Buster keaton actor biography

InKeaton appeared in promotional films for Maryvalea housing development in the western part of Phoenix. Much of the film was shot on location on the Sacramento Riverwhich doubled for the Mississippi River setting of Twain's book. Keaton filmed his scenes as arranged, but the film endured a host of production problems and was never released. He assists Spencer Tracy 's character, Captain C.

Culpepper, by readying Culpepper's ultimately unused boat for his abortive escape.

Buster keaton actor biography: Buster Keaton (born October 4,

The restored version of that film, released incontains a scene where Jimmy and Culpepper talk on the telephone. Lost after the comedy epic's " roadshow " exhibition, the audio of that scene was discovered and combined with still pictures to recreate the scene. InKeaton was featured in his first theatrical film series since American International Pictures hired him to furnish comedy scenes for its successful Beach Party pictures.

Director William Asher recalled:. I always loved Buster Keaton He would bring me bits and routines. He'd say, "How about this? Keaton's new popularity in movies prompted Columbia Pictures to re-release some of his vintage two-reel comedies to theaters. He traveled from one end of Canada to the other on a motorized handcarwearing his traditional pork pie hat and performing gags similar to those in films that he made 50 years before.

A black-and-white companion film, Buster Keaton Rides Againdocumented Keaton at work during The Railrodderstaging, improving, and rejecting gags on location. Inhe appeared on the CBS television special A Salute to Stan Laurela tribute to the comedian and friend of Keaton who had died earlier that year. He also played the central role in Samuel Beckett 's experimental project Filmdirected by Alan Schneider.

The completed film was released in as War Italian Style ; his performance as a German general is almost entirely in pantomime. Keaton amazed the cast and crew by doing many of his own stunts. His increasingly ill health compelled director Lester to save Keaton's strength for the major stunts and use a double for distant, routine shots of Keaton running.

Keaton's final appearance on film was in The Scribea safety film produced in Toronto by the Construction Safety Associations of Ontario: he died shortly after completing it. Keaton started experimenting with parody during his vaudeville years, where most frequently his performances involved impressions and burlesques of other performers' acts.

Most of these parodies targeted acts with which Keaton had shared the bill. 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".

Buster keaton actor biography: Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4,

However, Hart himself was not amused by Keaton's antics, particularly the crying scene, and did not speak to Keaton for two years after he had seen the film. In The Playhousehe parodied his contemporary Thomas H. InceHart's producer, who indulged in over-crediting himself in his film productions. The short also featured the impression of a performing monkey which was likely derived from a co-biller's act called Peter the Great.

Griffith 's Intolerancefrom which it replicates the three inter-cut shorts structure. By this time, Keaton had further developed his distinct signature style that consisted of lucidity and precision along with acrobatics of ballistic precision and kineticism.

Buster keaton actor biography: Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was

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 Look at his face—as beautiful but as inhuman as a butterfly—and you see that utter failure to identify sentiment. 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.

The traditional Buster stance requires that he remain upstanding, full of backbone, looking ahead It is the angle that you remember: the figure perfectly straight but tilted forward, like the Spirit of Ecstasy on the hood of a Rolls-Royce Rerun it on video, and you can see Buster riding the collapse like a surfer, hanging onto the steering wheel, coming beautifully to rest as the wave of wreckage breaks.

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. 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 locations—all this masked behind his unflinching, stoic veneer.

Keaton designed and modified his own pork pie hats during his career. Inhe told an interviewer that in making "this particular pork pie", he "started with a good Stetson and cut it down", stiffening the brim with sugar water. Keaton said he was lucky if he used only six hats in making a film. He estimated that he and his wife Eleanor made thousands of hats during his career.

After Robert's birth, the marriage began to suffer. It was clear that Mr. Keaton and Mrs. Keaton had different ideas and lifestyles. Keaton had designed and built a modest but comfortable, cottage-like home as a surprise wedding gift for his bride. When she saw the little house, she flew into a rage: she thought the house was much too small, with no place for servants.

Neighbors included Tom Mix and Rudolph Valentino. Among famous subsequent residents were renter Marlene Dietrich and, later, Cary Grant with his wife, heiress Barbara Hutton. James Mason and his wife Pamela purchased the home in After attempts at reconciliation, Natalie divorced Buster inand changed the boys' surname to "Talmadge".

With the failure of his marriage and the loss of his independence as a filmmaker, Keaton descended into alcoholism. He escaped a straitjacket with tricks learned from Harry Houdini. Inhe married his nurse Mae Scriven during an alcoholic binge, about which he later claimed to remember nothing. Scriven claimed that she did not know Keaton's real first name until after the marriage.

She filed for divorce in after finding him with Leah Clampitt Sewell, the wife of millionaire Barton Sewell[ 97 ] in a hotel in Santa Barbara. They divorced in [ 98 ] at great financial cost to Keaton. On May 29,Keaton married Eleanor Norriswho was 23 years his junior. She has been credited with salvaging his life and career. Between andthe couple appeared regularly in the Cirque Medrano in Paris as a double act.

She came to know his routines so well that she often participated in them in television revivals. Keaton thought that he was recovering from a severe case of bronchitis. Confined to a hospital during his buster keaton actor biography days, Keaton was restless and paced the room endlessly, desiring to return home. 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.

Six of his films have been included in the National Film Registrymaking him one of the most honored filmmakers on that list: One WeekCopsSherlock Jr. Dedicated to bringing greater public attention to Keaton's life and work, the membership includes many individuals from the television and film industry: actors, producers, authors, artists, graphic novelists, musicians, and designers, as well as those who simply admire the magic of Buster Keaton.

The Society's nickname, the "Damfinos", draws its name from a boat in Keaton's comedy, The Boat. Film critic Roger Ebert stated, "The greatest of the silent clowns is Buster Keaton, not only because of what he did, but because of how he did it. Harold Lloyd made us laugh as much, Charlie Chaplin moved us more deeply, but no one had more courage than Buster.

Welles said Keaton was "beyond all praise He was also a great director. In the last analysis, no one came near him. 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.

He made me believe in make-believe. InEntertainment Weekly recognized Keaton as the seventh-greatest film director, writing that "More than ChaplinKeaton understood movies: He knew they consisted of a four-sided frame in which resided a malleable reality off which his persona could bounce. A vaudeville child star, Keaton grew up to be a tinkerer, an athlete, a visual mathematician; his films offer belly laughs of mind-boggling physical invention and a spacey determination that nears philosophical grandeur.

Actor and buster keaton actor biography performer Johnny Knoxville cites Keaton as an inspiration when coming up with ideas for Jackass projects. He re-enacted a famous Keaton stunt for the finale of Jackass Number Two. Lewis was particularly moved by the fact that Eleanor said his eyes looked like Keaton's. On June 16,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 Lillian Ave where each had made many of their silent comedies in Hollywood.

Intwo works on Keaton appeared within a month of each other. Anthony Lane wrote: "He was just too good, in too many ways, too soon No action thriller of the last, blood-streaked decade has matched the kinetic violence at the end of Steamboat Bill, Jr. As for The Generalwhere do you start? It's a film about a train, but it's also a spirited romance, peppered with bickering and longing, and its evocation of the Civil War period has never been surpassed 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.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. American actor, comedian and filmmaker — Piqua, KansasU. Los Angeles, CaliforniaU. Natalie Talmadge. Mae Scriven. Eleanor Norris. Joe Keaton father Myra Cutler mother.

Career [ edit ]. Early life in vaudeville [ edit ]. Film [ edit ]. Main article: Buster Keaton filmography. Silent film era [ edit ]. Theater poster for Convict 13 Keaton left with Roscoe Arbuckle top and Al St. John in a still from Out West New studio, new problems [ edit ]. European productions [ edit ]. Educational Pictures [ edit ].

Keaton also appeared on Ed Wynn's variety show. At the age of 55, he successfully recreated one of the stunts of his youth, in which he propped one foot onto a table, then swung the second foot up next to it, and held the awkward position in midair for a moment before crashing to the stage floor. He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. So that's how he did it - it hurt - but you had to care enough not to care.

When director Norman Taurog balked, expressing concerns for Keaton's health, Keaton said, "I won't hurt myself, Norm, I've done it for years! Keaton's silent films saw a revival in the s and s. Keaton also found steady work as an actor in TV commercials, including a popular series of silent ads for Simon Pure Beer in which he revisited some of his favorite sight gags from his silent film days.

Wearing his traditional porkpie hat, he traveled from one end of Canada to the other on a motorized handcar, performing gags similar to those in films he made 50 years before. The film is also notable as Keaton's last silent screen performance. The Railrodder was made in tandem with a behind-the-scenes documentary about Keaton's life and times, called Buster Keaton Rides Again —also made for the National Film Board.

Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and, to a lesser extent, Harold Lloyd are remembered as the greatest comic innovators of the silent film era. Keaton's films have been more difficult to find and view than those of Chaplin. Many of them did not make much money at the box office, and many were lost for years until they were found again and restored in the s.

In the one scene in which they ever appeared together in any film, in Chaplin's LimelightKeaton succeeded in stealing the scene from Chaplin. Although both were giants of silent film, there is a distinct difference in the tone and content of the films of Keaton and Chaplin. Chaplin's films dealt primarily with human relations: The Tramp as a character found and created comedic situations as an interactor with and a foil for the busters keaton actor biography of other humans.

Chaplin's comedy was primarily a comedy of human interactions, and the films are frequently sentimental. Chaplin was the Tramp, an easily understood human clown. Keaton was a stoic dealing with an absurd universe. Keaton's comedy was that of a human, mostly alone, dealing with an absurd universe made up of recalcitrant and even perverse nature and machines.

He produced an existential comedy of a human being dealing, in his stoic and stone-faced way, with the vagaries of wind, rain, water, and human artifacts—machines, boats, trains—that usually seem to conspire against him, but that he ultimately survives and overcomes, sometimes through Rube Goldberg-like constructions. Keaton's was a strongly physical-based comedy in which he did his own stunts.

In a famous shot from Steamboat Bill Jr. The entire wall of the building is blown down and collapses over him but Keaton is unscathed because he is standing in the exact spot where the single window of that wall of the building goes around him. Had Keaton missed that spot by just an inch or so, he would likely have been crushed by the falling wall, so exact planning as well as total faith in and commitment to the calculations of where he needed to stand to get the shot were necessary.

Keaton's career as a performer and director is widely regarded to be among the most innovative and important work in the history of cinema. He was recognized as the seventh greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly [8] and ranked twentieth in MovieMaker Magazine' s ranking of the 25 Most Influential Directors of All Time. Keaton has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame : Hollywood Boulevard for motion pictures ; and Hollywood Boulevard for television.

Inhis image appeared on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. A bio-pic The Buster Keaton Storystarring Donald O'Connor as Keaton, was based on his life but contained many errors of fact and merged his three wives into one character. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards.

This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. On February 1,Keaton died in his sleep from complications of lung cancer at his home in Woodland Hills, California.

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Jamie Foxx. Adam Scott. Julia Garner. Kenan Thompson. Demi Moore. Anna Sawai. Jodie Foster. Jeremy Allen White. Zoe Saldana. Blake Lively. Angelina Jolie. The Filmmaker Even in his first film, a two-reeler called The Butcher Boy starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Keaton was extreme slapstick, with the young actor being subjected to a range of abuses, from being submerged in molasses to getting bit by a dog.

His first self-conceived and directed film, "The Three Ages"was an eccentric parody of D. Griffith's "Intolerance. In classic films such as "Sherlock Jr. The pinnacle of Keaton's mastery was his poignant and impressive interaction with a locomotive in the film "The General" In contrast to Charlie Chaplin's theatrical and often sentimental style of acting, Keaton performed his acrobatic stunts with unwavering composure, earning him the reputation of having a "stone face.