biography
| name: |
Keaton, Buster
|
| |
popular name of Joseph Francis Keaton
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1895–1966)
|
| biography:
| Film comic actor, screenwriter, and producer, born in Piqua, Kansas, USA. The son of medicine show performers, he joined their acrobatic comedy act ‘The Three Keatons’ at age three, and moved on to vaudeville when he was six and already an accomplished acrobat. He entered films with The Butcher Boy (1917), and after brief service in World War 1 he made a series of short films, along with his first feature, The Saphead (1920). By 1923 he was exercising complete artistic control over his films and he had established his persona as a deadpan and agile Everyman undaunted by the most extreme situations. Some of his productions were almost surreal, such as Sherlock, Jr (1924), in which he played a film projectionist who became involved in the action on the screen. Other masterworks include The Boat (1921), Our Hospitality (1923), The Navigator (1924), and The General (1927). After he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc (1928) he lost some control over his films, and not only did his marriage to Natalie Talmadge break up, but he was also troubled by alcoholism and mental illness. He hung on at the margins of the Hollywood film world, but it was his appearances at the circus in Paris in 1947 and then in Chaplin's Limelight (1952) that led to the reappreciation of his comic artistry. During the 1950s, many of his silent masterpieces were re-released. His last decade saw him all but overwhelmed by the constant demands on his time and tributes to his genius. |
|
|
