Evolved from the knockabout upbringing of the vaudeville stage, Keaton's comedy is a whirlwind of hilarious, technically precise, adroitly executed, and surprising gags, very often set against a backdrop of visually stunning set pieces and locationsall this masked behind his unflinching, stoic veneer. His marriage to actress Natalie Talmadge, with whom he had two sons, fell apart, and he became plagued with issues related to alcoholism and depression. Who are Buster Keaton grandchildren? [71] He wears a small version of Hart's campaign hat from the SpanishAmerican War and a six-shooter on each thigh, and during the scene in which he shoots the neighbor and her husband, he reacts with thick glycerin tears, a trademark of Hart's. Wayne Barker on Piano. . Alone in New York City, Buster was walking down the street when he encountered Lou Anger, an old family friend from their days on the road. [60], In 1961, Keaton appeared in promotional films for Maryvale, a housing development in the western part of Phoenix. Keaton invented comedy bits where Johnson keeps trying to apologize to a seething Garland, but winds up messing up her hairdo and tearing her dress. 3, Thames Television, 1987, Perez Gilberto 'The Material GhostOn Keaton and Chaplin' 1998. He made his last starring feature, El Moderno Barba Azul (1946), in Mexico; the film was a low-budget production, and it may not have been seen in the United States until its release on VHS in the 1980s, under the title Boom in the Moon. The resulting film, The Buster Keaton Story (1957) starring Donald O'Connor, was frankly terrible (Eleanor recalled attending a preview with Buster and how they "felt like crawling out on our hands and knees"), but it did give them the ability to finally . Film critic David Thomson later described Keaton's style of comedy: "Buster plainly is a man inclined towards a belief in nothing but mathematics and absurdity like a number that has always been searching for the right equation. He appeared in a total of 14 Arbuckle shorts, running into 1920. Keaton, Eleanor, and Vance, Jeffrey (2001). A century has passed since Buster Keaton entered the plum decade of his career. Keaton then moved to full-length features. Keaton made Steamboat Bill Jr., his last film with Buster Keaton Productions, in 1928. But we had no luck with Keaton because he thought up his best gags himself and we couldn't steal him! Educational Pictures, also known as Educational Film Exchanges, Inc. or Educational Films Corporation of America, was an American film production and film distribution company founded in 1916 by Earle (E. W.) Hammons (1882-1962). When a grant that funded the program ended in 2017, the festival moved to Kansas City for a year. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. He stated that he learned to read and write late, and was taught by his mother. [16][17][18] According to a frequently repeated story, which may be apocryphal,[19] Keaton acquired the nickname Buster at the age of 18 months. I n the shadow of a massive dune known as Pigeon Hill. His mother, sister and brother (and his family) all lived with him. Joseph Frank Keaton (1895 - 1966) They had two sons: Joseph, called James[81] (June 2, 1922 February 14, 2007),[82] and Robert (February 3, 1924 July 19, 2009).[83]. Early Days in Vaudeville - 1895-1917. [94] He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California.[95]. The first of MGM's Keaton films was The Cameraman (1928), and Keaton sensed trouble immediately when he saw the script. Educational primarily distributed short subjects; it is best known for its series of comedies starring Buster Keaton (1934-37) and the earliest screen appearances . In 1965, Keaton appeared in a short film written and shot by French existentialist playwright Samuel Beckett entitled simply Film. . Still, he continued to find new situations in which to put his long-suffering face. The next project confirmed Keaton's fears about studio interference. Keaton suffered from several personal crises as well. Keaton soon discovered that his brand of comedy, especially his deadpan facial expressions, worked very well on film. Allegedly, Keaton suffered a nasty fall, but displayed a nonchalant reaction to it. Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. Whenever a TV show wanted to simulate silent-movie comedy, Keaton answered the call and guested in such successful series as The Ken Murray Show, You Asked for It, and The Garry Moore Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show. (Thirty years later, both Keaton and Durante had cameo roles in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, albeit not in the same scenes. In Go West (1925), he is stared down by a herd of cattle. Keaton thought the premise was totally unsuitable, and was uncomfortable with his directors Jules White and Zion Myers, who emphasized blunt slapstick. Keaton is often described as having been ahead of his time; Anthony Lane wrote "He was just too good, in too many ways, too soon No action thriller of the last, blood-streaked decade has matched the kinetic violence at the end of Steamboat Bill, Jr., in which a storm pulls Keaton through one random catastrophe after another. Though The General (1926) was successful in retrospect, at the time it was critically derided. [56] In December 1958, Keaton was a guest star in the episode "A Very Merry Christmas" of The Donna Reed Show on ABC. [85] After attempts at reconciliation, she divorced him in 1932, and changed the boys' surname to "Talmadge". Joseph Talmadge Keaton was the first son born to comic actor Buster Keaton and his wife, actress Natalie Talmadge; he was also a nephew of silent screen actresses Norma and Constance Talmadge. [7] The General is viewed as his masterpiece: Orson Welles considered it "the greatest comedy ever madeand perhaps the greatest film ever made". The grandchildren delighted in deliberately mentioning Buster's name. That's how Buster Keaton got his name, and the world got the third brilliant member of its silent-screen Comedic Triumvirate: Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton. 33. Buster Keaton was an American actor, comedian, stage artist, writer, and director who has been credited as "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies" by critic and historian Roger Ebert. He received the nickname "Buster" while still an infant. [13] The General has placed highly on the Sight & Sound poll, and Our Hospitality, Sherlock Jr. and The Navigator also received multiple votes. Joseph Frank Keaton IV was born October 4, 1895, in Piqua, Kansas. While his films were technically and creatively interesting, they were either critical or box office failures. BUSTER KEATON is an adoptable Dog - Schnauzer searching for a forever family near Atlanta, GA. Use Petfinder to find adoptable pets in your area. By the age of 5, Buster is part of his family's vaudeville act, and only 6 months later the Atlanta Constitution names him as "the star of the Keaton aggregation of three". Other significant film appearances included Around the World in 80 Days (1956), It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), and War Italian Style (1966). Keaton's daring was unquestionable; his famous $42,000 train wreck in The General almost $650,000 in today's dollarsis the most expensive shot in silent film history. once in English, once in Spanish, and once in either French or German, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills), "Deadpan but alive to the future: Buster Keaton the revolutionary", "The 50 Greatest Directors and Their 100 Best Movies", "AFI Recognizes the 50 Greatest American Screen Legends", "The General: the greatest comedy of all time? They were married in Mexico on January 1, 1932, before his divorce was final; then again legally in 1933. He was a motion picture comic actor, writer, producer, and director of the 1910s thru 1960s. Joe Keaton disapproved of films, and Keaton also had reservations about the medium. The International Buster Keaton Society was founded on October 4, 1992: Keaton's birthday. In 1965, Keaton starred in the short film The Railrodder for the National Film Board of Canada. [54] In a series of silent television commercials for Simon Pure Beer made in 1962 by Jim Mohr in Buffalo, New York, Keaton revisited some of the gags from his silent film days. Most of these parodies targeted acts with which Keaton had shared the bill. He made me believe in make-believe." She filed for divorce in 1935 after finding him with Leah Clampitt Sewell, the wife of millionaire Barton Sewell,[88] in a hotel in Santa Barbara. Diane Keaton knew she made the best decision of her life when she pursued adoption more than two decades ago. Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. [55], On April 3, 1957, Keaton was surprised by Ralph Edwards for the weekly NBC program This Is Your Life. He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. Born into a performing family, Keaton's father Joe owned a traveling vaudeville show with Keaton was one of silent film's most famous comedians; his popularity waned in the 1930s, but he made a nostalgic flurry of films before his 1966 death. [69] Three Ages (1923), his first feature-length film, is a parody of D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), from which it replicates the three inter-cut shorts structure. Garry Moore recalled, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all those falls, and he said, 'I'll show you.' Joseph Frank Keaton was born October 4, 1895 to Joe, a comedic acrobat whose main aid was a table, and Myra, one of the . To the world, he was the famous silent film star Buster Keaton, but to Melissa Talmadge Cox of Cloverdale, he was simply Grandpa Buster. [53] Keaton also found steady work as an actor in TV commercials for Colgate, Alka-Seltzer, U.S. Steel, 7-Up, RCA Victor, Phillips 66, Milky Way, Ford Motors, Minute Rub, and Budweiser, among others. (Read Lillian Gish's 1929 Britannica essay on silent film.) Keaton's loss of independence as a filmmaker coincided with the coming of sound films (although he was interested in making the transition) and mounting personal problems, and his career in the early sound era was hurt as a result. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. On May 29, 1940, Keaton married Eleanor Norris, who was 23 years his junior. It was too dramatic for some filmgoers expecting a lightweight comedy, and reviewers questioned Keaton's judgment in making a comedic film about the Civil War, even while noting it had a "few laughs. You had to requisition a toothpick in triplicate. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 966 Hollywood Loses Tavo Hedda Hopper, Lamar Green 217. It soon. The map below shows the places where the ancestors of the famous person lived. Resuming his daily job as an MGM gag writer, he provided material for Red Skelton[48] and gave help and advice to Lucille Ball. [109] In honor of the event, the City of Los Angeles declared the date "Buster Keaton Day."[110]. By the time he left the act to star in motion pictures with Fatty Arbuckle at age 22, he had already been doing slapstick comedy for over 86% of his life. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine show that included family friend . For most grandfathers, this means doing puzzles on the living room floor or pushing their grandchild on a swing. Battling Butler (1926), a boxing movie, was a commercial success. "Introduction." CAMERA MAN Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, . He recovered in the 1940s, remarried, and revived his career as an honored comic performer for the rest of his life, earning an Academy Honorary Award in 1959. The spectacular stunt cost $42,000 to makea huge amount at the time. Over time, things grew unpleasant between Buster and his dad . He ran to meet misfortune and never failed to make connections. . Several factors, other than the loss of creative control, contributed to Keaton's downward spiral in the late 1920s and early 1930s. "She just hated the man to death," said her grandson Jim. It was not released until 1921. "[34], It was an expensive misfire (the climactic scene of a locomotive plummeting through a burning bridge was the most expensive single shot in silent-film history),[35][36] and Keaton was never entrusted with total control over his films again. He would later cite this as the worst business decision of his life in his autobiography. 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