Joseph Keaton Jr. was born in October of 1895 to a life of performing. His parents were part of a traveling vaudeville show called the Keaton and Houdini Medicine Show Company. It was Harry Houdini who gave Buster his nickname after he fell down a flight of stairs when he was only six months old. From the time he was five years old, he was performing with the family act and continued until his was twenty one.
In 1917, he met a young film actor named Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and the two became fast friends. Arbuckle was on his way out west in search of better backgrounds for his films and he took Keaton with him. Keaton was fascinated by this new medium and studied the camera inside and out. Once in California, the two began working with independent producer Joseph Schenk on a series of short films.
The Great Stone Face of Silent Films
Keaton soon learned that audiences responded more to his deadpan rather than his boisterous expressions. With his diminutive stature and enormous eyes, he could pull off a pitiful gaze and have the audience rooting for him in any situation. Working together with Arbuckle, Keaton rapidly became of master of his craft. Within two years, Schenk offered Keaton his own contract making his own films.
Between 1919 and 1927, he wrote, directed, and starred in over forty films. In1927 he released his greatest film, The General. Fans flocked to see Keaton at his comic best but were ultimately let down with this realistic film set during the Civil War. Although it was disappointing at the time, the film is still regarded as one of the true masterpieces of the silent film era and holds up well today. He followed this film with a few more silent films before facing the inevitable and moving into talkies.
The Talkies and a Renewed Fan Base
As his contract with Joe Schenk expired, Keaton moved over to MGM and expected to continue his fast-paced profession, but instead the studio stifled his production. As the new decade began, he found himself cast in minor films with little or no creative control. Although Keaton had a wonderful voice, the studio heads found better use for him with his writing and creative skills. To complicate matters, he had weathered a nasty divorce from actress Natalie Talmadge and lost all contact with his children. By the mid 1930’s, depressed with his role as a gag writer, Keaton turned to alcohol.
Buster Keaton enjoyed a resurgence in the 1950’s when a vault full of his forgotten films was discovered. The films were restored and released to a new generation with a welcome reaction. Unlike Charlie Chaplin, Keaton had been reclusive for nearly twenty years and audiences were very receptive to his athletic form of comedy. The last decade of his life was filled with popularity and public appearances. In 1966 he made his final performance in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. He died later that year at the age of 70.
Sources:
Make ‘Em Laugh The Funny Business of America
. By Laurence Maslon and Michael Kantor. 2008 Twelve Books Publishing http://www.imdb.com/
