He re-enacted a famous Keaton stunt for the finale of Jackass Number Two. CAMERA MAN Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, . "[5] In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked him as the 21st-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema.[6]. The first ten minutes of The General tell us everything we need to know about its embrace of the Confederacy and its white supremacy. "Introduction." On February 1, 1966, Keaton died of lung cancer in Woodland Hills, California. To the world, he was the famous silent film star Buster Keaton, but to Melissa Talmadge Cox of Cloverdale, he was simply Grandpa Buster. American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer, Born on October 04, 1895 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. Genealogy for Joseph Frank Keaton, VI (1895 - 1966) family tree on Geni, with over 240 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. Over time, things grew unpleasant between Buster and his dad . The studio replaced Edwards, who had substance-abuse problems, with nightclub comedian Jimmy Durante. New York: St. Martin's Press. In 1920, Keaton made his first full-length feature, The Saphead, playing the straight man, Bertie "The Lamb" Van Alstyne. Noticing that this caused the audience to laugh less, he adopted his famous deadpan expression when performing. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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). Buster joined his family's act at a very young age. 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. Best known for his silent film work, Keaton was ranked as the 21st-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute in 1999. Fairbanks recommended Keaton to take the role[citation needed] for the remake five years later, since the film was to have a comic slant. In 1934, with his MGM contract now terminated, Keaton filed for bankruptcy. The Colony celebrate Joe Keaton's birthday with a parade through Bluffton. . Yallop, David (1976). In 1949, comedian Ed Wynn invited Keaton to appear on his CBS Television comedy-variety show, The Ed Wynn Show, which was televised live on the West Coast. Though it would come to be regarded as Keaton's greatest achievement, the film received mixed reviews at the time. He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. [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. "[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. [42] MGM refused, because the film was more valuable in silent form; it could be shown around the world in theaters that had not converted to sound. 4.47. Jimmy assists Spencer Tracy's character, Captain C. G. Culpepper, by readying Culpepper's ultimately-unused boat for his abortive escape. Keaton was the world's whipping boy and made the world love him for it. Born on October 4, 1895, in Piqua, Kansas, as Joseph Francis Keaton. Wrong username or password. His mother, sister and brother (and his family) all lived with him. His final appearance on film was in The Scribe, a 1966 safety film produced in Toronto by the Construction Safety Associations of Ontario: he died shortly after completing it. After this failure, Schenck sold his contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), where his son, Nicholas, just happened to be in charge. Since then, the Something's Gotta . [60], In 1961, Keaton appeared in promotional films for Maryvale, a housing development in the western part of Phoenix. Connect to the World Family Tree to find out. He would later cite this as the worst business decision of his life in his autobiography. Moviegoers and exhibitors welcomed Keaton's Columbia comedies. Keaton then moved to full-length features. Also, soundstages were then at a premium, and MGM usually reserved them for dramatic productions. Atria: 432 . in Piqua, Kansas, USA , United States, Died on February 01, 1966 Keaton was one of silent film's most famous comedians; his popularity waned in the 1930s, but he made a nostalgic flurry of films before his 1966 death. In Our Hospitality (1923), a film about a mountain feud, Keaton shot both a novel train scene and waterfall scene on location. [19] Talmadge decided not to have any more children, banishing Keaton to a separate bedroom; he dated actresses Dorothy Sebastian and Kathleen Key during this period. . He lost creative control of his pictures, and, like his father before him, developed a nasty drinking problem. Like Arbuckle before him, Keaton began directing films that he appeared in. [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". Keaton kept trying to persuade his bosses to let him do things his way. Though this was a partnership, Cline later acknowledged that Keaton did much of the work. "[34], It was an expensive misfire (the climactic scene of a locomotive plummeting through a burning bridge was the most expensive single shot in silent-film history),[35][36] and Keaton was never entrusted with total control over his films again. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. $49.99. 29. His impassive features gave him the nickname "The Great Stone Face.". Prikryl, Jana (July 9, 2011), "The Genius of Buster". Three Kids. By the time he was five, Buster was formally added to the family act and instantly made "The Three Keatons" a success. Keaton said he was lucky if he used only six hats in making a film. He directed three short films in 1938. Keaton had two shows of his own, including The Buster Keaton Comedy Show (1949) and The Buster Keaton Show from 1950 until 1951. Their son began appearing on stage with them as early as nine months of age. [37], Keaton's last three features had been produced and released independently, under Keaton's control, and fell short of financial expectations at the box office. 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. Keaton made Steamboat Bill Jr., his last film with Buster Keaton Productions, in 1928. Shortly after his son's birth, Joseph Keaton changed his son's name to Joseph Francis Keaton. Keaton was presented with a 1959 Academy Honorary Award at the 32nd Academy Awards, held in April 1960. 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. . Anyone who thinks that the movie-within-a-movie is a recent conceit, the province of The Purple Rose of Cairo and Last Action Hero, should check out Sherlock Jr., a film in which Keaton dreams himself into another film: he strolls up the aisle of the theatre, hops into the action, and fights to keep up with the breakneck changes of scene. After returning to the U.S. in 1919, Keaton appeared in several more Arbuckle short films such as A Country Hero (1919). This combination of talents proved felicitous when Keaton inevitably aged out of the family act and started making movies. According to one biographer, Keaton was made to go to school while performing in New York, but only attended for part of one day. [26][27], Keaton spent the summers of 19081916 "at the 'Actor's Colony' in the Bluffton neighborhood of Muskegon, along with other famous vaudevillians. The following year, United Artists hired Keaton; he made ten shorts in the next two years. login . Keaton was born into a vaudeville family. Keaton supported himself throughout the 1940s by appearing on stage in Europe and the United States, and writing gags for MGM and 20th Century-Fox. "[20]:17 After this, Keaton's father began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster. Keaton retold the anecdote over the years, including in a 1964 interview with the CBC's Telescope. His unit remained intact and was not broken up to provide replacements, as happened to some other late-arriving divisions. In this film, he broke his neck, but did not discover it until ten years later. Keaton became the new head of the company, which was owned by Joseph Schenck (who later became Keaton's brother in law). Image via United Artists. "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. Though The General (1926) was successful in retrospect, at the time it was critically derided. Keaton had little to say about the details of the MGM contract; he would no longer have any financial responsibility for his films, and even his salary had been pre-negotiated, without his own input. [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. Their routine had relied on physical prowess and exact timing, and required reliable performers. 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 . TCM voice-over, October 2011, "Buster Keaton Month". The child labor laws of which the Keaton family continually ran afoul; the very notion of institutionalized if widely varying child welfare practices; the state of the film industry in the first . Her sister, Norma Talmadge, was married to Joseph Schenck, owner of Comique Films the company that Keaton managed. The International Buster Keaton Society was founded on October 4, 1992: Keaton's birthday. Knopf: 832 pages, $40. "[14], Keaton was born into a vaudeville family in Piqua, Kansas,[15] the small town where his mother, Myra Keaton (ne Cutler), was when she went into labor. She filed for divorce in 1935 after finding him with Leah Clampitt Sewell, the wife of millionaire Barton Sewell,[88] in a hotel in Santa Barbara. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. One of the best of this era was Grand Slam Opera. He continued to appear on television until his death. Buster Keaton Remembered. Within the family it had become a joke. His third wife was a dancer named Eleanor Ruth Norris. [48] The screenplay, by Sidney Sheldon, who also directed the film, was loosely based on Keaton's life but contained many factual errors and merged his three wives into one character. He was every member of the audience as well as every performer. Joseph Frank Keatonthe silent film star belovedly known as Busterwas born the same year, 1895, that the Lumire brothers unveiled the first moving pictures to an audience of stunned Parisians. Orson Welles interview, from the Kino November 10, 2009 Blu-Ray edition of The General. His wife divorced him, and he descended into alcoholism. Upon Keaton's return to Hollywood in 1934, he made a screen comeback in two-reel comedies for Educational Pictures. He had his sound debut in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, then made eight more films under his Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract. [94] He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California.[95]. [92] The marriage lasted until his death. "[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. He was 70 years old. Everybody else in the studio likes the story. Keaton managed to get his drinking under control by 1934, after a short time in Europe where he appeared in several films including Le roi des Champs-Elyses (1934). He had a cameo as Jimmy, appearing near the end of the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). [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. Brother of Harry Stanley Keaton and Louise J. Keaton. The seemingly indestructible man married actress Natalie Talmadge in 1921, though wedded bliss did not last long. He was, in fact, the star and a skilled acrobat. Buster Keaton. 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? [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. I just stood there, and everybody is hassling. In his presentation for The General, filmmaker Orson Welles hailed Buster Keaton as "the greatest of all the clowns in the history of the cinema a supreme artist, and I think one of the most beautiful people who was ever photographed". 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