![]() Buster Keaton was born in Piqua, Kansas, the small town where his mother, Myra Keaton (née Myra Edith Cutler), happened to go into labor.Īccording to a frequently-repeated story, which may be apocryphal, Keaton acquired the nickname "Buster" at about eighteen months of age. Joe Keaton owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini called the "Mohawk Indian Medicine Company", which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side. Later, Keaton changed his middle name to "Francis". His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton, a native of Vigo County, Indiana. 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 the parents' union. ![]() Keaton was born Joseph Frank Keaton into a vaudeville family. Three other Keaton films received votes in the magazine's survey: Our Hospitality, Sherlock, Jr., and The Navigator. ![]() Orson Welles stated that Keaton's The General is "the greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made."Ī 2002 worldwide poll by Sight & Sound ranked Keaton's The General as the 15th best film of all time. However, he later recovered in the 1940s, remarried and successfully revived his career to a degree as an honored comic performer for the rest of his life, earning plaudits like an Academy Honorary Award in 1958. Critic 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."Unfortunately, his career declined afterward with a dispiriting loss of his artistic independence when he hired on to MGM which fueled a crippling alcoholism that ruined his family life. He and Swanson rehearsed the fall several times, and did the stunt themselves when it came time to actually shoot the scene for the show.Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (Octo– February 1, 1966) was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. 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".īuster Keaton (his lifelong stage name) was recognized as the seventh-greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Keaton the 21st-greatest male star of all time. Keaton's idea was that the sketch should end with "Antony" and "Cleopatra" sitting on the parapet wall bench, join hands, raising their legs high and falling backwards out of sight over the wall. Denton made sure that all of her suggestions were implemented. She asked for lighting director Jack Denton to come to the stage, which he did, and Swanson began pointing out how she wanted which lights to focus on her and Keaton during the sketch-side light, key light, back light, which color gels to use, etc. On the first day of rehearsal Swanson was on the stage, gazing up at the lighting fixtures overhead. It was written by Joe Bigelow and Jay Burton, but director Grey Lockwood encouraged Swanson and Keaton to contribute any bits, routines and ideas that they wanted to, which they did. The sketch starred Swanson as Cleopatra and Keaton as Marc Antony, staged on a stepped Roman platform terrace surrounded by a 20-inch-high parapet wall and Roman columns, with the pair falling in love. Getting Swanson and Keaton on the show was considered a coup and an opportunity to promote the film. Bringing famous Hollywood film stars onto the show was the producers' main goal. ![]() Keaton was at that time appearing in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). Harbach scheduled the show's host Gene Barry with guest stars Keaton and Gloria Swanson to appear together in a comedy sketch. At the end of the first winter-spring season, series producers Nick Vanoff and William O. Most biographers overlook his appearance on the ABC-TV variety show The Hollywood Palace (1964).
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