(October 4, 1895 - February 1, 1966)
Buster Keaton was born to be a performer. He was born while his parents, who were traveling medicine show performers, were on the road in Piqua, Kansas. 1 According to Keaton, he was given the nickname Buster by family friend Harry Houdini, who was touring with the Keatons at the time, when Keaton accidentally fell down a flight of stairs when he was about six months old, without injury. Houdini said "That was a Buster" and Keaton's father said "That's a good name; we'll call him that." 2
Even though Keaton is better remembered as a star of silent film, he had a distinguished career in the theatre as well. Even as a young boy, he performed with his parents, even acting at the famed Tony Pastor's Theatre in New York by the time he was five years old. 3 Keaton toured across the United States on the vaudeville circuit with his parents until he was seventeen, when his father, Joe, offended an important figure in vaudeville. 4 Keaton then decided to break out and try to work as a solo actor. 5 Two months later Keaton appeared in his first film, The Butcher Boy, with star Fatty Arbuckle, who gave Keaton his first break into film. 6 Keaton would subsequently appear in more than sixty other feature length and short films in his career, as well as racking up directing credits for such classics as The General and Sherlock, Jr.-in which he also starred.
Keaton may have become famous for acting in film, but he continued using the skills he learned in the theatre while he acted on the silver screen, especially improvisation. 7 In an interview, Keaton said that he never even thought of writing a script for the films he starred in and that he always improvised what he would do. 8 Keaton even chose to wear his trademark porkpie hat in the 1965 movie titled Film, which the screenwriter Samuel Beckett had not written in the script. 9 One year later, in 1966, Buster Keaton died of lung cancer at the age of seventy.
1. Rapf and Green, 209.
2. Sweeney, 128.
3. Sweeney, 129.
4. Rapf and Green, 7.
5. Rapf and Green, 210.
6. Rapf and Green, 211.
7. Knopf, 36.
8. Sweeney, 117.
9. Knopf, 146.
Resources
"Buster Keaton Eats Levy Jewish Rye." AllPosters http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Buster-Keaton-Levy-Jewish-Rye-Poster-Posters_i993234_.htm 11 October 2007.
"Buster Keaton" Imdb http://imdb.com/name/nm0000036/ 11 October 2007.
"Keaton, Buster." Brittanica Online Encyclopedia. http://www.britannica.com/eb/art/print?id=56569&articleTypeId=1 11 October 2007.
Knopf, Robert. The Theater and Cinema of Buster Keaton. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1999.
Knopf's book is an excellent critical study of Keaton's film and stage work, examining how film was an extension of his early work in theatre
Rapf, Joanna E., and Gary L. Green. Buster Keaton: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 1995.
This is a thoroughly researched book that contains a large amount of books and articles, as well as a chronology of Keaton's career.
"Silent Films with Musical Accompaniment." Arts at Argonne. http://www.anl.gov/ARTS/0001_film.html 11 October 2007.
Sweeney, Kevin W, ed. Buster Keaton Interviews. Jackson: U of Mississippi P, 2007.
This book is a collection of extensive interviews with Keaton, ranging from when he was a young man until the very end of his life.