Buster Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in
Piqua, Kansas. Keaton passed away on February 1, 1966 in Los
Angeles, California from lung cancer.
Buster Keaton's birth name is Joseph Frank Keaton
VI, and he goes by the nicknames The Great Stone Face and
Malic.
Keaton was voted the 7th Greatest Director of
all time by Entertainment Weekly, making him the highest rated
comedy director, and he was voted the 35th Greatest Movie
Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
In one scene in the film SHERLOCK JR. (1924)
at a train station, Buster Keaton was hanging off of a tube
connected to a water basin. The water poured out and washed
him on to the track, fracturing his neck. This footage appears
in the released film Keaton was given his nickname at six
months he tumbled down a flight of stairs unharmed he was
given the name "Buster" by Harry Houdini.
In 1918 Buster became hearing-impaired, when
he was in Germany fighting the war.
Buster was the prankster child in The Three
Keatons: Buster, his father Joe Keaton and mother Myra Keaton.
Their act, one of the most dangerous in vaudville.
Keaton saw his first movie studio in March 1917
and on April 23 his debut film, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle's THE
BUTCHER BOY (1917), was released. In 1920 Buster's first full-length
feature, was released THE SAPHEAD.
Buster Keaton was named the 21st Greatest Actor
on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends List by the American Film
Institute Not only did Keaton do all his own stunts, but,
when needed, he acted as a stunt double for other actors in
the films. By the middle of 1921 Buster had his own production
company--Buster Keaton Productions--and was writing, directing
and starring in his own films.
Keaton is pictured on one of ten 29¢ US commemorative
postage stamps celebrating stars of the silent screen, issued
27 April 1994.
In 1927 THE GENERAL, his favorite, was one of
the last films over which he had artistic control.
In 1952 James Mason, who then owned Keaton's
Hollywood mansion, found a secret store of presumably lost
nitrate stock of many of Buster Keaton's early films; film
historian and archivist Raymond Rohauer began a serious collection/preservation
of Buster's work.
Buster Keaton's other notable credits include...
