[101], In his essay Film-arte, film-antiartstico, artist Salvador Dal declared the works of Keaton to be prime examples of "anti-artistic" filmmaking, calling them "pure poetry". 'Camera Man' unspools the colorful life of silent film star Buster Keaton: By age 5, Keaton was a star in his family's vaudeville act; he went on to star in and direct silent films, performing jaw . Keaton's periodic television appearances during the 1950s and 1960s helped to revive interest in his silent films. A chance meeting with comedian Rosco "Fatty" Arbuckle led him to break that contract. Behind the camera, Keaton worked with a co-director, Eddie Cline, with whom he collaborated several times. Keaton thought the premise was totally unsuitable, and was uncomfortable with his directors Jules White and Zion Myers, who emphasized blunt slapstick. The images and pieces have presentations and attendees from a #Buster Keaton Convention that is held the first week of October . Joseph Talmadge Keaton was the first son born to comic actor Buster Keaton and his wife, actress Natalie Talmadge; he was also a nephew of silent screen actresses Norma and Constance Talmadge. "She just hated the man to death," said her grandson Jim. Irving was usually on my side, but this time he said, 'Larry likes it. [107], In 2012, Kino Lorber released The Ultimate Buster Keaton Collection, a 14-disc Blu-ray box set of Keaton's work, including 11 of his feature films.[108]. [21] In Keaton's retelling, he was six months old when the incident occurred, and Harry Houdini gave him the nickname (though the family did not get to know Houdini until later). 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. They had two sons: Joseph, called James[81] (June 2, 1922 February 14, 2007),[82] and Robert (February 3, 1924 July 19, 2009).[83]. In 2018 filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich released The Great Buster: A Celebration, a documentary about Keaton's life, career, and legacy. It was not released until 1921. On June 16, 2018, 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 (1021 Lillian Ave) where each had made many of their silent comedies in Hollywood. He appeared in a total of 14 Arbuckle shorts, running into 1920. 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. [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". Three Kids. Vance, Jeffrey. [109] In honor of the event, the City of Los Angeles declared the date "Buster Keaton Day."[110]. Keaton is often described as having been ahead of his time; 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., in which a storm pulls Keaton through one random catastrophe after another. [19] He was briefly institutionalized, according to the Turner Classic Movies documentary So Funny It Hurt. 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 [in The Three Ages], he drives a low-grade automobile over a bump in the road, and the car just crumbles beneath him. Two of Keaton's . [46] Keaton had a free hand in staging the films, within the studio's budgetary limits and using its staff writers. He Was Born On The Road. Lewis was particularly moved by the fact that Eleanor said his eyes looked like Keaton's. On May 31, 1921, Keaton was married time to Natalie Talmadge. [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. Mini Bio (1) Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. The spectacular stunt cost $42,000 to makea huge amount at the time. After Keaton's successful work with Arbuckle, Schenck gave him his own production unit, Buster Keaton Productions. The director was usually Jules White, whose emphasis on slapstick and farce made most of these films resemble White's famous Three Stooges shorts. Aerial stuntmen and daredevils from around 1920s - 1940s. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. They were married in Mexico on January 1, 1932, before his divorce was final; then again legally in 1933. Vance, Jeffrey. [86] On July 1, 1942, the 18-year-old Robert and the 20-year-old Joseph made the name change permanent after their mother won a court petition. Keaton's wife Eleanor also was seen in the series (notably as Juliet to Keaton's Romeo in a little-theater vignette). Buster Keaton as a child with his parents . Buster Keaton was an American actor, comedian, stage artist, writer, and director who has been credited as "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies" by critic and historian Roger Ebert. In 1965, Keaton appeared in a short film written and shot by French existentialist playwright Samuel Beckett entitled simply Film. 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. He re-enacted a famous Keaton stunt for the finale of Jackass Number Two. ), Keaton was so demoralized during the production of 1933's What! Keaton, however, did not own any part of the company. Keaton, Eleanor and Jeffrey Vance. Keaton was such a natural in his first film, The Butcher Boy, he was hired on the spot. Born Joseph Keaton (the sixth in a line of Joseph Keatons) in Piqua, Kansas on October 1, 1895, Buster had the delightful fortune of being born in the right place at the right time. Later, Keaton changed his middle name to "Francis". [80], On May 31, 1921, Keaton married Natalie Talmadge, his leading lady in Our Hospitality, and the sister of actresses Norma Talmadge (married to his business partner Joseph M. Schenck at the time) and Constance Talmadge, at Norma's home in Bayside, Queens. He was every member of the audience as well as every performer. Actor James Mason had bought the Keatons' house and found numerous cans of films, among which was Keaton's long-lost classic The Boat. "[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. Keaton then moved to full-length features. It's just where his parents, two traveling vaudevillians, happened to be performing. Buster Keaton is an American actor, known in the world of cinema as "The Great Stone Face" The popularity of the artist at the peak of his career was comparable to the demand of Charlie Chaplin. Then, the facade of a two-story building toppled forward on top of Keaton. Buster that the judge thought my mother was the bride! It soon. 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. Reaction was strong enough for a local Los Angeles station to offer Keaton his own show, also broadcast live, in 1950. [78], 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. "Medicine Man" was completed but not aired. [2] He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". Keaton grew up on the road, as his parents endlessly . $49.99. 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. By the time he was 21, his father's alcoholism threatened the reputation of the family act,[22] so Keaton and his mother, Myra, left for New York, where Keaton's career quickly moved from vaudeville to film. After returning to the U.S. in 1919, Keaton appeared in several more Arbuckle short films such as A Country Hero (1919). [49], Keaton accepted various character roles in both "A" and "B" features. Buster Keaton With Camera Rare Candid 8x10 Photo. [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. Buster Keaton's in laws: Buster Keaton's father in law was Ralph Norris Buster Keaton's mother in law is Lot Norris Buster Keaton's grandmother in law is Harriet Norris Buster Keaton's sister in law is Jane Norris Buster Keaton's father in law was Avert M Scriven Buster Keaton's mother in law was Lucy Scriven Buster Keaton's brother in law was . In 1965, Keaton starred in the short film The Railrodder for the National Film Board of Canada. Joseph Frank Keaton was born October 4, 1895 to Joe, a comedic acrobat whose main aid was a table, and Myra, one of the . Though this was a partnership, Cline later acknowledged that Keaton did much of the work. United States, 1924. Please try again. On February 1, 1966, Keaton died of lung cancer in Woodland Hills, California. Several factors, other than the loss of creative control, contributed to Keaton's downward spiral in the late 1920s and early 1930s. 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. [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. The next project confirmed Keaton's fears about studio interference. Keaton became the new head of the company, which was owned by Joseph Schenck (who later became Keaton's brother in law). The International Buster Keaton Society was founded on October 4, 1992: Keaton's birthday. [26][27], Keaton spent the summers of 19081916 "at the 'Actor's Colony' in the Bluffton neighborhood of Muskegon, along with other famous vaudevillians. Born into a performing family, Keaton's father Joe owned a traveling vaudeville show with His first directorial effort, The High Sign, was a short that apparently did not work very well. Actor: The General. On February 14, 2007, James Talmadge (born Joseph Talmadge Keaton) passed away peacefully with his wife of 63 years, the love of his life, Barbara Talmadge, by his side. Buster Keaton's full name is Joseph Frank Keaton and his nickname is Buster Keaton. The film is also notable for being his last silent screen performance. 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. He stars as a great fortune's sole heir that falls in love with the daughter of his family's greatest rival, played by . [67] He played the central role in Samuel Beckett's Film (1965), directed by Alan Schneider. In the first Keaton pictures with sound, he and his fellow actors would shoot each scene three times: once in English, once in Spanish, and once in either French or German. She has been credited with salvaging his life and career. $49.99 . From left is Harry Keaton Jr.'s daughter, Lisa Geisler, and Keaton celebration committee chairman Frank Scheide. Keaton had never paid much attention to the business side of the film industry, and he paid a hefty price. The break brought new opportunities for Keaton. Era By BOB THOMAS H list grows thin. 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. His unit remained intact and was not broken up to provide replacements, as happened to some other late-arriving divisions. His great period began in 1923 when he appeared in The Three Ages and a year later he made a full length comedy . Employing picturesque locations, the film's storyline reenacted an actual wartime incident. Most of these 16 films are simple visual comedies, with many of the gags supplied by Keaton himself, often recycling ideas from his family vaudeville act and his earlier films. The son of . "[22], Keaton said he had so much fun that he sometimes began laughing as his father threw him across the stage. Keaton, Eleanor and Jeffrey Vance. Several times I'd have been killed if I hadn't been able to land like a cat. [25], Keaton served in the American Expeditionary Forces in France with the United States Army's 40th Infantry Division during World War I. While the first project he did for MGM ( The Cameraman in 1928) was rather good, as was his last silent film (Spite Marriage in 1929), Keaton's career was in decline. Joseph Frank Keaton IV was born October 4, 1895, in Piqua, Kansas. He appeared on screen simultaneously nine times. He made his last starring feature, El Moderno Barba Azul (1946), in Mexico; the film was a low-budget production, and it may not have been seen in the United States until its release on VHS in the 1980s, under the title Boom in the Moon. Though The General (1926) was successful in retrospect, at the time it was critically derided. 33. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Buster Keaton With Family Rare Candid 8x10 Photo at the best online prices at eBay! Rapf, Joanna E. and Green, Gary L. (1995), This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 07:22. His third wife was a dancer named Eleanor Ruth Norris. Go Outside. His wife divorced him, and he descended into alcoholism. 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. His parents were part of a traveling vaudeville act, and at the age of four he joined them, subsequently becoming known as . The arrival of the sound era in 1929 did not work in his favor because of his voice. Twenty-five years after the divorce, she would not permit his name to be spoken in her house. The sequence furnished one of the most memorable images of his career. Record information. 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. 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. Garry Moore recalled, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all those falls, and he said, 'I'll show you.' Most of these parodies targeted acts with which Keaton had shared the bill. [57] In August 1960, Keaton played mute King Sextimus the Silent in the national touring company of the Broadway musical Once Upon A Mattress. They eventually had two sons, Joseph and Robert. [98] A 1987 documentary, Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, directed by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, won two Emmy Awards.[99]. BUSTER KEATON is an adoptable Dog - Schnauzer searching for a forever family near Atlanta, GA. Use Petfinder to find adoptable pets in your area. According to one biographer, Keaton was made to go to school while performing in New York, but only attended for part of one day. that MGM fired him after the filming was completed, despite the film being a commercial hit. I Image: Wikimedia Commons. Buster Keaton Remembered. Educational primarily distributed short subjects; it is best known for its series of comedies starring Buster Keaton (1934-37) and the earliest screen appearances . The actors would phonetically memorize the foreign-language scripts a few lines at a time and shoot immediately after. Last year, she went to Germany for a Buster Keaton Film Festival. 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. "Introduction." Childhood & Early Life. 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! [102], 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. Keaton made Steamboat Bill Jr., his last film with Buster Keaton Productions, in 1928. Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. The Day the Laughter Stopped. You are the only one who doesn't.' "[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. While the movie had an impressive tornado sequence and an interesting topic (a Mississippi riverboat race) which pleased critics, Steamboat Bill Jr. was not a commercial success. But not MGM. It's true that Keaton was born in Piqua on October 4, 1895but it wasn't his home. By the time he was five, Buster was formally added to the family act and instantly made "The Three Keatons" a success. He also admitted to borrowing the idea of the changing room scene in The Cameraman for his own film Silent Movie. [71] He wears a small version of Hart's campaign hat from the SpanishAmerican War and a six-shooter on each thigh, and during the scene in which he shoots the neighbor and her husband, he reacts with thick glycerin tears, a trademark of Hart's. Harry N. Abrams, 2001, pg. In Our Hospitality (1923), a film about a mountain feud, Keaton shot both a novel train scene and waterfall scene on location. Keaton suffered from several personal crises as well. 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. Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked . Because of Keaton's success, and a notorious scandal involving Arbuckle, Comique Films was renamed Buster Keaton Productions. [32], Aside from Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), Keaton's most enduring feature-length films include Our Hospitality (1923), The Navigator (1924), Sherlock Jr. (1924), Seven Chances (1925), The Cameraman (1928), and The General (1926). 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. Connect to the World Family Tree to find out. 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. In today's dollars that would be the equivalent of more than $600,000making it the most . . They became enthralled with the area, and beginning in 1907, the family returned annually. When a grant that funded the program ended in 2017, the festival moved to Kansas City for a year. Noticing that this caused the audience to laugh less, he adopted his famous deadpan expression when performing. CAMERA MAN Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, . Meanwhile, the eldest scion of "fun's funniest family" traveled on to New York and Ehrich House, where he arrived, according to his datebook, on January 18, 1917. . His film career was briefly interrupted by military service during World War I. (The restored version of that film, released in 2013, contains a scene where Jimmy and Culpeper talk on the telephone. These guys didn't realizethey still don't realizethat the best comedies are simple. In 1920, Arbuckle left Comique Films for Paramount. His talent led the family to New York City and, in 1909, to an appearance in London. The following year, United Artists hired Keaton; he made ten shorts in the next two years. Buster Keaton and Phyllis Haver in The Balloonatic (1923) - publicity still. The program always includes talks by Keaton expertsincluding family memberssocial events and film screenings. . With The Frozen North and The Playhouse. After the company shut its doors in 1937, Keaton was re-signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but only as a gagman. Later, Keaton changed his middle name to "Francis". 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. Within the family it had become a joke. 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". Joe Keaton owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini called the "Mohawk Indian Medicine Company", which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side. This knockabout style of comedy led to accusations of child abuse, and occasionally, arrest. He received the nickname "Buster" while still an infant. 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. With the exception of Seeing Stars, a minor publicity film produced in 1922, Limelight was the only time in which the two would ever appear together on film. 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. By Kelly Braun. Rami Malek and Buster Keaton Samir Hussein/WireImage/John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images. 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. Keaton found his footing with his next film, One Week (1920), which focused on the tribulations of a do-it-yourself house. Keatan balanced his work in front and behind the camera very well. When she saw the little house, she flew into a rage: she thought the house was much too small, with no place for servants. In 1994, caricaturist Al Hirschfeld penned a series of silent film stars for the United States Post Office, including Rudolph Valentino and Keaton. The film version was released as "A Buster Keaton Production" in 1931. In Go West (1925), he is stared down by a herd of cattle. The short also featured the impression of a performing monkey which was likely derived from a co-biller's act (called Peter the Great). 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. Keaton was a seminal comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and director that shaped the industry for years to come, even though the industry stole the creative control that made his early films so valuable. Life with Buster Keaton (1951) was an attempt to recreate the first series on film, allowing the program to be broadcast nationwide. Buster Keaton Remembered. The map below shows the places where the ancestors of the famous person lived. Melissa Talmadge Cox is the granddaughter of Buster Keaton and a long time resident of Cloverdale. Two years later she changed their sons' last name to Talmadge. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine show that included family friend . Cox moved with her family to Cloverdale in the . (Arbuckle was eventually acquitted, with an apology from the jury for the ordeal he underwent.[30]). Buster Keaton and Ernest . This is discussed in the TCM documentary Buster Keaton: So Funny it Hurt, with Keaton complaining about having to shoot lousy films not just once, but three times. 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). 3, Thames Television, 1987, Perez Gilberto 'The Material GhostOn Keaton and Chaplin' 1998. Buster joined his family's act at a very young age. It's a knack. Keaton's art has inspired full academic study. In 1926, comedian, writer, and director Buster Keaton made a film titled The General, which featured a stunt involving an actual train falling from a burning bridge into a river. As usual, Keaton performed all of his own stunts. [87], With the failure of his marriage and the loss of his independence as a filmmaker, Keaton descended into alcoholism. "[31] The more adventurous ideas called for dangerous stunts, performed by Keaton at great physical risk. "Introduction." He would later cite this as the worst business decision of his life in his autobiography. 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. 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 . Natalie would glare and fly into a rage. 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. [69] Other favorite targets were cinematic plots, structures and devices. His parents, Joe and Myra, were both veteran vaudevillian actors, and Keaton himself first began performing at the age of 3 when . He stated that he learned to read and write late, and was taught by his mother. Yallop, David (1976). Keaton is rumored to have gotten the name Buster from Harry Houdini himself. 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. Shortly after his son's birth, Joseph Keaton changed his son's name to Joseph Francis Keaton. The festival began in 1993 and grew to international recognition. This will be the festival's return to Iola. [84] Natalie's extravagance was another factor, spending up to a third of her husband's earnings. Sarah Porter , Joseph Judson, Isabeau de DAMPIERRE , John de FIENNES, Brangre de CASTILLE , Alfonse Ix de CASTILLE. Spouse: Thelma Ferne WOOD (1905-xxxx) 4454 People 0 Records 0 Sources: Buster William Keaton Sr. found in 22 trees View all. 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. Since then, the Something's Gotta . American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer, Born on October 04, 1895 In 1914, he told the Detroit News: "The secret is in landing limp and breaking the fall with a foot or a hand. Keaton's daring was unquestionable; his famous $42,000 train wreck in The General almost $650,000 in today's dollarsis the most expensive shot in silent film history. (Read Lillian Gish's 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.) Marriage: xxxx Ohio, USA: Record information. in Piqua, Kansas, USA , United States, Died on February 01, 1966 He escaped a straitjacket with tricks learned from Harry Houdini. However, Keaton was always able to show the authorities that he had no bruises or broken bones. "[5] In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked him as the 21st-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema.[6]. As a baby, he tumbled all the way down a flight of stairs to the landing below. Buster Keaton With Family Rare Candid 8x10 Photo. I just stood there, and everybody is hassling. So that's how he did itit hurtbut you had to care enough not to care. He directed three short films in 1938. He was drafted by the United States Army in 1918, and served for over a year with the 40th Infantry in France. His life quickly spiraled downward. Sgt. He was forced to make several films as a straight man to Jimmy Durante, including Free and Easy (1930). I n the shadow of a massive dune known as Pigeon Hill. "[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. Keaton was born into a vaudeville family. Their son began appearing on stage with them as early as nine months of age. In the last analysis, no one came near him. Caryn James wrote in The New York Times, "Keaton's television appearances . 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). Adding to his mystique was a background on the vaudeville stage with all its tricks and sleight of hand. I started so young that landing right is second nature with me. Strong enough for a Buster Keaton Samir Hussein/WireImage/John Kobal Foundation/Getty images or bones. 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