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{{quote|''"He was by his whole style and nature so much the most deeply 'silent' of the silent comedians that even a smile was as deafeningly out of key as a yell...No other comedian could do as much with the dead-pan. He used this great, sad, motionless face to suggest various related things; a one track mind near the track’s end of pure insanity; mulish imperturbability under the wildest of circumstances; how dead a human being can get and still be alive; an awe-inspiring sort of patience and power to endure, proper to granite but uncanny in flesh and blood."''
|'''James Agee''', ''LIFE'' magazine (5 September 1949)}}
{{quote|''"No man can be a genius in slapshoes and a flat hat."''
|'''Buster Keaton'''}}
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton, Jr. (1895-1966), was the original [[The Stoic|Stoic]], also known as [[Frozen Face|The Great Stone Face]]. Possibly the toughest man in show business history; during one film shoot, he ''broke his neck'' and continued with the day's shooting.
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Eventually, when the act's fortunes declined and Joe got too drunk and disorderly to work with safely<ref> Speaking of safety, Keaton repeatedly stated in interviews that he never suffered an injury as a result of being thrown; their act was designed to look improvised and violent, but in reality was quite planned and controlled.</ref>, Buster Keaton struck out on his own. He got into film with his good friend, [[Fatty Arbuckle|Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle]], then one of the top comedy movie stars. Following Fatty's tragic fall from grace, Keaton formed his own production company, starring in and directing some of the most innovative comedy films of his day. From this period, his full-length film ''[[The General]]'' is still considered one of the best silent films ever made. He was also never afraid of new technology: for instance, for a major silent movie star at the dawn of sound films, he ''wanted'' to get into them right away. After his company was dissolved, Keaton signed a contract with [[Metro Goldwyn Mayer|MGM]]. The best of his MGM films are the silents ''[[The Cameraman]]'' and ''[[Spite Marriage]]''. He then began making sound pictures in which he was often teamed with [[Jimmy Durante]].
Unfortunately, stress from repeated clashes with MGM management, the loss of his independence and artistic control, and a divorce from his first wife, Natalie Talmadge (in which she was awarded sole custody of their two sons), caused Keaton's drinking to develop into outright alcoholism. During the 1930s, Keaton slipped from the spotlight. He made two-reel comedies for low-budget outfits like Educational Pictures and Columbia Pictures (the latter has since become a major film production and distribution company), and worked for MGM as a gag man (where he mentored [[I Love Lucy|Lucille Ball]] before she got her break as a television comedienne and created the famous stateroom sequence in the [[Marx Brothers]]' ''[[A Night
Things turned around for Keaton in the 1940s. He met and married his third wife, Eleanor Norris, who helped him get his drinking under control and sometimes worked as his partner in comedy routines. This led to Buster's engagement at France's Cirque Medrano, where he drew enthusiastic audiences. A 1949 article by James Agee in ''LIFE'' magazine (see quote above) renewed interest in Keaton, and his career picked up: he starred in a short-lived TV series; guest-starred on other shows, including ''[[
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=== A partial filmography: ===▼
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{| class="wikitable"
|-
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| [[One Week]] ||''[[Three Ages]]''
|-
| [[Convict 13]] ||''[[
|-
| [[Neighbors]] ||''[[Sherlock, Jr.]]''<ref>At 45 minutes, this film is too long to be classified as a "short," yet falls well short of feature length.</ref>
|-
| [[The Scarecrow]] ||''[[The Navigator]]''
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| [[The High Sign]] ||''[[Battling Butler]]''
|-
| [[The Goat]] ||''[[The General (
|-
| [[The Playhouse]] ||''College''
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| [[The Boat]] ||''[[Steamboat Bill, Jr.]]''
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| [[The Paleface (1922 film)|The Paleface]] || ''[[A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]]'' (his last role)
|-
| [[Cops (
|-
| [[My
|-
| [[The Blacksmith (
|-
| [[The Frozen North]]
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|}
{{creatortropes}}
* [[Adorkable]]: His characters are often sold on their endearing ineptitude. And really, just look at his expression(s).
* [[Affectionate Parody]]
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* [[Evil Is Bigger]]: Keaton, who was five-and-a-half feet tall, often cast much larger actors as his rivals or nemeses.
* [[Fake Rabies]]: Buster Keaton runs frantically from a dog that ate a cream pie in "The Scarecrow."
* [[Frame
* [[It Got Worse]]
* [[The Klutz]]
* [[Large and In Charge]]: See [[Evil Is Bigger]], above.
* [[Le Parkour]]
* [[Literal Ass
* [[Love Triangle]]
* [[Memetic Outfit]]: The Hat. The title-page and chapter-heading illustrations of his "as-told-to" autobiography, ''[http://www.amazon.com/Wonderful-World-Slapstick-Capo-Paperback/dp/0306801787/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282462115&sr=1-1 My Wonderful World of Slapstick,]'' are a drawing of his eyes and The Hat. '''Just''' his eyes and The Hat.
** Played with in ''[[Steamboat Bill, Jr.]]'': Steamboat Bill (Sr.) is looking for his son, Willie (played by Buster), whom he hasn't seen in years, at the train station, with only the information that Willie will be wearing a white carnation. He goes up to a man bent down to fiddle with his luggage, such that only the hat and a white carnation is visible, whom he assumes to be his son, only to find that the man is black. The second time is when he's having Willie try on new hats at the haberdasher's. '''Every other hat''' that Willie tries on is a variation of the similar-looking boater (larger, and typically straw), which his father continues to veto. One hat that gets vetoed harder than the rest by his father is a miniature derby, placed rakishly on Willie's head a la [[Charlie Chaplin]]. When the trademark porkpie hat ''does'' appear, Buster sees it in the mirror and quickly ditches it, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_DiaL8ETDw as seen here].
** In ''[[
* [[Mistaken Identity]]
* [[The Pratfall]]: Keaton worked hard to perfect his technique, and it showed.
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* [[Under Crank]] (used sparingly)
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* [[Abusive Parents]]: He performed on stage with his parents in vaudeville. Part of their act was a slapstick number where the little boy was beaten and thrown around and off the stage. Keaton kept a straight, expressionless face for the [[Rule of Funny]]. These vaudeville acts greatly influenced his stoic persona throughout his career. Despite the obvious effect his upbringing had on his personality, Keaton never said anything negative about his parents.
** Buster actually got his stage name after falling down a flight of stairs at the age of a few months, getting up unharmed. Harry Houdini (yes, ''that'' [[Harry Houdini]]) said it was "quite a buster," meaning a fall.
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* [[Missing Episode]]: Barely averted. The renewed interest in Keaton's silent work in the 1950s happened just in time. If it had occurred a few years later, the nitrate negatives of his earlier films would probably have disintegrated. Instead, they were transcribed.
* [[Rail Enthusiast]]: No surprise if you're familiar with some of the train gags in his films.
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Blue to [[Charlie Chaplin]]. Or his character.
* [[Rube Goldberg Device]]: Creating these was a lifelong hobby of Keaton's.
* [[Rule of Three]]
** His father claimed that one eventful day, when Buster was ''three years old'', he:
** He was married three times.
* [[The Stoic]]: The Keatons realized that they got more of a rise out of the audience when Buster didn't smile or laugh during their act, so they taught Buster his famous deadpan.
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* ''[[A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]]'': Buster Keaton played the role of the blind old man Erronius in the screen version. It was one of his last movie roles. He was dying of cancer. He did his own stunts. He was Awesome.
* Several [[Jackie Chan]] movies imitate Keaton's stunts almost shot for shot.
* Most instances of [[By Wall That Is Holey]] are based on Keaton's famous stunt in ''[[Steamboat Bill, Jr.]]''
** There's a good one in the episode "The One Where They Build a House" of ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'', in which the character involved [[Named After Somebody Famous|is actually named Buster]] (and looks a little bit like Keaton, as well).
** ''[[
* In the [[Romantic Comedy]] ''[[Benny and Joon]],'' the character played by [[Johnny Depp]], Sam, is introduced reading the book ''The Look of [[Buster Keaton]],'' wears an outfit reminiscent of Buster's, and performs Keatonesque bits of silent comedy.
* The eponymous character played by Peter Boyle in ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" is named after a writer/director who worked with [[Buster Keaton]] (and committed suicide with a gun he'd borrowed from Keaton), while Detectives Cline and Havez are references to other Keaton collaborators, writer/director/actor Edward F. Cline and writer Jean C. Havez.
* In [http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/DC_Special_Series_Vol_1_15 DC Specials Series #15,] the story "Death Strikes at Midnight and Three" is about a race between the [[Batman]] and the Gotham mob to find a blind accountant willing to testify against the gangster who employed him. The accountant's hiding place -- a theater showing [[Buster Keaton]] films (he reasoned that no one would look for a blind man at a silent movie).
* Hatabō ("Flag Boy"), a recurring character in [[Himitsu no Akko-chan|Fujio Akatsuka]]'s manga series ''[
* Bleu Finnegan, the main character of ''[[Blue Monday]],'' is a [[Buster Keaton]] fan.
* ''[[Batman:
* In ''[[
* In [[Stephen King]]'s novel ''[[Needful Things]]'', Castle Rock's First Selectman, Danforth Keeton, is nicknamed "Buster". It's also his [[Berserk Button]].
* In [[Ian Fleming]]'s novel ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]'', there's a scene where [[James Bond]] and [[Bond Girl|Tiffany Case]] escape from a gangster's lair via a railroad handcar. At one point she tells him, "That was quite an exit. Like something out of an old Buster Keaton film."
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Roger Ebert Great Movies List]]
[[Category:Films of the 1920s]]▼
[[Category:Cult Actor]]
[[Category:Actors]]
[[Category:Directors]]
[[Category:Buster Keaton]]
[[Category:
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