Buster Keaton
“The Great Stone Face who turned silent peril into pure, gravity-defying poetry.”
After learning film from Fatty Arbuckle, Buster Keaton began directing and starring in his own shorts around 1920, then features that married breathtaking stunts to a deadpan stare. By the mid-1920s 'The Great Stone Face' was one of silent comedy's biggest stars. He became a star in the early 1920s.
Born in a Trunk
Buster Keaton grew up in his parents' rough-and-tumble vaudeville act, mastering pratfalls as a small child. That physical training and fearlessness became the foundation of his film comedy.
The Great Stone Face
Through the 1920s he wrote, directed and starred in features that paired astonishing real stunts with an unflappable deadpan. Films like 'The General' and 'Sherlock Jr.' show a meticulous visual imagination decades ahead of its time.
Fall and Rediscovery
A move to MGM cost him creative control, and the 1930s brought professional decline and personal hardship. Rediscovered in the 1950s, he is now widely regarded as the greatest of the silent comedians.
Career Timeline
- 1895Born Joseph Frank Keaton in Piqua, Kansas
- 1899Joins family's vaudeville act as a toddler
- 1917Film debut with Fatty Arbuckle in 'The Butcher Boy'
- 1920Begins making his own starring shorts
- 1924Releases the inventive 'Sherlock Jr.'
- 1926Directs and stars in 'The General'
- 1928Performs famous house-front stunt in 'Steamboat Bill, Jr.'
- 1928Signs with MGM, losing creative control
- 1933Dropped by MGM amid personal struggles
- 1949Career revival profiled in Life magazine
- 1959Receives an honorary Academy Award
- 1966Dies of lung cancer in Woodland Hills, California
Biggest Hits
- He took his nickname 'Buster' as a baby; family friend Harry Houdini reportedly coined it after he tumbled down stairs unhurt.
- He broke his neck filming a water-tower stunt in 'Sherlock Jr.' but did not learn of the injury until years later.
The Moment You Remember
A house front topples toward him, and Keaton stands motionless as the wall crashes down, an open upper window passing cleanly over his body. He never flinches, never smiles. The stunt, real and unfaked, remains one of silent cinema's most astonishing held breaths.
Portrait: Bain News Service · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons