, Bell Publishing, 1978, Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, Chap. Several times I'd have been killed if I hadn't been able to land like a cat. [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. Keaton had never paid much attention to the business side of the film industry, and he paid a hefty price. His great period began in 1923 when he appeared in The Three Ages and a year later he made a full length comedy . After returning to the U.S. in 1919, Keaton appeared in several more Arbuckle short films such as A Country Hero (1919). Geni requires JavaScript! Record information. Keaton had a hard time capturing the promise of Sherlock Jr. over the next few years. Keaton was born into a vaudeville family. Sarah Porter , Joseph Judson, Isabeau de DAMPIERRE , John de FIENNES, Brangre de CASTILLE , Alfonse Ix de CASTILLE. His career declined when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and lost his artistic independence. Keaton made Steamboat Bill Jr., his last film with Buster Keaton Productions, in 1928. Joseph Frank Keaton was born October 4, 1895 to Joe, a comedic acrobat whose main aid was a table, and Myra, one of the . These guys didn't realizethey still don't realizethat the best comedies are simple. I n the shadow of a massive dune known as Pigeon Hill. He also admitted to borrowing the idea of the changing room scene in The Cameraman for his own film Silent Movie. It was based on a successful play, The New Henrietta, which had already been filmed once, under the title The Lamb, with Douglas Fairbanks playing the lead. Advertisement. His mother nicknamed him Jimmy. He first appeared on stage in 1899 in Wilmington, Delaware. [79], Keaton designed and modified his own pork pie hats during his career. Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd advised him against making the move, cautioning that he would lose his independence. The following year, United Artists hired Keaton; he made ten shorts in the next two years. [74][75] Critic and film historian Imogen Sara Smith stated about Keaton's style: "the coolness and subtlety of his style [is] very cinematic in terms of recognising that the camera can pick up very, very small effects".[74]. [85] After attempts at reconciliation, she divorced him in 1932, and changed the boys' surname to "Talmadge". His first was a parody of the famous D.W. Griffith film Intolerance (1916), entitled The Three Ages. He appeared on screen simultaneously nine times. In the last analysis, no one came near him. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In 1965 he appeared on the CBS television special A Salute to Stan Laurel, a tribute to the comedian and friend of Keaton who had died earlier that year. Ex-husband of Natalie Talmadge and Mae Elizabeth Keaton He worked with comedian Ernie Kovacs on a television pilot tentatively titled "Medicine Man," shooting scenes for it on January 12, 1962the day before Kovacs died in a car crash. Born June 2, 1922, first born son of Natalie Talmadge and comedian Buster Keaton, nephew of silent screen actresses Norma and Constance Talmadge, Jim attended Blackfox Military . One of the best of this era was Grand Slam Opera. In one sequence, Keaton even danced with himself. Film critic David Thomson later described Keaton's style of comedy: "Buster plainly is a man inclined towards a belief in nothing but mathematics and absurdity like a number that has always been searching for the right equation. While his films were technically and creatively interesting, they were either critical or box office failures. 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. Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 February 1, 1966)[1] was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Keaton, Eleanor and Jeffrey Vance. Record information. Buster William Keaton Sr. from tree Keaton Family Tree. ", In 1954, Keaton and Eleanor met film programmer Raymond Rohauer, with whom they developed a business partnership to re-release his films. 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! 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. 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. [ 90 ] After undergoing aversion therapy, he continued to find new situations in to! Until ten years later became enthralled with the constant tossing always loved Buster Keaton Productions, in,. Sherlock Jr. over the next two years. [ 91 ] Jr., his last film with Buster b... Room scene in the next two years. [ 91 ] the business side of best! Afterwards claimed to remember nothing right and everyone was wrong her sister, Talmadge! This Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the best of this era was Grand Slam Opera Cline. 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