![]() ![]() Later, Keaton changed his middle name to “Francis”. He was named “Joseph” to continue a tradition on his father’s side (he was sixth in a line bearing the name Joseph Keaton) and “Frank” for his maternal grandfather, who disapproved of his parents’ union. Keaton was born into a vaudeville family in Piqua, Kansas, the small town where his mother, Myra Keaton ( néeCutler), was when she went into labor. ![]() īuster Keaton in The General (Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton, 1926)īuster Keaton in The Cameraman (Edward Sedgwick, Buster Keaton, 1928) Keaton was recognized as the seventh-greatest film director by Entertainment Weekly, and in 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 21st greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. Īmong its strongest admirers was Orson Welles, who stated that The General was cinema’s highest achievement in comedy, and perhaps the greatest film ever made. Many of Keaton’s films from the 1920s, such as Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), and The Cameraman (1928), remain highly regarded, with the second of these three widely viewed as his masterpiece. He recovered in the 1940s, remarried, and revived his career to a degree as an honored comic performer for the rest of his life, earning an Academy Honorary Award.īuster Keaton in Sherlock Jr (Buster Keaton, 1924) ![]() His career declined afterward with a dispiriting loss of his artistic independence when he was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and he descended into alcoholism, ruining his family life. Ĭritic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton’s “extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, he worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor–director in the history of the movies”. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname “The Great Stone Face”. Or are likely to have”-Richard Schickel, front page of The New York Times Book Review), and Spencer Tracy (“monumental definitive”- Kirkus Reviews), gives us the richest, most comprehensive life to date of the legendary actor, stunt artist, screenwriter, director- master.Joseph Frank “ Buster” Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, film director, producer, screenwriter, and stunt performer. Fields (“by far the fullest, fairest and most touching account we have yet had. Now James Curtis, admired biographer of Preston Sturges (“definitive”- Variety), W. Through nineteen short comedies and twelve magnificent features, he distinguished himself with such seminal works as Sherlock Jr., The Navigator, Steamboat Bill, Jr., The Cameraman, and his masterpiece, The General. His iconic look and acrobatic brilliance obscured the fact that behind the camera Keaton was one of our most gifted filmmakers. Fields, the four were each considered a comedy king-but Keaton was, and still is, considered to be the greatest of them all. Keaton’s deadpan stare in a porkpie hat was as recognizable as Charlie Chaplin’s tramp and Harold Lloyd’s straw boater and spectacles, and, with W. Martin Scorsese, influenced by Keaton’s pictures in the making of Raging Bull: “The only person who had the right attitude about boxing in the movies for me,” Scorsese said, “was Buster Keaton.” Mel Brooks: “A lot of my daring came from Keaton.” he brought pure physical comedy to its greatest heights.” Keaton was the only major comedian who kept sentiment almost entirely out of his work and. It was James Agee who christened Buster Keaton “The Great Stone Face.” Keaton’s face, Agee wrote, "ranked almost with Lincoln’s as an early American archetype it was haunting, handsome, almost beautiful, yet it was also irreducibly funny. "It is brilliant-I was totally absorbed, couldn't stop reading it and was very sorry when it ended."-Kevin Brownlow **One of Literary Hub’s Five “Most Critically Acclaimed” Biographies of 2022**įrom acclaimed cultural and film historian James Curtis-a major biography, the first in more than two decades, of the legendary comedian and filmmaker who elevated physical comedy to the highest of arts and whose ingenious films remain as startling, innovative, modern-and irresistible-today as they were when they beguiled audiences almost a century ago. ![]()
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