Global InformationBuster Keaton information
Buster Keaton | |
|---|---|
 Keaton in 1925 | |
| Born | Joseph Frank Keaton October 4, 1895 Piqua, Kansas, U.S. |
| Died | February 1, 1966 (aged 70) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, California |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1899–1966 |
| Works | Full list |
| Spouses | Natalie Talmadge
(m. 1921; div. 1932)Mae Scriven
(m. 1933; div. 1936)Eleanor Keaton (m. 1940) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
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Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966)[1] was an American actor, comedian and film director.[2] He is best known for his silent films during the 1920s, in which he performed physical comedy and inventive stunts. He frequently maintained a stoic, deadpan facial expression that became his trademark and earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".[3][4]
Keaton was a child vaudeville star, performing as part of his family's traveling act. As an adult, he began working with independent producer Joseph M. Schenck and filmmaker Edward F. Cline, with whom he made a series of successful two-reel comedies in the early 1920s, including One Week (1920), The Playhouse (1921), Cops (1922), and The Electric House (1922). He then moved to feature-length films; several of them, such as Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), and The Cameraman (1928), remain highly regarded.[5] The General is perhaps his most acclaimed work; Orson Welles considered it "the greatest comedy ever made...and perhaps the greatest film ever made".[6][7][8][9]
Keaton's career declined after 1928, when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and lost his artistic independence. His first wife divorced him, and he descended into alcoholism. He was fired from MGM in 1933, ending his career as a leading man in feature films. His career recovered somewhat in the 1940s after he married Eleanor Norris, and he worked as an honored comic performer until the end of his life. During this period, he made cameos in Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950), Chaplin's Limelight (1952), Samuel Beckett's Film (1965) and a variety of television programs..He earned an Academy Honorary Award in 1959.
Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruption" as having made him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies".[4] In 1996, Entertainment Weekly recognized Keaton as the seventh-greatest film director, stating that "his films offer belly laughs of mind-boggling physical invention and a spacey determination that nears philosophical grandeur."[10][11] In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked him as the 21st-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema.[12]
- ^ Meade, Marion (1997). Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase. Da Capo. p. 16. ISBN 0-306-80802-1.
- ^ Obituary Variety, February 2, 1966, page 63.
- ^ Barber, Nicholas (January 8, 2014). "Deadpan but alive to the future: Buster Keaton the revolutionary". The Independent. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
- ^ a b Ebert, Roger (November 10, 2002). "The Films of Buster Keaton". Archived from the original on November 3, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
- ^ "Buster Keaton's Acclaimed Films". They Shoot Pictures, Don't They. Archived from the original on March 29, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
- ^ "Sight & Sound Critics' Poll (2002): Top Films of All Time". Sight & Sound via Mubi.com. Archived from the original on January 29, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
- ^ "Votes for The General (1924)". British Film Institute. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
- ^ Andrew, Geoff (January 23, 2014). "The General: the greatest comedy of all time?". Sight & Sound. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
- ^ Orson Welles interview, from the Kino November 10, 2009 Blu-Ray edition of The General
- ^ April 19, EW Staff; EDT, 1996 at 04:00 AM. "The 50 Greatest Directors and Their 100 Best Movies". EW.com. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "The 50 Greatest Directors and Their 100 Best Movies". Entertainment Weekly. April 19, 1996. p. 2. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
- ^ "AFI Recognizes the 50 Greatest American Screen Legends" (Press release). American Film Institute. June 16, 1999. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2013.