The Great Stone Face Buster Keaton

April 9, 2022

Buster Keaton, who was born on October 4, 1895, was a comic known for his deadpan expression and his pork pie hats which were often destroyed during his film antics. He created brilliant gags during the height of his career. Early in his career, he created noteworthy parodies, and he developed his signature style, a combination of lucidity and precise acrobatics. According to Roger Ebert, because Keaton “worked without interruption” from 1920 to 1929, he was “the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies.” In 1959, he earned an Honorary Academy Award. He was recognized as the seventh greatest film director by Entertainment Weekly in 1996, and in 1999, the American Film Institute named him the 21st greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. As a testament to his ability, six of his films have been placed in the National Film Registry.

Buster Keaton with his pork pie hat in 1939. Source: (Wikipedia/colorized).

Keaton’s father, Joseph Hallie “Joe” Keaton owned the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company with Harry Houdini; they performed and sold patent medicine. Buster, who was born Joseph Frank Keaton, got his nickname “Buster” after tumbling down the stairs without getting injured. When he was three, he started to perform with his parents. In his first appearance, a comedy sketch, he would provoke his father until his father tossed him against the backdrop or into the orchestra pit. Keaton was not hurt, although this did lead to accusations of child abuse, but he was able to prove to the authorities that he had no evidence of an injury. The experience also led to the development of his deadpan expression because he had to keep himself from laughing while being thrown as he recognized that when he laughed, the audience laughed less.

After Vaudeville, He Met "Fatty" Arbuckle

The 6-year-old Keaton in a publicity photo with his parents. Source: (Wikipedia/colorized).

When Keaton was 21, he and his mother headed to New York, and Buster made the transition from vaudeville to film. In 1917, despite his initial reservations about film, when Keaton met Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle at the Talmadge Studios, Keaton was asked to just jump in. He was a natural and was hired on the spot. Curious about the camera, Keaton then asked to borrow a camera, which he dismantled and reassembled later in his hotel room. Keaton went on to perform in 14 Arbuckle shorts between their first meeting and 1920.

Keaton’s first starring role in a full-length feature came in 1920 in The Saphead. In the early 1920s, he continued to make successful shorts, and he was given his own production unit, Buster Keaton Productions. They made several two-reel comedies at first and then moved to feature-length films.