Joseph Frank " Buster " Keaton (October 4, 1895 - February 1, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, film director, producer, screenwriter , and a stunter. He is famous for his silent film, where his trademark is a physical comedy with flat, consistent flat expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". Critic Roger Ebert writes of "a remarkable period from 1920 to 1929, when he worked without interruption on a series of films that made it, arguably, the greatest actor-director in film history". His career declined thereafter with the loss of his artistic independence when he was employed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, his wife divorced him, and he descended into alcoholism. He recovered in 1940, remarried, and revived his career as a respected comic player for the rest of his life, earning the Academy Honors Award.
Many Keaton movies from the 1920s, such as Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), and The Cameraman (1928), remain highly respected, with The General widely viewed as his mahakaryanya. Among his most powerful admirers was Orson Welles, who stated that The General was the highest achievement in comedy, and probably the greatest film ever made. Keaton was recognized as the seventh biggest film director by Entertainment Weekly, and in 1999, the American Film Institute placed him in the 21st place as the biggest male star in Hollywood classic cinema.
Video Buster Keaton
Careers
Beginning of life in vaudeville
Keaton was born in the vaudeville family in Piqua, Kansas, the small town where his mother, Myra Keaton (Cutler), when she gave birth. He was given the name "Joseph" to continue his traditions on his father's side (he was sixth with the name Joseph Keaton) and "Frank" for his maternal grandfather, who disagreed with his parents' union. Later, Keaton changed his middle name to "Francis". His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton, who had a traveling show with Harry Houdini called Indian Medicine Company Mohawk, who appeared on stage and sold patent drugs on the side.
According to a frequently repeated story, which may be apocryphal, Keaton earned the nickname "Buster" at around the age of 18 months. Keaton told Fletcher Markle's interviewer that Houdini was present one day when the young Keaton fell on a long, unharmed ladder. After the baby sat down and shook his experience, Houdini commented, "That's really a buster!" According to Keaton, at that time, the word "buster" was used to refer to spills or falls that could potentially cause injury. After this, Keaton's dad started using a nickname to refer to the youngster. Keaton retold anecdotes for years, including a 1964 interview with CBC Telescope.
At the age of three, Keaton began performing with his parents in The Three Keatons. He first appeared on stage in 1899 in Wilmington, Delaware. The action was primarily a comedy sketch. Myra plays a saxophone on one side, while Joe and Buster perform on the center stage. The young Keaton will herd his father by disobeying him, and the older Keaton will answer by throwing it into the scene, into the orchestra hole, or even to the audience. A suitcase grip is sewn into Keaton's outfit to help a constant throw. The act evolved when Keaton learned to take the trick safely; he is rarely injured or bruised on stage. This style of knockabout comedy leads to allegations of child abuse, and sometimes, arrest. However, Buster Keaton can always show authorities that he is not bruised or broken bones. He was eventually billed as "The Little Boy That Can not Be Damaged", with an overall act advertised as "The Roughest Act That Ever Ever in the History of the Stage". Decades later, Keaton said that he had never been hurt by his father and that physical fallout and comedy was a matter of proper technical execution. In 1914, Keaton told the Detroit News: "The secret is to land a limp and break a fall with your feet or hands.This is a talent.I started very young so landing right is a second nature with me" Several times I killed if I can not land like a cat. The imitators of our actions did not last long, because they could not stand the treatment. "
Keaton states that he's having fun so sometimes he starts laughing when his father throws him on stage. Realizing that this attracted less laughter from the audience, he adopted a famous flat expression every time he worked.
The action is contrary to the law prohibiting child labor in vaudeville. According to a biographer, Keaton was made to go to school while performing in New York, but only attended for part of a day. Despite being tangled with law and a catastrophic tour in the music hall in England, Keaton is a rising star in the theater. Keaton states that he learned to read and write late, and taught by his mother. By the time he was 21, his father's alcoholism threatened the reputation of family action, so Keaton and his mother, Myra, went to New York, where Buster Keaton's career swiftly moved from vaudeville to the film.
Keaton served in the United States Army in France with the 40th Infantry Division during World War I. His unit remained intact and not broken down to provide a replacement, as happened to some other late-arriving divisions. During his time in uniform, he suffered from ear infections that permanently interfere with his hearing.
Silent movie era
In February 1917, Keaton met Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle at Talmadge Studios in New York City, where Arbuckle was under contract to Joseph M. Schenck. Joe Keaton did not approve of the film, and Buster also objected to his media. During his first encounter with Arbuckle, he asked to borrow one of the cameras to feel how it worked. He took the camera back to his hotel room and unpacked and replaced it. With a rough understanding of the mechanics of moving pictures, he returned the next day, carrying a camera in his hand, asking for a job. He was hired as a star player and a gag man, making his first appearance at The Butcher Boy. Keaton later claimed that he soon became the second director of Arbuckle and his entire gag department. He appears in a total of 14 Arbuckle shorts, running into 1920. They are popular, and contrary to Keaton's later reputation as "The Great Stone Face", he often smiles and even laughs inside. Keaton and Arbuckle become close friends, and Keaton is one of the few, along with Charlie Chaplin, to defend the character of Arbuckle during allegations that he is responsible for the death of Virginia Rappe actress. (Arbuckle is finally released, with an apology from the jury for the ordeal he has endured.)
In 1920, The Saphead was released, in which Keaton had the first starring role in the full-length feature. It's based on a successful game, The New Henrietta, once filmed, titled The Lamb, with Douglas Fairbanks playing the lead role. Fairbanks recommends Keaton to take on a role for remake five years later, because the film has a comic tilt.
After Keaton managed to work with Arbuckle, Schenck gave him his own production unit, Buster Keaton Comedies. He made a series of two-reel comedy, including One Week (1920), The Playhouse (1921), Cops (1922), and > The Electric House (1922). Keaton then moved to full features.
Keaton authors include Clyde Bruckman, Joseph Mitchell, and Jean Havez, but the cleverest jokes are usually conceived by Keaton himself. Comedy director Leo McCarey, remembering the days of free slapstick comedies, said, "We're all trying to steal jokes from each other, but we're not lucky with Keaton, because he thinks his own best joke and we can not steal him! "A more daring idea called for a dangerous action, committed by Keaton on a huge physical risk. During the water-tank rail scene at Sherlock Jr. , Keaton broke his neck when the water spray fell on him from the water tower, but he did not realize it for years afterward. Scenes from Steamboat Bill, Jr. requires that Keaton run into the shot and stand still in a certain place. Then, the facade of the two-story building rolled forward over Keaton. Keaton's character appears unscathed, as one window opens. This action requires precision, because the parent house is weighed two tons, and the window offers only a few inches of distance around Keaton's body. The sequence complements one of the most memorable images of his career.
Apart from Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), Keaton's most enduring films include Our Hospitality (1923), The Navigator (1924)), Sherlock Jr. (1924), Seven Chances (1925), The Cameraman (1928), and The General i> (1926). The General , formed during the American Civil War, combines physical comedy with Keaton train love, including the epic locomotive chase. Employing a beautiful location, the storyline of this film revives the actual wartime incident. Although it would be considered Keaton's greatest achievement, the film received mixed reviews at the time. It was too dramatic for some movie audiences to expect a light comedy, and reviewers questioned Keaton's judgment in making comedy films about the Civil War, even when noted it had "some laughs."
It was a costly misfire, and Keaton was never entrusted with full control over his films anymore. Its distributor, United Artists, insists on a production manager that monitors costs and disrupts certain story elements. Keaton underwent this treatment for two feature films again, and then exchanged his independent arrangement to work in Hollywood's largest studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The loss of Keaton's independence as a filmmaker coincides with the arrival of sound films (though he is interested in making the transition) and the peak of personal problems, and his career in the early era of voice has been harmed.
Sound and television era
Keaton signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1928, a business decision that he would call the worst of his life. He was too late to realize that the studio system represented by MGM would severely limit his creative input. For example, the studio rejected her request to create the initial project, Though Wedding , as a sound film and after the studio was converted, she was obligated to obey a dialogue-filled script. However, MGM did allow Keaton to participate in the silent film originally developed/authored The Cameraman , 1928, which was his first project under contract with them, but employed Edward Sedgwick as the official director.
Keaton was forced to use substitute acts for some more dangerous scenes, something he had never done in his heyday, because MGM was keen to protect his investment. "Stuntmen can not laugh," said Keaton. Some of his most financially successful films for the studio were during this period. MGM tries to work with Keaton briefly with rough Jimmy Durante in a series of movies, The Passionate Plumber , Talk to , and What! Without Beer? The latter is Keaton's last star feature in his home country. The films proved popular. (Thirty years later, both Keaton and Durante have a cameo role in This is Mad Mad Mad Mad World , though not in the same scene.)
In Keaton's first pictures with sound, he and his fellow actors will record every scene three times: one in English, one in Spanish, and one in French or German. The actors will phonetically memorize the foreign language script a few lines at a time and immediately take a picture. This is discussed in the documentary film TCM Buster Keaton: Very Cute Injured , with Keaton complaining about having to shoot a crappy movie not just once, but three times.
Keaton was heavily demoralized during the production of the 1933s What! No beer? that MGM fired him after the filming was over, even though the film was a hit hit. In 1934, Keaton accepted an offer to make an independent film in Paris, Le Roi des Champs-ÃÆ' â € ° lysÃÆ'Â © es . During this period, he made another film, in England, Education Pictures
After Keaton returned to Hollywood, he made a screen comeback in a series of 16 two-reel comedies for Image Education. Most are simple visual comedy, with many jokes supplied by Keaton himself, often recycling ideas from his family vaudeville actions and previous films. The high point in the Education series is the Grand Slam Opera , featuring Buster in his own scenario as an amateur hour contestant. When the series ended in 1937, Keaton returned to MGM as a joke writer, including Marx Brothers movies In Circus (1939) and Go West (1940), and gave material for Red Skelton. He also helped and suggested Lucille Ball in comedy in movies and television.
Columbia Pictures
In 1939, Columbia Pictures hired Keaton to star in ten two-reel comedy, running for two years. The director is usually Jules White, whose emphasis on slapstick and farce makes most of these films resemble the White's Three Stooges comedy. Keaton's personal favorite is the series debut entry, Pest from the West , a shorter and tighter remake of the slightly-viewed 1935 feature of Keaton The Invader ; it was not directed by White but by Del Lord, a veteran director for Mack Sennett. The audience and exhibitors welcomed the Columbia Keaton comedy, proving that the comedian had not lost his appeal. However, taken as a whole, Keaton Columbia shorts rank as the worst comedy he made, his judgment concurred with in his autobiography. The last entry is He Oil Mine , and Keaton swears he'll never again "make two other reapers."
1940s and screen movies
Keaton's personal life has stabilized with his 1940 marriage, and now he's taking life a little easier, leaving Columbia for the field of feature films that are less severe. Throughout the 1940s, Keaton played the character roles in features "A" and "B". He made his last star feature El Moderno Barba Azul (1946) in Mexico; the film is a low-budget production, and probably never seen in the United States until its release on VHS in the 1980s, under the title Boom in the Moon. Critics found Keaton in 1949 and producers occasionally hired him for a bigger picture of "prestige". She has great acting in movies such as In the Old Summer Summertime (1949), Sunset Boulevard (1950), and Around the World in 80 Days (1956 ). In In The Good Old Summertime , Keaton personally directs the stars of Judy Garland and Van Johnson in their first shared scene where they collide with each other on the road. Keaton finds a comedy piece in which Johnson keeps trying to apologize to Garland's boil, but ultimately messes up his hairdo and tears his dress.
Keaton also has a cameo as Jimmy, appearing near the end of the movie This is Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). Jimmy helped Spencer Tracy, Captain C. G. Culpepper, by setting up a Culpepper boat that was ultimately not used for a failed escape. (The recovered version of the film, released in 2013, contains a restored scene where Jimmy and Culpeper speak on the phone.Lost after the epic comedy road show, the audio of the scene was found, and combined with a still image to recreate the scene.) Keaton was given more time on screen A Funny Thing Happened on the Road to the Forum (1966). Her appearance, since its release after her death, is a persecuted goiter.
Keaton also appeared in a comedy routine about two incompetent stage performers at Charlie Chaplin Limelight (1952), recalling vaudeville The Playhouse . With the exception of Seeing Stars , a small publicity film produced in 1922, Limelight is the only time where the two will appear together in the movie.
In 1949, comedian Ed Wynn invited Keaton to appear on his CBS Television comedy-variety show, The Ed Wynn Show, which was broadcast live on the West Coast. Kinescopes made for the distribution of programs to other parts of the country because there was no coaxial cable across the continent until September 1951.
1950s-1960s and television
In 1950, Keaton had a successful television series, The Buster Keaton Show , which was broadcast live on the local Los Angeles station. Live with Buster Keaton (1951), attempts to recreate the first series on the film and allow the program to be broadcast nationally are not well received. She also appeared in the early television series Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town . A feature film theater, The Misadventures of Buster Keaton , was made from the series. Keaton says he's canceled the movie series itself because he can not create enough fresh material to produce a new show every week. Keaton also appeared on variety show Ed Wynn. At the age of 55, he managed to create one of his youthful actions, where he leaned one foot to the table, then swung a second leg to his side, and held an awkward position in the air for a moment before crashing into the stage floor. Secretary Garry Moore remembers, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all the downfall, and he said, 'I will show you.' He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. he did it - it hurts - but you should care enough not to care. "
Unlike his past Harold Lloyd, who made his films unseen on television, Peraton's periodic television appearance helped revive interest in silent films in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1954, Keaton played his first dramatic television role in "The Awakening", an episode of the anthology syndicate series of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents . Around this time, he also appeared on the NBC The Martha Raye Show .
Also in 1954, Keaton and his wife Eleanor met film programmer Raymond Rohauer, with whom the couple would develop a business partnership to re-release Keaton's films. Around the same time, after buying a home comedian, actor James Mason found many cans of Keaton movies. Among the recovered films is the long lost Keaton classic The Boat . The Coronet Theater art house in Los Angeles, which involves Rohauer, shows The General , which "Buster has never seen... all these years and he wants me to see him," Eleanor Keaton said in 1987. " Raymond recognized Buster and their friendship started. " Rohauer in the same article recalled, "I was in the projection room, I got the ring that Buster Keaton was in the lobby, I came down and there he was with Eleanor The next day I met him at his home. "We knew we were going to join in. But I realized he had an unconcerned attitude about his things, he said, 'Not worthy, I have no rights.'" Keaton has printed the features of Three Ages > Sherlock Jr. , Steamboat Bill, Jr. , High School (missing one reel) and shorts "The Boat" and "My Wife's Relations", the Keaton and Rohauer were later transferred to the safety stock from the worsening stock of nitrate film. Unknown to them at the time, MGM has also saved some of Keaton's work: all the features of 1920-1926 and eight of his first two-roll shorts.
On April 3, 1957, Keaton was surprised by Ralph Edwards for NBC's weekly program This Is Your Life. The half-hour program, which also promotes the release of The Buster Keaton Story biography with Donald O'Connor, sums up Keaton's life and career up to that point.
In December 1958, Keaton was a guest star as Charlie, a hospital cleaning officer who rewarded sick children, in the episode "A Very Merry Christmas" from The Donna Reed Show at ABC. He returned to the program in 1965 in the episode "Now You See It, Now Not." The 1958 episode has been included in the DVD release of Donna Reed's television program. One of the cast members of the show, Paul Peterson, recalls that Keaton "composed a remarkable physical play, his skills are amazing, I've never seen anything like that before or since."
In August 1960, Keaton played the silent King Sextimus the Silent at the national musical tour company Broadway Once Upon A Mattress. Eleanor Keaton was cast in the choir. After a few days, Keaton warmed the other players with his "excellent sense of humor", according to Fritzi Burr, who played opposite him as his wife, Queen Aggravain. When the tour landed in Los Angeles, Keaton invited cast and crew to a spaghetti party at his home in Woodland Hills, and entertained them by singing vaudeville songs.
In 1960, Keaton returned to MGM for the last time, playing as a lion tamer in the 1960 adaptation of Mark Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Most of the film was taken at a location on the Sacramento River, which doubled for the setting of the Mississippi River from Twain's original book.
In 1961, he starred in the episode of The Twilight Zone Once Upon a Time, which included both silent and sound sequences. Keaton plays the time traveler Mulligan, who traveled from 1890 to 1960, then returned, using a special helmet.
In January 1962, he worked with comedian Ernie Kovacs on a temporary television pilot titled "Medicine Man," a shooting scene for him on January 12, 1962 - the day before Kovacs died in a car accident. "Human Drug" is finished but not aired. However, it can be seen, under the alternative title A Pony For Chris on Ernie Kovacs DVD set.
Keaton also found a permanent job as an actor in TV commercials, including a series of silent advertisements for Simon Pure Beer made in 1962 by Jim Mohr in Buffalo, New York where he revisited some jokes from his silent film days.
In 1964, Keaton appeared with Joan Blondell and Joe E. Brown in the last episode of The Greatest Show on Earth, a circus drama starring Jack Palance. In November, 1965, he appeared on a special television CBS A Salute To Stan Laurel which was a tribute to the late comedian (and friend of Keaton) who had died earlier that year. The program was produced as a benefit to the Moving Image Assistance Fund and featured a variety of celebrities, including Dick Van Dyke, Danny Kaye, Phil Silvers, Gregory Peck, Cesar Romero, and Lucille Ball. In one segment, Ball and Keaton do a silent sketch on a park bench with two clowns wrestling over oversized newspapers, until a policeman (played by Harvey Korman) breaks the fun. The drama called "A Day in the Park" was filmed and broadcast in color. This marks the only time Ball and Keaton work together in front of the camera.
Keaton starred in four films for American International Pictures: 1964's Pajama Party and 1965's Beach Blanket Bingo , How to Charge Wild Bikini and Sgt Chief Death . As he has done in the past, Keaton also provides jokes for the four AIP movies in which he appears. The film's director, William Asher, who plays Keaton, remembers,
I always like Buster Keaton. I think, how wonderful people are to see and react to these young people and see them as spectators as possible, to shake their heads in their crazy antics.... He loves it. He will bring me a bit and a routine. He will say, 'What about this?' and that would be just this extraordinary and inventive thing. Many audiences seemed to see Buster for the first time. Once the children in the player realize who they are, they all respect him and are crazy about him. And the other comics coming in - Paul Lynde, Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett - they fit him.
In 1965, Keaton starred in The Railrodder's short film for the National Film Board of Canada. Wearing his traditional pig's hat, he traveled from one end of Canada to the other with a motorized handcar, performing a joke similar to the one in the movie he made 50 years earlier. The film is also famous for Keaton's last silent screen performance. The Railrodder was created along with a behind-the-scenes documentary about Keaton's life and time, called Buster Keaton Rides Again , also made for the National Film Board, which is twice the length of the short film.
He played a central role in Samuel Becket Movie (1965), directed by Alan Schneider; He had previously dismissed Lucky's role in the production of America's first stage Waiting for Godot, after finding Beckett's writing confusing. Also in 1965, he traveled to Italy to play a role in Due to Marines e un Generale , starring alongside the famous Italian comedian duo Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia. In 1987 the Italian singer-songwriters Claudio Lolli and Francesco Guccini wrote a song, "Keaton", about his work on the film.
The appearance of Keaton's latest commercial film is on A Funny Thing Happened in the Road to the Forum (1966), which was filmed in Spain in September-November 1965. He amazed the cast and crew by doing many of his own stunts, though Thames Television says his increasingly ill health does not force the use of stunts for some scenes. His last appearance in the film was the 1965 safety film produced in Toronto, Canada, by the Ontario Construction Safety Association in collaboration with Perini, Ltd (now Tutor Perini Corporation), The Scribe . Keaton plays a low janitor in a newspaper. He cut off requests from editors to visit a construction site adjacent to the newspaper's headquarters to investigate possible security breaches. Keaton died shortly after completing the film.
Maps Buster Keaton
Style and theme
Use of parody
Keaton began experimenting with parodies over his vaudeville years, where his most frequent appearances involve impressions and acts of other players. Most of these parodies targeted the actions with which Keaton shared the bill. When Keaton shifted his experience in vaudeville to film, in many works he parodied melodrama. Other favorite targets are plot, structure, and cinematic devices.
One of the most bitter parodies is The Frozen North (1922), a satirical song about Western melodrama William S. Hart, such as Hell's Hinges (1916) and The Narrow Trail (1917). Keaton parodies the tired formulas of melodramatic transformation from bad guys to good men, who later became Hart's character, known as "good badman". He wears a small version of Hart's campaign hat from the Spanish-American War and six shooters on each thigh, and during the scene where he shot his neighbor and husband, he reacts with a thick tear of glycerin, Hart's trademark. The audience in the 1920s admitted parody and thought the movie was hysterical funny. However, Hart himself was not amused by Keaton's antics, especially the crying scene, and did not talk to Buster for two years after he saw the movie. The opening text of this film gives a serious tone, and is taken from "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" by Robert W. Service.
In The Playhouse (1921), he parodied the contemporary Thomas H Ince, producer Hart, who indulged himself with his over-praise in film production. In short it also displays the impression that a monkey performs that probably comes from a co-biller action (called Peter the Great ). Three Ages (1923), his first long film, is a parody of D. W. Griffith Intolerance (1916), from which he replicates three short cut cut structures. Three Centuries also displays parodies of biblical stories, such as the story of Samson and Daniel. Keaton directs the movie, along with Edward F. Cline.
Body language
Film critic David Thomson then describes Keaton's comedy style: "Buster is obviously a man who tends to belief in anything but math and absurdity... like numbers that always look for the right equation Look at his face - like beautiful but inhuman like a butter - cousin - and you see that total failure to identify sentiments. "Gilberto Perez commented on" Keaton genius as an actor to keep the face so nearly dead and yet to make it, with a subtle inflection, very clearly expressing inner life.Her great and deep eyes are the features that most eloquently, with only a look, he can convey a variety of emotions, from longing to distrust, from confusion to sadness. "Critics Anthony Lane also noted Keaton's body language:
The traditional Buster's attitude required him to remain tough, full of backbones, looking forward... [in The General He climbed onto the roof of his locomotive and leaned gently forward to scan the terrain, with the wind in the hair and his adventure darts toward him at the next corner. This is the angle you remember: a perfectly straight-forward but forward-looking figure, like the Spirit of Ecstasy on the hood of Rolls-Royce... [on The Three Ages ], he drove a low-grade car over a bump in the road, and his car just collapsed underneath. Run back on video, and you can see Buster riding a collapse like a surfer, clinging to the steering wheel, coming beautifully to rest as the wave of debris breaks.
Film historian Jeffrey Vance writes:
Buster Keaton's comedy survives not only because he has a face that is owned by Mount Rushmore, which at that time is virtually unbearable and classy in America, but because the face is attached to one of the most talented actors and directors who ever graced the screen. Evolving from the ubiquitous background on the vaudeville stage, Keaton's comedy is a cute whirlwind, technically precise, executed wisely, and a surprising joke, very often set with a visually stunning backdrop and location - all this is masked behind his hard teeth, stoic veneer.
Keaton has inspired a full academic study.
Personal life
On May 31, 1921, Keaton married Natalie Talmadge, brother-in-law of her superior, Joseph Schenck, and brother of the actress Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge. She starred alongside Keaton on Our Hospitality . The couple has two sons, Joseph, aka Buster Keaton Jr. (June 2, 1922 - February 14, 2007), and Robert Talmadge Keaton (February 3, 1924 - July 19, 2009), both of which were surnamed Talmadge. After Robert's birth, the relationship began to suffer.
Influenced by his family, Talmadge decided not to have any more children, and this caused the couple to live in separate rooms. His financial luxury (he will spend up to one-third of his salary for clothes) is another factor in the marriage ruin. Keaton dated actress Dorothy Sebastian from the 1920s and Kathleen Key in the early 1930s. After the reconciliation effort, Talmadge divorced Keaton in 1932, took all his wealth and refused to allow contact between Keaton and his sons, whose last name was changed to Talmadge. Keaton was reunited with them about a decade later when his elder son was 18 years old. With the failure of her marriage and the loss of her independence as a filmmaker, Keaton falls into a period of alcohol addiction.
In 1926, Keaton spent $ 300,000 to build a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) house in Beverly Hills designed by architect Gene Verge, Sr., later owned by James Mason and Cary Grant. Keaton's "Italian Villa" can be seen in Keaton's movie Parlor, Bedroom and Bath . Keaton then said, "I took many pratfalls to build the dump."
The house was damaged about $ 10,000 from fire in the nursery and dining room in 1931. Keaton was not home at the time, and his wife and children fled unharmed, staying at Tom Mix's house until the next morning.
Keaton at one time instituted briefly; according to the TCM documentary So Funny Hurt , Keaton escaped from the tight jacket with the tricks learned from Harry Houdini. In 1933, he married his nurse, Mae Scriven, during an alcoholic party which he later admitted to not remembering anything (Keaton himself later referred to the period as "blackout"). Scriven himself would later claim that he did not know Keaton's real first name until after the wedding. The single incident that triggered Scriven filed for divorce in 1935 was Keaton's discovery with Leah Clampitt Sewell (wife of billionaire Barton Sewell) on July 4 of the same year at a hotel in Santa Barbara. When they divorced in 1936, it was once again at a huge financial cost to Keaton.
On May 29, 1940, Keaton married Eleanor Norris (July 29, 1918 - October 19, 1998), who is 23 years younger than him. He has been credited by Jeffrey Vance by saving Keaton's life by breaking his heavy drinking habits and helping save his career. The marriage lasted until his death. Between 1947 and 1954, they appeared regularly at Cirque Medrano in Paris as a double action. He began to know his routine well so he often participated in TV shows.
Death
Keaton died of lung cancer on February 1, 1966, age 70, in Woodland Hills, California. Despite being diagnosed with cancer in January 1966, he was never told that he was seriously ill or suffering from cancer; Keaton thinks that he's recovered from a severe case of bronchitis. Locked up in the hospital during his last days, Keaton fidgeted and paced the room nonstop, wanting to go home. In a British television documentary about his career, his widow Eleanor told the producers of Thames Television that Keaton got up from bed and toured, and even played cards with friends who had come to visit the day before he died. Keaton is buried at Memorial Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California.
Influence and inheritance
Keaton was presented with the Honorary Academy Award of 1959 at the 32nd Academy Awards, held in April 1960. Keaton has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: 6619 Hollywood Boulevard (for the film); and 6225 Hollywood Boulevard (for television).
A 1957 film biography, The Buster Keaton Story , starring Donald O'Connor when Keaton was released. The scenario, by Sidney Sheldon, who also directs the film, is loosely based on Keaton's life but contains many factual errors and incorporates his three wives into one character. A 1987 documentary,
The International Buster Keaton Society was founded on October 4, 1992 - Buster's birthday. Dedicated to bringing greater public attention to Keaton's life and work, the membership includes many individuals from the television and film industry: actors, producers, writers, artists, graphic novelists, musicians and designers, and those who just admire the wonder of Buster Keaton. The Community nickname, "Damfinos," takes its name from the boat in the Buster comedy of 1921, "The Boat."
In 1994, caricaturist Al Hirschfeld wrote a series of silent film stars for the United States Post Office, including Rudolph Valentino and Keaton. Hirschfeld says that modern film stars are harder to describe, that silent film comedians like Laurel and Hardy and Keaton "look like their caricatures".
In his essay, film artist Salvador DalÃÆ' declared Keaton's works to be a prime example of making "anti-artistic" films, calling it "pure poetry". In 1925, DalÃÆ' produced a collage entitled The Marriage of Buster Keaton featuring comedian pictures in a sitting posture, staring straight ahead with his trademark boater cap resting on his lap.
Film critic Roger Ebert stated, "The biggest of the silent clowns is Buster Keaton, not just because of what he does, but because of the way he does it.Harold Lloyd makes us laugh that much, Charlie Chaplin moves us deeper, but not who has more courage than Buster. "
In his presentation for filmmaker General Orson Welles praised Buster Keaton as, "the biggest of all clowns in the history of cinema... a supreme artist, and I think one of the most beautiful people ever photographed".
Filmmaker Mel Brooks has acknowledged Buster Keaton as a big influence, saying: "I owe a lot to two levels: One to be a great teacher to me as a filmmaker myself, and the other just like a human who watches this. He made me believe in make-believe. "He also claimed to borrow the idea of ​​a dressing room scene in The Cameraman for his own movie Silent Movie .
Actor and actor Johnny Knoxville quotes Keaton as inspiration when coming up with ideas for Jackass projects. He repeats the famous Keaton action for the end of Jackass Number 2 .
Comedian Richard Lewis states that Keaton is his main inspiration, and talks about having a close friendship with Keaton's widow, Eleanor. Lewis is especially touched by the fact that Eleanor says that his eyes look like Keaton's eyes.
At the time of the death of Eleanor Keaton, he worked closely with film historian Jeffrey Vance to donate papers and photographs to the Mobile Image Arts Academy and Science. The book Buster Keaton Remembered , by Eleanor Keaton and Vance, published after her death, has been well reviewed.
In 2012, Kino Lorber released The Ultimate Buster Keaton Collection, a box of 14-disc Blu-ray sets by Keaton, including 11 of his films.
Pork pie hat
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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