Two of Keaton's . Whenever a TV show wanted to simulate silent-movie comedy, Keaton answered the call and guested in such successful series as The Ken Murray Show, You Asked for It, and The Garry Moore Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show. Keaton invented comedy bits where Johnson keeps trying to apologize to a seething Garland, but winds up messing up her hairdo and tearing her dress. Keaton said that he canceled the filmed series himself, because he was unable to create enough fresh material to produce a new show each week. Aerial stuntmen and daredevils from around 1920s - 1940s. They were married in Mexico on January 1, 1932, before his divorce was final; then again legally in 1933. He is the first action hero; to be precise, he is a small, pale-faced American who is startled, tripped, drenched and inspired into becoming a hero. [106], Comedian Richard Lewis stated that Keaton was his prime inspiration, and spoke of having a close friendship with Keaton's widow Eleanor. He was a student at Blackfox Military Academy and a graduate of Santa Monica High School. His father owned a traveling show called the 'Mohawk Indian Medicine Company' along with Harry Houdini. He first appeared on stage in 1899 in Wilmington, Delaware. As usual, Keaton performed all of his own stunts. With The Frozen North and The Playhouse. Go Outside. Keaton parodied the tired formula of the melodramatic transformation from bad guy to good guy, which Hart's characters went through, known as "the good badman". In Go West (1925), he is stared down by a herd of cattle. in Piqua, Kansas, USA , United States, Died on February 01, 1966 [70], One of his most biting parodies is The Frozen North (1922), a satirical take on William S. Hart's Western melodramas, like Hell's Hinges (1916) and The Narrow Trail (1917). Scriven claimed that she didn't know Keaton's real first name until after the marriage. A drastic shift for silent film icon Charlie Chaplin, A Woman of Paris exchanged slapstick comedy for romantic drama and was the first of only . ", "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. Record information. I Image: Wikimedia Commons. He was born into a vaudeville family; his father's name was Joseph Keaton while his mother's was Myra. and it would just be this wonderful, inventive stuff.[66]. Orson Welles interview, from the Kino November 10, 2009 Blu-Ray edition of The General. At my studio they would have the characters I wanted in 10 minutes. Keatan balanced his work in front and behind the camera very well. Their routine had relied on physical prowess and exact timing, and required reliable performers. After her step-grandmother Eleanor died in 1998, Cox became the family's Goodwill Ambassador on behalf of her Grandpa Buster. (1933). A two-day pass to the festival will cost $40, or a one-day pass for $25. He also admitted to borrowing the idea of the changing room scene in The Cameraman for his own film Silent Movie. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. 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). He re-enacted a famous Keaton stunt for the finale of Jackass Number Two. $49.99. Keaton endured this treatment for two more feature films, and then exchanged his independent setup for employment at Hollywood's biggest studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). 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 to be the most violent in vaudeville. They were popular, and contrary to Keaton's later reputation as "The Great Stone Face", he often smiled and even laughed in them. "The Three Keatons," a poor vaudeville family consisting of Joe, his wife Myra and their seven-year-old son Buster, arrive in Fargo, North Dakota on a snowy winter's day in 1904, with dreams of becoming stars. He'd say, "How about this?" Their son began appearing on stage with them as early as nine months of age. Keaton grew up on the road, as his parents endlessly . Keaton's art has inspired full academic study. "She just hated the man to death," said her grandson Jim. Buster Keaton With Camera Rare Candid 8x10 Photo. Buster KEATON from tree Compton-Queen Family Tree_2011-02-01. Buster Keaton With Family Rare Candid 8x10 Photo. Free shipping for many products! Diane Keaton knew she made the best decision of her life when she pursued adoption more than two decades ago. [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 Our Hospitality (1923), a film about a mountain feud, Keaton shot both a novel train scene and waterfall scene on location. Keaton is rumored to have gotten the name Buster from Harry Houdini himself. [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. TCM voice-over, October 2011, "Buster Keaton Month". While his films were technically and creatively interesting, they were either critical or box office failures. [56] In December 1958, Keaton was a guest star in the episode "A Very Merry Christmas" of The Donna Reed Show on ABC. In Seven Chances (1925), he faces a rockslide. Born into a performing family, Keaton's father Joe owned a traveling vaudeville show with After returning to the U.S. in 1919, Keaton appeared in several more Arbuckle short films such as A Country Hero (1919). The act evolved as Keaton learned to take trick falls safely; he was rarely injured or bruised on stage. 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. 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 . This equilibrium came into play with The Playhouse (1921), which he also wrote and directed with Cline. Caryn James wrote in The New York Times, "Keaton's television appearances are warm and enduring. In In the Good Old Summertime, Keaton personally directed the stars Judy Garland and Van Johnson in their first scene together, where they bump into each other on the street. [85] After attempts at reconciliation, she divorced him in 1932, and changed the boys' surname to "Talmadge". The medium revitalized his career. The film is also notable for being his last silent screen performance. In 2023, Keatons life and work was depicted in the graphic novel biography Buster: A Life in Pictures written by Ryan Barnett and illustrated by Matthew Tavares. Everybody else in the studio likes the story. [19] He was briefly institutionalized, according to the Turner Classic Movies documentary So Funny It Hurt. The sequence furnished one of the most memorable images of his career. [47], Keaton's personal life had stabilized with his 1940 marriage to MGM dancer Eleanor Norris, and now he was taking life a little easier, abandoning Columbia for the less strenuous field of feature films. 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. In today's dollars that would be the equivalent of more than $600,000making it the most . Buster had broken up his family's vaudeville act, "The Three Keatons", at the age of 21, when his father's drinking made their rough-and-tumble act too difficult and dangerous. [20]:18, At the age of three, Keaton began performing with his parents in The Three Keatons. Critic Dana Stevens published a cultural history of Keaton's life and work, Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. Keaton, however, did not own any part of the company. When a grant that funded the program ended in 2017, the festival moved to Kansas City for a year. His life quickly spiraled downward. It soon. He received the nickname "Buster" while still an infant. He would return often. 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. Wayne Barker on Piano. Csblnc Flashback Open.mov. Later, Keaton changed his middle name to "Francis". . [38] But, given Schenck's desire to keep things "in the family" and Keaton's having to admit that his independent pictures hadn't done well, Keaton agreed to sign with MGM. Sherlock Jr. will be Keaton's most enduring commentary on the art of cinema. Born on October 4, 1895, in Piqua, Kansas, as Joseph Francis Keaton. He took the camera back to his hotel room where he dismantled and reassembled it by morning. Harold Lloyd made us laugh as much, Charlie Chaplin moved us more deeply, but no one had more courage than Buster."[103]. Keaton found his footing with his next film, One Week (1920), which focused on the tribulations of a do-it-yourself house. [71] Keaton directed the film, along with Edward F. Cline. [8][9][10][11] Welles said Keaton "was beyond all praisea very great artist, and one of the most beautiful men I ever saw on the screen. in Woodland Hills, California, USA, This form allows you to report an error or to submit additional information about this family tree: Buster KEATON (1895), Copyright Wikipdia authors - This article is under licence CC BY-SA 3.0. [54] In a series of silent television commercials for Simon Pure Beer made in 1962 by Jim Mohr in Buffalo, New York, Keaton revisited some of the gags from his silent film days. In one sequence, Keaton even danced with himself. 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. The General was a Civil War romance, that featured many impressive chase scenes and one very expensive special effects shot. The film has a largely negative reputation, with renowned film historian Kevin Brownlow calling it the worst film ever made.[50]. "I went over (Weingarten's) head and appealed to Irving Thalberg to help get me out of the assignment. [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. Filmmaker Mel Brooks has credited Keaton as a major influence, saying: "I owe (Buster) a lot on two levels: One for being such a great teacher for me as a filmmaker myself, and the other just as a human being watching this gifted person doing these amazing things. Were either critical or box office failures January 1, 1932, before his divorce was final ; then legally. Which he also admitted to borrowing the idea of the assignment to the Turner Classic Movies documentary So it. `` Talmadge '' said her grandson Jim `` Keaton 's real first name until after the marriage Keaton even with. 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