Editing Buster Keaton

{{Short description|American actor, comedian and filmmaker (1895–1966)}}
{{Use American English|date=October 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Buster Keaton
| image              = Busterkeaton edit.jpg
| caption            = Keaton in 1920
| birth_name         = Joseph Frank Keaton
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1895|10|4|mf=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Piqua, Kansas]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1966|2|1|1895|10|4|mf=y}}
| death_place        = [[Los Angeles|Los Angeles, California]], U.S.
| resting_place      = [[Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)|Forest Lawn Memorial Park]], [[Hollywood Hills]], California, U.S.
| occupation         = {{hlist|Actor|comedian|filmmaker|stuntman}}
| years_active       = 1899–1966
| works              = <!-- ''[[Our Hospitality]]'', ''[[Sherlock Jr.]]'', ''[[The Navigator (1924 film)|The Navigator]]'', ''[[Seven Chances]]'', ''[[The General (1926 film)|The General]]'', ''[[Steamboat Bill, Jr.]]'' --> [[Buster Keaton filmography|Full list]]
| spouse             = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Natalie Talmadge]]|1921|1932|reason=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Mae Scriven|1933|1936|reason=divorced}}
* {{marriage|[[Eleanor Keaton]]|1940}}
}}
| children           = 2
| father             = [[Joe Keaton]]
| mother             = [[Myra Keaton|Myra Cutler]]
}}

'''Joseph Frank''' "'''Buster'''" '''Keaton''' (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966)<ref name=Meade16>{{cite book |title=Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase|last=Meade |first=Marion|year=1997|publisher=Da Capo |isbn=0-306-80802-1|page=16}}</ref> was an American actor, comedian and filmmaker.<ref>Obituary ''[[Variety Obituaries|Variety]]'', February 2, 1966, page 63.</ref> He is best known for his [[silent film]]s during the 1920s, in which he performed [[physical comedy]] and inventive [[stunt]]s. He frequently maintained a stoic, [[deadpan]] facial expression that became his trademark and earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/deadpan-but-alive-to-the-future-buster-keaton-the-revolutionary-9037459.html|title=Deadpan but alive to the future: Buster Keaton the revolutionary|last=Barber|first=Nicholas|work=[[The Independent]]|date=January 8, 2014|access-date=November 3, 2015}}</ref><ref name="re">{{cite web| url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-films-of-buster-keaton|author-link= Roger Ebert| first=Roger|last= Ebert|title=The Films of Buster Keaton| date=November 10, 2002|access-date=January 28, 2016| archive-date=November 3, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151103163906/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-films-of-buster-keaton | url-status=live}}</ref>

Keaton was a child [[vaudeville]] star, performing as part of his family's traveling act. As an adult, he began working with independent producer [[Joseph M. Schenck]] and filmmaker [[Edward F. Cline]], with whom he made a series of successful [[two-reel]] comedies in the early 1920s, including ''[[One Week (1920 film)|One Week]]'' (1920), ''[[The Playhouse (film)|The Playhouse]]'' (1921), ''[[Cops (1922)|Cops]]'' (1922), and ''[[The Electric House]]'' (1922). He then moved to feature-length films; several of them, such as ''[[Sherlock Jr.]]'' (1924), ''[[The General (1926 film)|The General]]'' (1926), ''[[Steamboat Bill, Jr.]]'' (1928), and ''[[The Cameraman]]'' (1928), remain highly regarded.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theyshootpictures.com/keatonbuster.php |title=Buster Keaton's Acclaimed Films |publisher=They Shoot Pictures, Don't They |access-date=September 29, 2016 |archive-date=March 29, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329215414/http://theyshootpictures.com/keatonbuster.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> ''The General'' is perhaps his most acclaimed work; [[Orson Welles]] considered it "the greatest comedy ever made...and perhaps the greatest film ever made".<ref>{{cite web| url=https://mubi.com/lists/sight-and-sound-critics-poll-2002-top-films-of-all-time | title=''Sight & Sound'' Critics' Poll (2002): Top Films of All Time| publisher= Sight & Sound via [[Mubi.com]]| access-date=January 29, 2016| archive-date=January 29, 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160129151429/https://mubi.com/lists/sight-and-sound-critics-poll-2002-top-films-of-all-time | url-status=live}}</ref><!--Three other Keaton films received votes in the magazine's survey: ''[[Our Hospitality]]'', ''[[Sherlock, Jr.]]'', and ''[[The Navigator (1924 film)|The Navigator]]''.--><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6aae85f3/sightandsoundpoll2012 |title=Votes for The General (1924) |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=September 29, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/general-greatest-comedy-all-time | title=The General: the greatest comedy of all time?| first=Geoff |last=Andrew |date= January 23, 2014|work=Sight & Sound|access-date= January 28, 2016|archive-date= September 6, 2015| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150906131312/http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/general-greatest-comedy-all-time|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Orson Welles interview, from the Kino November 10, 2009 Blu-Ray edition of The General</ref>

Keaton's career declined after 1928, when he signed with [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] and lost his artistic independence. His first wife divorced him, and he descended into alcoholism. He was fired from MGM in 1933, ending his career as a leading man in feature films. He recovered in the 1940s, marrying [[Eleanor Keaton|Eleanor Norris]] and working as an honored comic performer until the end of his life. During this period, he made cameos in [[Billy Wilder]]'s ''[[Sunset Boulevard (film)|Sunset Boulevard]]'' (1950), [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s ''[[Limelight (1952 film)|Limelight]]'' (1952), [[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[Film (film)|Film]]'' (1965) and a variety of television programs. He earned an [[Academy Honorary Award]] in 1959. 

Critic [[Roger Ebert]] wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruption" as having made him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies".<ref name="re" /> In 1996, ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' recognized Keaton as the seventh-greatest film director, stating that "his films offer belly laughs of mind-boggling physical invention and a spacey determination that nears philosophical grandeur."<ref name="Entertainment Weekly">{{cite magazine |author=EW Staff |title=The 50 Greatest Directors and Their 100 Best Movies |url=https://ew.com/article/1996/04/19/50-greatest-directors-and-their-100-best-movies/ |date=April 19, 1996 |access-date=July 7, 2024 |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]}}</ref> In 1999, the [[American Film Institute]] ranked him as the 21st-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema.<ref>{{cite press release | url = http://www.afi.com/100Years/stars.aspx | title = AFI Recognizes the 50 Greatest American Screen Legends | publisher = American Film Institute | date = June 16, 1999 | access-date = August 31, 2013 | archive-date = January 13, 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130113043532/http://www.afi.com/100years/stars.aspx | url-status =live}}</ref>

== Career ==

=== Early life in vaudeville ===
[[File:Buster Keaton, as a youth in vaudeville (SAYRE 879).jpg|thumb|upright|Keaton as a child in vaudeville ({{Circa|1897}})]]
[[File:Threekeatons.jpg|thumb|Six-year-old Keaton and his parents Myra and Joe Keaton, in a publicity photo for their vaudeville act, The Three Keatons]]
[[File:Buster Keaton draft card page 1.jpg|thumb|Buster Keaton's draft card; "motion picture performer" employed by [[Roscoe Arbuckle]]]]

Keaton was born into a [[vaudeville]] family in [[Piqua, Kansas]],<ref>{{cite web|editor-first=Keith |editor-last=Stokes |url=http://www.kansastravel.org/busterkeatonmuseum.htm |title=Buster Keaton Museum |publisher=KansasTravel.org |access-date=February 17, 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160116052738/http://www.kansastravel.org/busterkeatonmuseum.htm | archive-date= January 16, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> the small town that his mother, [[Myra Keaton]] (née Cutler), was visiting at the time. He was named Joseph to continue a tradition on his father's side (he was sixth in a line bearing the name Joseph Keaton)<ref name="Meade16" /> and Frank for his maternal grandfather, who disapproved of his parents' union. His father was [[Joe Keaton|Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton]] who had a traveling show called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company, which performed on stage and sold [[patent medicine]] on the side.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Harpman |first=Julia |date=September 14, 1924 |title=Keaton Chose $40 in Films to $750 on Stage |language=en |pages=28–29 |newspaper=[[New York Daily News|Daily News]] |place=New York City |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/410933648/ |url-access=limited |access-date=January 18, 2023 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=March 19, 1896 |title=County Correspondence |page=8 |work=The Butler County Democrat |location=El Dorado, Kansas |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/367547084/?clipping_id=116758221 |url-access=limited |access-date=November 11, 2019}}</ref>{{sfn|Blesh|1967|p=3}} According to a frequently repeated story, which may be apocryphal,<ref name=TCMSundays /> Keaton acquired the nickname Buster at the age of 18 months. After the child fell down a long flight of stairs without injury, an actor friend named George Pardey remarked, "Gee whiz, he's a regular buster!"<ref name="Meade">Meade, Marion (2014). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cIqAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT17 Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase: A Biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221112055617/https://books.google.com/books?id=-cIqAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT17 |date=November 12, 2022 }}''. Open Road Media. {{ISBN|1497602319}}.</ref>{{Rp|17}} After this, Keaton's father began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster. Keaton retold the anecdote over the years, including in a 1964 interview with the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]]'s ''[[Telescope (TV series)|Telescope]]''.<ref>''Telescope: Deadpan: An Interview with Buster Keaton'', 1964 interview of Buster and Eleanor Keaton by [[Fletcher Markle]] for the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]].</ref> In Keaton's retelling, he was six months old when the incident occurred, and [[Harry Houdini]] gave him the nickname (though the family did not get to know Houdini until later).<ref name="Meade"/>{{Rp|18}}

At the age of 3, Keaton began performing with his parents in The Three Keatons. He first appeared on stage in 1899 in [[Wilmington, Delaware]]. The act was mainly a comedy sketch. Myra played the saxophone to one side, while Joe and Keaton performed center stage, both wearing slapsoles, bald-headed wigs and "Irish" beards. The young Keaton goaded his father by disobeying him, and the elder Keaton responded by throwing him against the scenery, into the orchestra pit, or even into the audience. A suitcase handle was sewn into Keaton's clothing to aid with the constant tossing. The act evolved as Keaton learned to take trick falls safely; he was rarely injured or bruised on stage. This knockabout style of comedy led to accusations of [[child abuse]] and, occasionally, arrest. However, Keaton was always able to show the authorities that he had no bruises or broken bones. He was eventually billed as "The Little Boy Who Can't Be Damaged", and the overall act as "The Roughest Act That Was Ever in the History of the Stage".<ref name="bk">{{cite web |url=http://www.busterkeaton.com/bio1.htm |title=Part I: A Vaudeville Childhood |publisher=[[International Buster Keaton Society]] |access-date=February 17, 2010 |archive-date=January 8, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108225544/http://www.busterkeaton.com/bio1.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Decades later, Keaton said that he was never hurt by his father and that the falls and physical comedy were a matter of proper technical execution. In 1914, he told the ''[[Detroit News]]'': "The secret is in landing limp and breaking the fall with a foot or a hand. It's a knack. I started so young that landing right is second nature with me. Several times I'd have been killed if I hadn't been able to land like a cat. Imitators of our act don't last long, because they can't stand the treatment."<ref name="bk" />

Keaton said he had so much fun that he sometimes began laughing as his father threw him across the stage. Noticing that this caused the audience to laugh less, he adopted his famous deadpan expression when performing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/keaton.html |title=Buster Keaton |publisher=Archive.sensesofcinema.com |date=February 1, 1966 |access-date=February 17, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202061846/http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/keaton.html |archive-date=February 2, 2010 }}</ref> The act ran up against laws banning child performers in vaudeville. According to one biographer, Keaton was made to go to school while performing in New York, but only attended for part of one day.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20180507004412/http://www.busterkeaton.org/bio1/ Biography: Part 1. www.busterkeaton.org]. Retrieved August 26, 2019.</ref> Despite tangles with the law, Keaton was a rising and relatively well-paid star in the theater. He stated that he learned to read and write late, and was taught by his mother. By the time he was 21, his father's alcoholism threatened the reputation of the family act,<ref name="bk" /> so Keaton and his mother, Myra, left for New York, where Keaton's career quickly moved from vaudeville to film.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.busterkeaton.com/partii.htm |title=Part II:The Flickers |publisher=International Buster Keaton Society |date=October 13, 1924 |access-date=February 17, 2010 |archive-date=March 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150303033019/http://www.busterkeaton.com/partii.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><!--Information taken from "Buster, A Legend in Laughter", by Larry Edwards-->

Keaton served in the [[American Expeditionary Forces]] in [[France]] with the [[United States Army]]'s [[40th Infantry Division (United States)|40th Infantry Division]] during [[World War I]]. His unit remained intact and was not broken up to provide replacements, as happened to some other late-arriving divisions. During his time in uniform, he developed an ear infection that permanently impaired his hearing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/buster.htm |title=My Career at the Rear / Buster Keaton in World War I |author=Martha R. Jett |publisher=worldwar1.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.militarymuseum.org/Keaton.html |title=Buster Keaton: Comedian, Soldier |author=Master Sergeant Jim Ober |publisher=[[California State Military Museum]]}}</ref>

===Film===
{{main|Buster Keaton filmography}}

==== Silent film era ====
Keaton spent the summers of 1908–1916 "at the 'Actor's Colony' in the Bluffton neighborhood of [[Muskegon, Michigan|Muskegon]], along with other famous vaudevillians."<ref name="Mlive">{{cite news |url=https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/2017/10/buster_keaton_documentary_to_f.html |title=Muskegon: Buster Keaton documentary to focus on early life in Muskegon |date=January 19, 2019 |work=[[MLive]] |accessdate=March 17, 2021}}</ref>

In February 1917, he met [[Roscoe Arbuckle|Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle]] at the [[Talmadge Studios]] in New York City, where Arbuckle was under contract to [[Joseph Schenck|Joseph M. Schenck]]. Joe Keaton disapproved of films, and Keaton also had reservations about the medium. During his first meeting with Arbuckle, he was asked to jump in and start acting. Keaton was such a natural in his first film, ''[[The Butcher Boy (1917 film)|The Butcher Boy]],'' he was hired on the spot. At the end of the day, he asked to borrow one of the cameras to get a feel for how it worked. He took the camera back to his hotel room where he dismantled and reassembled it by morning.<ref>Prikryl, Jana (July 9, 2011), "The Genius of Buster", ''The New York Review of Books'', '''58''' (10): 30–33.</ref> Keaton later said{{where|date=June 2022}} that he was soon Arbuckle's second director and his entire gag department. He appeared in a total of 14 Arbuckle [[Short (film)|shorts]], running into 1920. They were popular, and contrary to Keaton's later reputation as "The Great Stone Face", he often smiled and even laughed in them. Keaton and Arbuckle became close friends, and Keaton was one of few people, along with [[Charlie Chaplin]], to defend Arbuckle's character during accusations that he was responsible for the death of actress [[Virginia Rappe]]. (Arbuckle was eventually acquitted, with an apology from the jury for the ordeal he underwent.<ref>Yallop, David (1976). The Day the Laughter Stopped. New York: St. Martin's Press. {{ISBN|978-0-312-18410-0}}</ref>)
<!-- Edwards says Arbuckle and Keaton met at Talmadge; the IMDB says "Butcher Boy" was made at Colony Studios in NYC (source?) -->

In 1920, ''[[The Saphead]]'' was released, in which Keaton had his first starring role in a full-length feature. It was based on a successful play, ''The New Henrietta'', which had already been filmed once, under the title ''The Lamb'', with [[Douglas Fairbanks]] playing the lead. After Keaton's successful work with Arbuckle, Schenck gave him his own production unit, Buster Keaton Productions. He made a series of 19 [[two-reel]] comedies, including ''[[One Week (1920 film)|One Week]]'' (1920), ''[[The Playhouse (film)|The Playhouse]]'' (1921), ''[[Cops (1922)|Cops]]'' (1922), and ''[[The Electric House]]'' (1922). Keaton then moved to full-length features.[[File:GIF of Buster Keaton in "Steamboat Bill Jr" 1928.gif|thumb|Keaton, who did his own stunt work, in a potentially life-threatening scene from ''[[Steamboat Bill, Jr.]]'' (1928)]]
Keaton's writers included [[Clyde Bruckman]], Joseph Mitchell, and [[Jean Havez]], but the most ingenious gags were generally conceived by Keaton himself. Comedy director [[Leo McCarey]], recalling the freewheeling days of making [[slapstick]] comedies, said, "All of us tried to steal each other's gagmen. But we had no luck with Keaton because he thought up his best gags himself and we couldn't steal ''him!''"<ref>Maltin, Leonard, The Great Movie Comedians, Bell Publishing, 1978</ref> The more adventurous ideas called for dangerous stunts, performed by Keaton at great physical risk. During the railroad water-tank scene in ''[[Sherlock Jr.]]'', Keaton broke his neck when a torrent of water fell on him from a water tower, but he did not realize it until years afterwards. A scene from ''[[Steamboat Bill, Jr.]]'' required Keaton to stand still on a particular spot. Then, the facade of a two-story building toppled forward on top of Keaton. Keaton's character emerged unscathed, due to a single open window. The stunt required precision, because the prop house weighed two tons, and the window only offered a few inches of clearance around Keaton's body. The sequence furnished one of the most memorable images of his career.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dvdjournal.com/reviews/b/busterkeatondf.shtml |title=Reviews : The General/Steamboat Bill Jr |publisher=The DVD Journal |access-date=February 17, 2010}}</ref>

Aside from ''Steamboat Bill, Jr.'' (1928), Keaton's most enduring feature-length films include ''[[Three Ages]]'' (1923), ''[[Our Hospitality]]'' (1923), ''[[The Navigator (1924 film)|The Navigator]]'' (1924), ''[[Sherlock Jr.]]'' (1924), ''[[Seven Chances]]'' (1925), ''[[The Cameraman]]'' (1928), and ''[[The General (1926 film)|The General]]'' (1926). ''The General'', set during the [[American Civil War]], combined physical comedy with Keaton's love of trains,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Velocipede used by Buster Keaton in the film Our Hospitality |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1322521 |access-date=October 21, 2022 |website=National Museum of American History |language=en}}</ref> including an epic locomotive chase. Employing picturesque locations, the film's storyline reenacted an [[Great Locomotive Chase|actual wartime incident]]. Though it would come to be regarded as Keaton's greatest achievement, the film received mixed reviews at the time. It was too dramatic for some filmgoers expecting a lightweight comedy, and reviewers questioned Keaton's judgment in making a comedic film about the Civil War, even while noting it had a "few laughs."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2006-11-10/article/25592?headline=Moving-Pictures-Buster-Keaton-s-General-Pulls-In-To-PFA |title=Moving Pictures: Buster Keaton's 'General' Pulls In To PFA. Category: Arts & Entertainment from The Berkeley Daily Planet&nbsp;– Friday November&nbsp;10,&nbsp;2006 |publisher=Berkeleydaily.org |access-date=February 17, 2010}}</ref>

It was an expensive misfire (the climactic scene of a locomotive plummeting through a burning bridge was the most expensive single shot in silent-film history),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://silentfilm.org/archive/the-general|title=The General – Silent Film Festival|website=silentfilm.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The General (1927) |url=http://www.filmsite.org/gene.html |author=Tim Dirks |publisher=Filmsite |access-date=July 26, 2017}}</ref> and Keaton was never entrusted with total control over his films again. His distributor, [[United Artists]], insisted on a production manager who monitored expenses and interfered with certain story elements. Keaton endured this treatment for two more feature films, and then exchanged his independent setup for employment at Hollywood's biggest studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Keaton's loss of independence as a filmmaker coincided with the coming of sound films (although he was interested in making the transition) and mounting personal problems, and his career in the early sound era was hurt as a result.<ref name="b-k">{{cite web |url=http://www.buster-keaton.com/ |title=Buster-Keaton.com |publisher=Buster-Keaton.com |access-date=February 17, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100301060958/http://www.buster-keaton.com/ |archive-date=March 1, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Keaton Convict 13 1920.jpg|Theater poster for ''[[Convict 13]]'' (1920)
File:Keaton Cops pt1.ogg|A short clip from the beginning of ''Cops'' (1922).
File:Keaton-Writers-1923.jpg|Keaton (center) in 1923 with (from left) writers Joe Mitchell, [[Clyde Bruckman]], [[Jean Havez]], and [[Edward F. Cline|Eddie Cline]]
File:OutWest1918-01.jpg|Keaton (left) with [[Roscoe Arbuckle]] (top) and [[Al St. John]] in a [[Film still|still]] from ''[[Out West (1918 film)|Out West]]'' (1918)
</gallery>

=== New studio, new problems ===
[[File:Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1).jpg|thumb|right|With [[Charlotte Greenwood]] in one of his first "talkies", ''[[Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931 film)|Parlor, Bedroom and Bath]]'' (1931)]]

Keaton's last three features had been produced and released independently, under Keaton's control, and fell short of financial expectations at the box office. In 1928 film executive [[Nicholas Schenck]] arranged a deal with [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] for Keaton's services. Keaton had little to say about the details of the MGM contract; he would no longer have any financial responsibility for his films, and even his salary had been pre-negotiated, without his own input. Charlie Chaplin and [[Harold Lloyd]] advised him against making the move, cautioning that he would lose his independence.{{sfn|Curtis|2022|p=355}} But, given Schenck's desire to keep things "in the family" and Keaton's having to admit that his independent pictures hadn't done well, Keaton agreed to sign with MGM. He would later cite this as the worst business decision of his life in his autobiography.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Longworth |first=Karina |date=September 29, 2015 |title=The Biggest Mistake Buster Keaton Ever Made |language=en-US |work=Slate |url=https://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/you_must_remember_this/2015/09/hollywood_history_podcast_buster_keaton_s_move_to_mgm_in_1928.html |access-date=December 18, 2022 |issn=1091-2339}}</ref>

Welcomed to the studio by [[Irving Thalberg]], with whom he initially had a relationship of mutual admiration,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Flamini |first=Roland |title=Thalberg: The Last Tycoon and the World of M-G-M |publisher=Crown Publishers, Inc. |year=1994 |isbn=9780517586402 |location=New York |pages=231–232 |language=en-us}}</ref> Keaton realized too late that the [[studio system]] MGM represented would severely limit his creative input. The giant studio was run along strict factory lines, with everything planned and budgeted in advance. The first of MGM's Keaton films was ''[[The Cameraman]]'' (1928), and Keaton sensed trouble immediately when he saw the script. "It was as long as ''War and Peace''," Keaton recalled. "I took out 40 useless characters and a couple of subplots. These guys didn't realize—they ''still'' don't realize—that the best comedies are simple. I said, 'I'd like to do something with a drunk and a fat lady and a kid. Get 'em for me.' At my studio they would have the characters I wanted in 10 minutes. But not MGM. You had to requisition a toothpick in triplicate. I just stood there, and everybody is hassling."{{sfn|Blesh|1967|p=303}} MGM wanted only Keaton the star, Keaton the creator was considered a waste of time and money because "in the time it took him to develop a project, he could have appeared in two or three pictures set up by the studio's production staff."<ref name=":0" />

When the studio began making talking films, Keaton was enthused about the new technology and wanted to make his next film, ''[[Spite Marriage]]'', with sound.{{sfn|Blesh|1967|p=310}} MGM refused, because the film was more valuable in silent form; it could be shown around the world in theaters that had not converted to sound. Also, soundstages were then at a premium, and MGM usually reserved them for dramatic productions. MGM also forced Keaton to use a stunt double during some of the more dangerous scenes to protect its investment, something he had never done in his heyday: "Stuntmen don't get you laughs," Keaton had said.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bawden |first1=James |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1tg5p1k |title=You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet |last2=Miller |first2=Ron |date=October 6, 2017 |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |doi=10.2307/j.ctt1tg5p1k |isbn=978-0-8131-7422-8}}</ref>

In the first Keaton pictures with sound, he and his fellow actors would shoot each scene three times: [[Multiple-language version|once in English, once in Spanish, and once in either French or German]]. The actors would phonetically memorize the foreign-language scripts a few lines at a time and shoot immediately after. This is discussed in the TCM documentary ''Buster Keaton: So Funny it Hurt'', with Keaton complaining about having to shoot lousy films not just once, but three times.

[[File:Speak Easily (1932) 1.jpg|thumb|left|Keaton, [[Thelma Todd]] and [[Jimmy Durante]] in ''[[Speak Easily]]'' (1932)]]

Keaton kept trying to persuade his bosses to let him do things his way. Production head Irving Thalberg would not permit Keaton to create a script from scratch because the studio had already purchased a stage property dating from 1917, ''Parlor, Bedroom and Bath'', at the suggestion of [[Lawrence Weingarten]], who was Thalberg's brother-in-law and Keaton's producer. ("We were desperate. We didn't know what to do," recalled Weingarten.{{sfn|Curtis|2022|p=401}}) However, Thalberg did allow Keaton to stage the gags, including long stretches of pantomime, and agreed to send a crew to Keaton's own mansion for exterior shots. Keaton's relative freedom during this project resulted in a better than usual film. "Apart from its exceptional quality," writes biographer James Curtis, "the big takeaway from ''[[Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931 film)|Parlor, Bedroom and Bath]]'' was its extraordinary commercial success. Performing better at the box office than any of Keaton's other MGM talkies, it pulled in worldwide rentals of $985,000 [$20,694,850 in 2024]. With a yield [net profit] of $299,000 [$6,281,990 in 2024], it became the most profitable of all of Buster Keaton's features, silent or sound."{{sfn|Curtis|2022|p=404}} Curtis notes that it was also the only one of his MGM features that came in under budget and ahead of schedule. 

The next project confirmed Keaton's fears about studio interference. He was handed a script titled ''[[Sidewalks of New York (1931 film)|Sidewalks of New York]]'' (1931), in which he played a millionaire becoming involved with a slum-neighborhood girl and a gang of rowdy kids. Keaton thought the premise was totally unsuitable, and was uncomfortable with his directors [[Jules White]] and Zion Myers, who emphasized blunt slapstick. "I went over (Weingarten's) head and appealed to Irving Thalberg to help get me out of the assignment. Irving was usually on my side, but this time he said, 'Larry likes it. Everybody else in the studio likes the story. You are the only one who doesn't.' In the end, I gave up like a fool and said 'what the hell?' Who was I to say I was right and everyone was wrong?"{{sfn|Curtis|2022|p=411}} The film's emphasis on obvious slapstick made it unsuitable for the usual, prestigious Broadway premiere -- it opened simultaneously in two New York side-street theaters -- but the less discriminating audiences in small towns across America flocked to the film, resulting in an ultimate success.

MGM had been featuring comical musician [[Cliff Edwards]] in Keaton's films. The studio replaced Edwards, who had substance-abuse problems, with nightclub comedian [[Jimmy Durante]]. The laconic Keaton and the rambunctious Durante offered enough contrast to function as a team, resulting in three very successful films: ''[[Speak Easily]]'' (1932), ''[[The Passionate Plumber]]'' (1932), and ''[[What! No Beer?]]'' (1933).

Behind the scenes there was trouble. In March 1932 studio chief [[Louis B. Mayer]]'s office requested Keaton to report for work on a Saturday afternoon, to go through the motions of filming a scene for studio visitors. Keaton already had plans to attend a local college-baseball championship, where he was to be the home-team mascot. He sent his regrets to Mayer's office and kept his date at the ball game, only to receive a warning from Mayer the following Tuesday, suspending his pay until he resumed working.

Keaton's behavior had become erratic by 1932, despondent over working conditions at the studio, and over his wife's antagonism toward him at home. This affected his films; he was sometimes visibly intoxicated on- and off-camera. "I got to the stage where I didn't give a darn whether school kept or not, and then I started drinking too much," Keaton told interviewer Tony Thomas. "When I found out that they could write stories and material better than I could anyway, what was the use of my fighting with them?" The demoralized Keaton couldn't turn to production chief Irving Thalberg for support, because Thalberg was then on a medical leave that lasted eight months. This left Louis B. Mayer temporarily in sole charge of the studio, which made Keaton's standing at MGM even more fragile. Keaton's absences were costing the company $3,000 a day ($63,030 in 2024).

The last straw came when Mayer "raided" Keaton's dressing room during a wild party with Keaton's "cronies and their girlfriends". MGM staffer [[Samuel Marx|Sam Marx]] remembered the outcome: "Buster ordered him out of the trailer, and Mayer ordered him out of the studio."{{sfn|Curtis|2022|p=436}} Mayer couldn't oust him immediately, because Keaton's latest picture wasn't yet finished. Immediately after Keaton completed retakes on ''What! No Beer?'', he was fired "for good and sufficient cause" in a letter signed by Mayer on February 2, 1933.
 
Keaton had been considered to appear in the studio's all-star success ''[[Grand Hotel (1932 film)|Grand Hotel]]'', only to have his role of the consumptive Kringelein taken by [[Lionel Barrymore]]. As ''What! No Beer?'' was nearing completion, Keaton—"sober, shaved, and calm" as Keaton told his biographer [[Rudi Blesh]]—pitched an idea to Irving Thalberg. He wanted to make a feature-length parody of ''Grand Hotel'' with an all-comedy cast: himself in the Lionel Barrymore role, [[Jimmy Durante]] in the [[John Barrymore]] role, [[Marie Dressler]] in the [[Greta Garbo]] role, [[Polly Moran]] in the [[Joan Crawford]] role, [[Henry Armetta]] in the [[Jean Hersholt]] role, [[Edward Everett Horton]] in the [[Lewis Stone]] role, and [[Laurel and Hardy]] sharing the [[Wallace Beery]] role. Edward Sedgwick would be directing.<ref>Blesh, Rudi. ''Keaton'', New York: MacMillan, 1966, pp. 330-331.</ref> Keaton called his version ''Grand Mills Hotel'' (after the Mills Hotel, a [[Bowery]] flophouse). Thalberg was hesitant about burlesquing the dignified studio's own work but, seeing Keaton's obvious disappointment, said he'd think about it.

After Louis B. Mayer had fired Keaton, Thalberg returned to the studio and persuaded Mayer that Keaton was still valuable to the company. Thalberg tried to resurrect Keaton's MGM career by offering to go ahead with the ''Grand Hotel'' satire, now retitled ''Gland Hotel''. Keaton, still furious at Mayer, refused to return to the studio and Mayer was not about to apologize. So ended Buster Keaton's starring career in feature films.

=== European productions ===
In 1934, Keaton accepted an offer to make an independent film in Paris, ''[[Le Roi des Champs-Élysées]]''; it was not released in the United States. During this period, he made another film in England, ''[[The Invader (1935 film)|The Invader]]''. MGM, which needed a certain number of British-made films to comply with a legal quota (see [[quota quickies]]), distributed the Keaton film in England but declined to release it in the United States, because the studio had already terminated Keaton's employment and was no longer promoting him as one of its stars. ''The Invader'' was acquired by film importer J. H. Hoffberg in October 1935, and he retitled it ''An Old Spanish Custom''.<ref>''Motion Picture Daily'', "Hoffberg Sets a Title", Nov. 8, 1935, p. 2.</ref> Hoffberg released the film in America on the "states-rights" market,<ref>''Motion Picture Daily'', "Hoffberg Closes Deal", Dec. 26, 1935, p. 10.</ref> where independent exchanges bought regional rights to the film and offered it to local theaters in their territories.

=== Educational Pictures ===
In 1934, Buster Keaton made a screen comeback in two-reel comedies for [[Educational Pictures]]. Most of these 20-minute shorts are simple visual comedies, with many of the gags supplied by Keaton himself, often recycling ideas from his family vaudeville act and his earlier films.<ref name="Thames Television">{{cite episode |last1=Gill |first1=David |last2=Brownlow |first2=Kevin |series=Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow |series-link=Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow |year=1987 |network=[[Thames Television]] |number=three}}</ref> Keaton had a free hand in staging the films, within the studio's budgetary limits and using its staff writers. The Educational two-reelers have far more pantomime than his earlier talkies, and Keaton is in good form throughout. The high point in the Educational series is ''Grand Slam Opera'' (1936), featuring Keaton in his own screenplay as an amateur-hour contestant.

The Educational series was very well received by theater owners and movie audiences, and Keaton was the studio's most important comedian. He was also its most expensive comedian (earning $2,500 per film, equal to $54,776 in 2024), and when Educational was forced to economize in 1937, the company could no longer afford to maintain two studios. Educational closed its Hollywood studio, thus forfeiting Keaton's services, and kept its cheaper New York studio going. The company replaced Keaton with New York-based stage star [[Howard Brothers|Willie Howard]].<ref>''Film Daily'', "Makeup of 20th Century-Fox Shorts List Announced", June 3, 1937, p. 1.</ref>

=== Gag writer ===
After Keaton's Educational series lapsed, he returned to MGM as a gag writer, supplying material for the final three [[Marx Brothers]] MGM films: ''[[At the Circus]]'' (1939), ''[[Go West (1940 film)|Go West]]'' (1940), and ''[[The Big Store]]'' (1941); these were not as artistically successful as the Marxes' previous MGM features. Keaton also directed three one-reel novelty shorts for the studio, but these did not result in further directorial assignments.

=== Columbia Pictures ===
In 1939, [[Columbia Pictures]] hired Keaton to star in two-reel comedies; he filmed two at a time over two years. These 10 films comprise his last series as a starring comedian. Columbia's short-subject comedians were generally paid a flat fee of $500 per film. Keaton, considered exceptional, was hired at double the usual rate.<ref>[[Ted Okuda|Okuda, Ted]] with Watz, Edward, ''The Columbia Comedy Shorts'', McFarland & Company, Inc., 1986, p. 49. {{ISBN|0-89950-181-8}}</ref> The director was usually [[Jules White]], whose emphasis on [[slapstick]] and [[farce]] made most of these films resemble White's famous [[Three Stooges]] shorts. White sometimes paired Keaton with a [[second banana]]: either veteran comic [[Monty Collins]] or raucous comic dancer [[Elsie Ames]]. The insistent White directed Keaton whenever possible – to Keaton's mild annoyance – and only two Keaton shorts did without White's services because they were filmed on location, away from the studio.<ref>[[Scott MacGillivray|MacGillivray, Scott]]. ''Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward, Second Edition'', iUniverse, 2009, p. 193. {{ISBN|978-1-4401-7239-7}}</ref> Those remaining two shorts were directed by [[Del Lord]], a former director for [[Mack Sennett]]. Keaton's personal favorite was the series' debut, ''[[Pest from the West]]'', directed by Lord; it was a shorter, tighter remake of Keaton's little-viewed 1935 feature ''The Invader''. Trade critics loved it. ''Film Daily'' raved: "One of the funniest shorts of the season. In fact, of any season. It just goes to prove that this Buster Keaton feller is a natural boxoffice gold mine that is not being mined. When a comedy shown cold in a projection room can make trade press critics howl in their seats, then you can bet your mortgaged theater that it's FUNNY [emphasis theirs]."<ref>''Film Daily'', June 28, 1939, p. 8.</ref>

Moviegoers and exhibitors welcomed Keaton's Columbia comedies;<ref>Okuda and Watz, p. 139.</ref> and when Columbia began reissuing older comedies to theaters in 1948, Keaton's ''Pest from the West'' was chosen to launch the "Comedy Favorites" series ("A 1939 Buster Keaton film and one of his funniest," noted ''Boxoffice''. "It is good to see Buster back.")<ref>''Boxoffice'', Oct. 2, 1948, p. 12.</ref> Keaton's Columbia shorts came back to theaters from 1948 to 1952, and again from 1962 to 1964. Author John McElwee reports the boxoffice figures: "''Pest from the West'', the first series entry in 1939, brought back domestic rentals of $23,000, and subsequent ones tended to hover around that approximate figure (''Nothing But Pleasure'' did $24,000, ''General Nuisance'' got $26,000). Columbia also realized profits from reissues of the Keatons after the war. ''The Spook Speaks'' was back for the 1949-50 season, and picked up $24,200, this in addition to the $28,500 it had realized on its initial run."<ref>John McElwee, Greenbriar Picture Shows website, Mar. 7, 2006.</ref>

=== 1940s and feature films ===
Keaton's personal life had stabilized with his 1940 marriage to MGM dancer [[Eleanor Keaton|Eleanor Norris]], and now he was taking life a little easier, abandoning Columbia for the less strenuous field of feature films. Resuming his daily job as an MGM gag writer, he provided material for [[Red Skelton]]<ref name="p34">Knopf, Robert ''The Theater and Cinema of Buster Keaton'' By [https://books.google.com/books?id=fU5qDx7tawIC&pg=PA34 p.34]</ref> and gave help and advice to [[Lucille Ball]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kathleenbrady.net/lucille_the_life_of_lucille_ball_18269.htm|title=Lucille The Life of Lucille Ball&nbsp;– Kathleen Brady|author=Kathleen Brady|date=May 31, 2014|work=kathleenbrady.net}}</ref>

Keaton accepted various character roles in both "A" and "B" features. He made his last starring feature, ''El Moderno Barba Azul'' (1946), in Mexico; the film was a low-budget production, and it may not have been seen in the United States until its release on VHS videotape in 1986, under the title ''[[Boom in the Moon]]''. The film has a largely negative reputation, with renowned film historian [[Kevin Brownlow]] calling it the [[List of films considered the worst|worst film ever made.]]<ref name=FT>{{Cite web|url=https://filmthreat.com/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080125171132/http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=features&Id=922|url-status=dead|title=Film Threat |archivedate=January 25, 2008}}</ref>

Critics rediscovered Keaton in 1949 and producers occasionally hired him for bigger "prestige" pictures. He had cameos in such films as ''[[In the Good Old Summertime]]'' (1949), ''[[Sunset Boulevard (film)|Sunset Boulevard]]'' (1950), and ''[[Around the World in 80 Days (1956 film)|Around the World in 80 Days]]'' (1956). In ''In the Good Old Summertime'', Keaton personally directed the stars [[Judy Garland]] and [[Van Johnson]] in their first scene together, where they bump into each other on the street. Keaton invented comedy bits where Johnson keeps trying to apologize to a seething Garland, but winds up messing up her hairdo and tearing her dress.

Keaton also appeared in a comedy routine about two inept stage musicians in [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s ''[[Limelight (1952 film)|Limelight]]'' (released in 1952), recalling the vaudeville of ''[[The Playhouse (film)|The Playhouse]]''. With the exception of ''[[Seeing Stars (1922 film)|Seeing Stars]]'', a minor publicity film produced in 1922, ''Limelight'' was the only time in which the two would ever appear together on film.

=== Television and rediscovery ===
[[File:BusterKeatonKBF1956.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Keaton getting his foot stuck in railroad tracks at [[Knott's Berry Farm]] in 1956]]
In 1949, comedian [[Ed Wynn]] invited Keaton to appear on his [[CBS Television]] comedy-variety show, ''[[The Ed Wynn Show]]'', which was televised live on the West Coast. [[Kinescope]] film prints were made for distribution of the programs to other parts of the country, since there was no transcontinental [[coaxial cable]] until September 1951. Reaction was strong enough for a local Los Angeles station to offer Keaton his own show, also broadcast live (''[[The Buster Keaton Show]]'', 1950).

Producer Carl Hittleman mounted a new series, again titled ''The Buster Keaton Show'', in 1951. This was an attempt to recreate the first series on film, allowing the program to be broadcast nationwide. The series benefited from a company of veteran actors, including [[Marcia Mae Jones]] as the ingenue, [[Iris Adrian]], [[Dick Wessel]], [[Fuzzy Knight]], [[Dub Taylor]], [[Philip Van Zandt]], and his silent-era contemporaries [[Harold Goodwin (American actor)|Harold Goodwin]], [[Hank Mann]], and stuntman [[Harvey Parry]]. Keaton's wife Eleanor also was seen in the series (notably as Juliet to Keaton's Romeo in a little-theater vignette). Despite the hardworking cast and crew, the series was unsuccessful and only 13 half-hour episodes were filmed. Producer Hittleman audaciously reissued these same episodes in 1952 as though they were entirely new, with the series now titled ''Life with Buster Keaton''. ''Variety'' reporter Fred Hift reviewed it as a series premiere, noting that it was filmed without a studio audience: the "lack of studio laughter weakened the climax of several of its acts."<ref>Fred Hift, ''Variety'', Dec. 10, 1952, p. 24.</ref> The producers fashioned a theatrical, hourlong feature film from the series, intended for the European market: ''The Misadventures of Buster Keaton'' was released on April 29, 1953 by British Lion,<ref>''The Kinematograph Year Book'', 1954 edition, London: Odhams Press Limited, 1954, p. 22.</ref> and it began playing on American television in September 1953. "Roughly reproduced slapstick museum piece, it's most likely to amuse those too young to remember the real thing," reported Josh Billings in London's ''Kinematograph Weekly''.<ref>Josh Billings, ''Kinematograph Weekly'', May 7, 1953, p. 23.</ref> American television syndicators agreed, and marketed ''Life with Buster Keaton'' as a children's show. It continued to play for years afterward on small, low-budget stations.
 
[[File:Buster Keaton Twilight Zone 1961.JPG|thumb|upright|Keaton as a time traveler in the 1961 ''Twilight Zone'' episode "[[Once Upon a Time (The Twilight Zone)|Once Upon a Time]]"]]

Keaton's periodic television appearances during the 1950s and 1960s helped to revive interest in his silent films. He appeared in the early television series ''[[Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town]]''. Whenever a TV show wanted to simulate silent-movie comedy, Keaton answered the call and guested in such successful series as ''[[The Ken Murray Show]]'', ''[[You Asked for It]]'', ''[[The Garry Moore Show]]'', and ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]''. Well into his fifties, Keaton successfully recreated his old routines, including one stunt in which he propped one foot onto a table, then swung the second foot up next to it and held the awkward position in midair for a moment before crashing to the stage floor. [[Garry Moore]] recalled, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all those falls, and he said, 'I'll show you.' He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. So that's how he did it—it ''hurt''—but you had to care enough not to care."

=== Silent films revived ===
In 1954, Buster and Eleanor met movie-theater manager [[Raymond Rohauer]], with whom they developed a business partnership to re-release his films. Actor [[James Mason]] had bought the Keatons' house and found numerous cans of films, among which was Keaton's long-lost classic ''[[The Boat (1921 film)|The Boat]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2009/24/5-for-the-day-james-mason |title=The House Next Door: 5 for the Day: James Mason |publisher=www.slantmagazine.com |date=August 24, 2009 |access-date=July 15, 2014}}</ref> Keaton had prints of the features ''[[Three Ages]]'', ''[[Sherlock Jr.]]'', ''[[Steamboat Bill, Jr.]]'', and ''[[College (1927 film)|College]]'' (missing one reel), and the shorts "The Boat" and "[[My Wife's Relations]]". Rohauer instructed Keaton to approach Mason for the films, but Mason decided to donate them to the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]].{{sfn|Curtis|2022|p=577}} Rohauer then formed a new legal entity, Buster Keaton Productions, which gave Rohauer legal access to the old films at the Academy.

On April 3, 1957, Keaton was surprised by [[Ralph Edwards]] for the weekly NBC program ''[[This Is Your Life (American franchise)|This Is Your Life]]''. The program also promoted the release of the fictionalized film biography ''[[The Buster Keaton Story]]'' with [[Donald O'Connor]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/calendar/calendardetails.aspx?details_type=2&id=373 |title=Series Details |publisher=Cinema.ucla.edu |access-date=February 17, 2010}}</ref> In December 1958, Keaton was a guest star in the episode "A Very Merry Christmas" of ''[[The Donna Reed Show]]'' on ABC. He returned to the program in 1965 in the episode "Now You See It, Now You Don't".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0564206/ |title="The Donna Reed Show" A Very Merry Christmas (1958) |website=[[IMDb]] |access-date=July 7, 2024}}</ref> In August 1960, Keaton played mute King Sextimus the Silent in the national touring company of the Broadway musical ''[[Once Upon A Mattress]]''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase|last=Meade |first=Marion|year=1997|publisher=Da Capo |isbn=0-306-80802-1|page=284}}</ref> In 1961, he starred in ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]'' episode "[[Once Upon a Time (The Twilight Zone)|Once Upon a Time]]", which included both silent and sound sequences. He worked with comedian [[Ernie Kovacs]] on a television pilot tentatively titled "Medicine Man", shooting scenes for it on January 12, 1962—the day before Kovacs died in a car crash. "Medicine Man" was completed but not aired.<ref name="Last">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=szoaAAAAIBAJ&pg=4585,4182020|date=February 8, 1962|last=Spiro|first=J. D.|title=Ernie Kovacs' Last Interview|work=The Milwaukee Journal|access-date=October 16, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=March 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

==Promotional and commercial films==
Buster Keaton found steady work as an actor in TV commercials for Colgate, Alka-Seltzer, U.S. Steel, 7-Up, RCA Victor, Phillips 66, Milky Way, Ford Motors, Minit-Rub, and Budweiser, among others.{{sfn|Blesh|1967|p=367}} In a series of pantomime television commercials for Simon Pure Beer made in 1962 by Jim Mohr in [[Buffalo, New York]], Keaton revisited some of the gags from his silent-film days.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/buster-keaton-for-simon-pure-beer/|title=Buster Keaton For Simon Pure Beer&nbsp;– Brookston Beer Bulletin|date=October 4, 2015|newspaper=Brookston Beer Bulletin|language=en-US|access-date=October 11, 2016}}</ref>

In 1961, Keaton appeared in promotional films for [[Maryvale, Phoenix|Maryvale]], a housing development in the western part of [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Buster Keaton in Maryvale, Arizona in 1961 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw9QX-8nKCg |website=YouTube | date=May 2, 2016 |access-date=March 23, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Buster Keaton at Maryvale Shopping City in 1961 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1KLYGIMRJ0 |website=YouTube | date=May 2, 2016 |access-date=March 23, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Maryvale, Arizona Golf Course in 1961 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7n_10HDAOo |website=YouTube | date=May 2, 2016 |access-date=March 23, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Buster Keaton at the Bowlero in 1961, Maryvale, Arizona |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cphMoBMMSt0 |website=YouTube | date=May 2, 2016 |access-date=March 23, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Buster Keaton at the Lantern Inn in 1961, Maryvale, Arizona |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyc7xviffsM |website=YouTube | date=May 2, 2016 |access-date=March 23, 2022}}</ref>

[[File:Buster Keaton Joe E Brown Route 66 1962.JPG|thumb|right|upright|With [[Joe E. Brown]] in the 1962 ''[[Route 66 (TV series)|Route 66]]'' episode "Journey to Nineveh"]]

==Return to feature films==
In 1960, Keaton returned to MGM for the final time, playing a lion tamer in a [[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960 film)|1960 adaptation]] of [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]''. Much of the film was shot on location on the [[Sacramento River]], which doubled for the [[Mississippi River]] setting of Twain's book.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960) |first=Bosley | last=Crowther |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 4, 1960 |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E04E6D7163CEF3ABC4C53DFBE66838B679EDE |author-link=Bosley Crowther}}</ref> In 1962 he signed on for a Canadian musical comedy feature, ''Ten Girls Ago'', starring [[teen idol]] [[Dion Di Mucci|Dion]] and featuring Keaton, [[Bert Lahr]], and [[Eddie Foy, Jr.]] Keaton filmed his scenes as arranged, but the film endured a host of production problems and was never released.

Keaton had a cameo in the all-star comedy ''[[It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World]]'' (1963), appearing near the end of the film as Jimmy. He assists [[Spencer Tracy]]'s character, Captain C. G. Culpepper, by readying Culpepper's ultimately unused boat for his abortive escape. (The restored version of that film, released in 2013, contains a scene where Jimmy and Culpepper talk on the telephone. Lost after the comedy epic's "[[Roadshow theatrical release|roadshow]]" exhibition, the audio of that scene was discovered and combined with still pictures to recreate the scene.)

In 1964, Keaton was featured in his first theatrical film series since 1941. [[American International Pictures]] hired him to furnish comedy scenes for its successful ''Beach Party'' pictures.  Keaton appeared in four: ''[[Pajama Party (film)|Pajama Party]]'' (1964), ''[[Beach Blanket Bingo]]'', ''[[How to Stuff a Wild Bikini]]'', and ''[[Sergeant Deadhead]]'' (all 1965).  Director [[William Asher]] recalled:

{{blockquote|I always loved Buster Keaton.... He would bring me bits and routines. He'd say, "How about this?" and it would just be this wonderful, inventive stuff.<ref>{{cite news|title=Beach Blanket Buster |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/149371262/Interview-Beach-movie-director-William-Asher-on-Buster-Keaton |author-link=Frank Lovece |first=Frank |last=Lovece |work=Video |date=February 1987 |access-date=August 31, 2013 |archive-date=October 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013223359/http://www.scribd.com/doc/149371262/Interview-Beach-movie-director-William-Asher-on-Buster-Keaton |url-status=live |df=mdy }}</ref>}}

Keaton's new popularity in movies prompted Columbia Pictures to re-release some of his vintage-1940 two-reel comedies to theaters.<ref>''Boxoffice'', June 22, 1964, p. 10.</ref> Columbia's home-movie division also sold two shorts, ''[[Pardon My Berth Marks]]'' and ''[[So You Won't Squawk]]'', in abridged form on silent 8mm film.

During the autumn of 1964 Keaton was in Canada, starring in the color featurette ''[[The Railrodder]]''<!--this is ''not'' a spelling error!--> for the [[National Film Board of Canada]]. He traveled from one end of Canada to the other on a motorized [[handcar]], wearing his traditional [[pork pie hat]] and performing gags similar to those in films that he made 50 years before. A black-and-white companion film, ''[[Buster Keaton Rides Again]]'' (1965), documented Keaton at work during ''The Railrodder'', staging, improving, and rejecting gags on location.

In 1965, he appeared on the CBS television special ''A Salute to Stan Laurel'', a tribute to the comedian and friend of Keaton who had died earlier that year. He also played the central role in [[Samuel Beckett]]'s experimental project ''[[Film (film)|Film]]'' (1965), directed by [[Alan Schneider]]. 

American International co-produced an Italian comedy, ''Due Marines e un Generale'', co-starring the Italian comedy team of [[Franco and Ciccio]]. To make it more suitable for American audiences, the studio sent Buster Keaton, [[Fred Clark]], and [[Martha Hyer]] to join the cast and crew in Italy. (While in Italy, Keaton made an appearance at the Venice Film Festival.) The completed film was released in 1966 as ''[[Due Marines e un Generale|War Italian Style]]''; his performance (as a German general) is almost entirely in pantomime. 

For his next assignment, Keaton departed Italy for Spain, where [[Richard Lester]]'s ''[[A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (film)|A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]]'' was filmed in September–November 1965. Keaton amazed the cast and crew by doing many of his own stunts. His increasingly ill health compelled director Lester to save Keaton's strength for the major stunts and use a double for distant, routine shots of Keaton running. 

Keaton's final appearance on film was in ''[[The Scribe (film)|The Scribe]]'', a 1966 safety film produced in Toronto by the Construction Safety Associations of Ontario: he died shortly after completing it.<ref name="Thames Television"/>

== Style and themes ==
=== Use of parody ===
[[File:The Frozen North (1922) - 2.JPG|thumb|upright|left|Buster Keaton in ''The Frozen North'' (1922)]]
[[File:Buster Keaton and a Spanish journalist.png|thumb|upright|left|[[Gilbert Roland]] (left) with Keaton in [[San Sebastián, Spain|San Sebastián]], [[Spain]], August 1930]]

Keaton started experimenting with [[parody]] during his vaudeville years, where most frequently his performances involved impressions and burlesques of other performers' acts. Most of these parodies targeted acts with which Keaton had shared the bill.<ref name="p27">{{cite book |last=Knopf |first=Robert |title=The Theater and Cinema of Buster Keaton |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fU5qDx7tawIC&pg=PA27 27]}}</ref> When Keaton transposed his experience in vaudeville to film, in many works he parodied melodramas.<ref name="p27" /> Other favorite targets were cinematic plots, structures and devices.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mast |first=Gerald |date=1979 |title=The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qVN2q13uHt0C&pg=PA135 135]}}</ref>

One of his most biting parodies is ''[[The Frozen North]]'' (1922), a satirical take on [[William S. Hart]]'s Western melodramas, like ''[[Hell's Hinges]]'' (1916) and ''[[The Narrow Trail]]'' (1917). Keaton parodied the tired formula of the melodramatic transformation from bad guy to good guy, which Hart's characters went through, known as "the good badman".<ref name="Bal" /> He wears a small version of Hart's campaign hat from the [[Spanish–American War]] and a [[six-shooter]] on each thigh, and during the scene in which he shoots the neighbor and her husband, he reacts with thick glycerin tears, a trademark of Hart's.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VcVohkED9e4C&pg=PA23|title=Laurel & Hardy|isbn=9780313251726|last1=Gehring|first1=Wes D.|year=1990|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref> Audiences of the 1920s recognized the parody and thought the film hysterically funny. However, Hart himself was not amused by Keaton's antics, particularly the crying scene, and did not speak to Keaton for two years after he had seen the film.<ref name="pp95">{{cite book |last1=Keaton |first1=Eleanor |last2=Vance |first2=Jeffrey |title=Buster Keaton Remembered |publisher=H.N. Abrams |date=2001 |page=95}}</ref> The film's opening [[intertitle]]s give it its mock-serious tone, and are taken from "[[The Shooting of Dan McGrew]]" by [[Robert W. Service]].<ref name="pp95" />

In ''[[The Playhouse (film)|The Playhouse]]'' (1921), he parodied his contemporary [[Thomas H. Ince]], Hart's producer, who indulged in over-crediting himself in his film productions. The short also featured the impression of a performing monkey which was likely derived from a co-biller's act (called ''[[Peter the Great#In popular culture|Peter the Great]]'').<ref name="p27" /> ''[[Three Ages]]'' (1923), his first feature-length film, is a parody of [[D. W. Griffith]]'s ''[[Intolerance (film)|Intolerance]]'' (1916), from which it replicates the three inter-cut shorts structure.<ref name="p27" /> ''Three Ages'' also featured parodies of Bible stories, like those of [[Samson]] and [[Daniel (biblical figure)|Daniel]].<ref name="Bal">{{cite book |last=Balducci |first=Anthony |date=2011 |title=The Funny Parts: A History of Film Comedy Routines and Gags |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=pSa-fqnL7iIC&pg=PA231 231]}}</ref> Keaton directed the film, along with [[Edward F. Cline]]. By this time, Keaton had further developed his distinct signature style that consisted of lucidity and precision along with acrobatics of ballistic precision and kineticism.<ref name="davisbbc">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220121-why-buster-keaton-is-todays-most-influential-actor |title=Why Buster Keaton is today's most influential actor |work=BBC Culture |last=Davis |first=Nicole |date=January 23, 2022 |access-date=February 28, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Stevens |first=Dana |author-link=Dana Stevens (critic) |year=2022 |title=Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema and the Invention of the 20th Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s7UYEAAAQBAJ |location=New York |publisher=Atria Books |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=s7UYEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 189] |isbn=9781501134197 |oclc=1285369307}}</ref> Critic and film historian Imogen Sara Smith stated about Keaton's style:

{{blockquote|the coolness and subtlety of his style [is] very cinematic in terms of recognising that the camera can pick up very, very small effects<ref name="davisbbc"/>}}

=== Body language ===
Film critic [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] later described Keaton's style of comedy: "Buster plainly is a man inclined towards a belief in nothing but mathematics and absurdity ... like a number that has always been searching for the right equation. Look at his face—as beautiful but as inhuman as a butterfly—and you see that utter failure to identify sentiment."<ref>Thomson, David, ''Have you Seen...?'', Alfred A. Knopf Publishing, 2008, p. 767.</ref> [[Gilberto Perez]] commented on "Keaton's genius as an actor to keep a face so nearly deadpan and yet render it, by subtle inflections, so vividly expressive of inner life. His large, deep eyes are the most eloquent feature; with merely a stare, he can convey a wide range of emotions, from longing to mistrust, from puzzlement to sorrow."<ref>Perez Gilberto 'The Material Ghost—On Keaton and Chaplin' 1998</ref> Critic [[Anthony Lane]] also noted Keaton's body language:

{{blockquote|The traditional Buster stance requires that he remain upstanding, full of backbone, looking ahead... [in ''[[The General (1926 film)|The General]]''] he clambers onto the roof of his locomotive and leans gently forward to scan the terrain, with the breeze in his hair and adventure zipping toward him around the next bend. It is the ''angle'' that you remember: the figure perfectly straight but tilted forward, like the [[Spirit of Ecstasy]] on the hood of a Rolls-Royce... [in ''[[The Three Ages]]''], he drives a low-grade automobile over a bump in the road, and the car just ''crumbles'' beneath him. Rerun it on video, and you can see Buster riding the collapse like a surfer, hanging onto the steering wheel, coming beautifully to rest as the wave of wreckage breaks.<ref>Lane, Anthony, ''Nobody's Perfect'', Knopf Publishing, 2002, pgs. 560–561</ref>}}

Film historian [[Jeffrey Vance]] wrote:

{{blockquote|Buster Keaton's comedy endures not just because he had a face that belongs on Mount Rushmore, at once hauntingly immovable and classically American, but because that face was attached to one of the most gifted actors and directors who ever graced the screen. Evolved from the knockabout upbringing of the vaudeville stage, Keaton's comedy is a whirlwind of hilarious, technically precise, adroitly executed, and surprising gags, very often set against a backdrop of visually stunning set pieces and locations—all this masked behind his unflinching, stoic veneer.<ref>Vance, Jeffrey. "Introduction." Keaton, Eleanor and Jeffrey Vance. Buster Keaton Remembered. Harry N. Abrams, 2001, pg. 33. {{ISBN|0-8109-4227-5}}</ref>}}

===Pork-pie hats===
[[File:Buster Keaton John Decker Picture-Play Magazine 1925.jpg|thumb|upright|Buster Keaton caricature by [[John Decker (artist)|John Decker]] from ''Picture-Play'' magazine, 1925]]

Keaton designed and modified his own [[pork pie hat]]s during his career. In 1964, he told an interviewer that in making "this particular pork pie", he "started with a good [[Stetson]] and cut it down", stiffening the brim with sugar water.<ref name="howto" /> The hats were often destroyed during Keaton's wild film antics; some were given away as gifts and some were snatched by souvenir hunters. Keaton said he was lucky if he used only six hats in making a film. He estimated that he and his wife Eleanor made thousands of hats during his career. Keaton observed that during his silent period, such a hat cost him around two dollars (~$27–33 in 2022 dollars); at the time of his interview, he said, they cost almost $13 (~$116 in 2022 dollars).<ref name="howto">{{cite web |url=http://www.busterkeaton.com/howto.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980203183238/http://www.busterkeaton.com/howto.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 3, 1998 |title=''How To Make A Porkpie Hat''. Buster Keaton, interviewed in 1964 at the Movieland Wax Museum by Henry Gris |publisher=Busterkeaton.com |access-date=February 17, 2010 }}</ref>

== Personal life ==
[[File:Buster Keaton with Family 1922.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Keaton with [[Natalie Talmadge]] and Joseph in 1922]]
On May 31, 1921, Keaton married [[Natalie Talmadge]], his leading lady in ''[[Our Hospitality]]'', and the sister of actresses [[Norma Talmadge]] (married to his business partner [[Joseph M. Schenck]] at the time) and [[Constance Talmadge]], at Norma's home in [[Bayside, Queens]]. They had two sons: Joseph, called James<ref>Smith, Imogen Sara (2008). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=cg__i4up2jsC&pg=PA140 Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221218001513/https://books.google.com/books?id=cg__i4up2jsC&pg=PA140 |date=December 18, 2022 }}''. Gambit Publishing. p. 140. {{ISBN|0967591740}}. Retrieved October 20, 2019.</ref> (June 2, 1922 – February 14, 2007),<ref>[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JGNL-55S James Talmadge] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160626092826/https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JGNL-55S |date=June 26, 2016 }} at the United States Social Security Death Index via FamilySearch.org. Retrieved on December 7, 2015. "Attached to: Joseph Talmadge Keaton 1922–2007"</ref> and Robert (February 3, 1924 – July 19, 2009).<ref>[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VMCB-S38 Robert Talmadge] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160626141828/https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VMCB-S38 |date=June 26, 2016 }} at the United States Social Security Death Index via FamilySearch.org. Retrieved on December 7, 2015</ref>

After Robert's birth, the marriage began to suffer.<ref name=TCMSundays>{{cite web|url=http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/161352%7C0/Buster-Keaton-Profile.html |title=Buster Keaton: Sundays in October | first=Scott |last=McGee|publisher=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=October 19, 2017}} Note: Source misspells Keaton's frequent appellation as "Great Stoneface".</ref> Talmadge decided not to have any more children, banishing Keaton to a separate bedroom; he dated actresses [[Dorothy Sebastian]] and [[Kathleen Key]] during this period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McPherson |first1=Edward |title=Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat |date=2007 |publisher=Newmarket Press |isbn=978-1557046642}}</ref> Natalie's extravagance was another factor, as she spent up to a third of her husband's earnings.

It was clear that Mr. Keaton and Mrs. Keaton had different ideas and lifestyles. Keaton had designed and built a modest but comfortable, cottage-like home as a surprise wedding gift for his bride. When she saw the little house, she flew into a rage: she thought the house was much too small, with no place for servants. Realizing that his bride wanted a palace, he sold the cottage to MGM executive [[Eddie Mannix]] at cost, and commissioned [[Gene Verge Sr.]] in 1926 to build a {{convert|10000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} estate in [[Beverly Hills, California|Beverly Hills]] for $300,000 ($5,141,000 in 2024). Neighbors included [[Tom Mix]] and [[Rudolph Valentino]]. Among famous subsequent residents were renter [[Marlene Dietrich]] and, later, [[Cary Grant]] with his wife, heiress [[Barbara Hutton]]. [[James Mason]] and his wife [[Pamela Mason|Pamela]] purchased the home in 1948.<ref name="historic">{{cite web|url=http://www.beverlyhills.org/cbhfiles/storage/files/6333100111590038901/HistoricResourcesInventory%281985-1986%29.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.beverlyhills.org/cbhfiles/storage/files/6333100111590038901/HistoricResourcesInventory%281985-1986%29.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|title=The City of Beverly Hills: Historic Resources Inventory (1985–1986)|access-date=October 3, 2019}}</ref> 

After attempts at reconciliation, Natalie  divorced Buster in 1932, and changed the boys' surname to "Talmadge".<ref name=cox>Cox, Melissa Talmadge, in {{cite web |url=http://www.filmradar.com/interviews/item/melissa_talmadge_cox_buster_keatons_granddaughter/ |title=Interviews: Melissa Talmadge Cox (Buster Keaton's Granddaughter) |date=May 6, 2004 |first=Karie |last=Bible |access-date=December 7, 2015 |archive-date=December 8, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208203150/http://www.filmradar.com/interviews/item/melissa_talmadge_cox_buster_keatons_granddaughter/ |url-status=dead |quote=My Dad was christened Joseph Talmadge Keaton. When my grandparents divorced, my grandmother took her maiden name back and his name legally became Talmadge.}}</ref> On July 1, 1942, the 18-year-old Robert and the 20-year-old Joseph made the name change permanent after their mother won a court petition.<ref>[https://ladailymirror.com/2012/06/30/keaton-sons-change-names-to-talmadge/ "Keaton Sons Change Names to Talmadge"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027021118/https://ladailymirror.com/2012/06/30/keaton-sons-change-names-to-talmadge/ |date=October 27, 2021 }} ''ladailymirror.com'' (June 30, 2012); retrieved October 26, 2021</ref>

With the failure of his marriage and the loss of his independence as a filmmaker, Keaton descended into alcoholism.<ref name=TCMSundays /> He was briefly institutionalized, according to the Turner Classic Movies documentary ''So Funny It Hurt''. He escaped a straitjacket with tricks learned from [[Harry Houdini]]. In 1933, he married his nurse Mae Scriven during an alcoholic binge, about which he later claimed to remember nothing. Scriven claimed that she did not know Keaton's real first name until after the marriage. She filed for divorce in 1935 after finding him with Leah Clampitt Sewell, the wife of millionaire [[Barton Sewell]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Buster Keaton's Second Wife Sues Him for Divorce |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19350718&id=RwoxAAAAIBAJ&pg=2071,3248409 |newspaper=Reading Eagle |date=July 18, 1935 |access-date=May 7, 2012}}</ref> in a hotel in Santa Barbara. They divorced in 1936<ref>{{cite news |title=Keaton Divorce Made Final |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1936/10/28/88081224.html?pageNumber=31 |access-date=September 29, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=October 28, 1936 |page=31}}</ref> at great financial cost to Keaton.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dardis |first1=Tom |title=Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down |date=1979 |publisher=Andre Deutsch |isbn=978-0233971377}}</ref> After undergoing aversion therapy, he stopped drinking for five years.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Fox |first=Charlie |title=Buster Keaton's Cure |url=https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/56/fox.php |access-date=July 7, 2024 |magazine=[[Cabinet Magazine]] |issue=56 |date=Winter 2014–2015}}</ref>

[[File:Press photo of Buster and Eleanor Keaton, 1965 (front) (cropped).jpg|right|thumb|Keaton and wife [[Eleanor Keaton|Eleanor]] in 1965]] 
On May 29, 1940, Keaton married [[Eleanor Keaton|Eleanor Norris]], who was 23 years his junior. She has been credited with salvaging his life and career.<ref>Vance, Jeffrey. "Introduction." Keaton, Eleanor and Jeffrey Vance. Buster Keaton Remembered. Harry N. Abrams, 2001, pg. 29. {{ISBN|0-8109-4227-5}}</ref> The marriage lasted until his death. Between 1947 and 1954, the couple appeared regularly in the [[Cirque Medrano]] in Paris as a double act. She came to know his routines so well that she often participated in them in television revivals.

[[File:Keaton grave.JPG|thumb|right|Keaton's grave at [[Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)]]]]

== Death ==
Keaton died of [[lung cancer]] on February 1, 1966, aged 70, in [[Woodland Hills, Los Angeles]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Buster Keaton, 70, Dies on Coast. Poker-Faced Comedian of Films.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1004.html |quote=Buster Keaton, the poker-faced comic whose studies in exquisite frustration amused two generations of film audiences, died of lung cancer today at his home in suburban Woodland Hills. |work=[[The New York Times]] | date=February 2, 1966|access-date=July 4, 2008}}</ref> Despite being diagnosed with cancer in January 1966, he was never told he was terminally ill. Keaton thought that he was recovering from a severe case of [[bronchitis]]. Confined to a hospital during his final days, Keaton was restless and paced the room endlessly, desiring to return home. In a British television documentary about his career, his widow Eleanor told producers from [[Thames Television]] that Keaton was up out of bed and moving around, and even played cards with friends who came to visit the day before he died.<ref>Turner Classic Movies.</ref> He was buried at [[Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)|Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery]] in [[Hollywood Hills]], [[California]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 25, 2022 |title=Los Angeles Review of Books |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/buster-keaton-a-timeless-comedian/ |access-date=September 8, 2022 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |language=en}}</ref>

== Influence and legacy ==
[[File:Los Angeles (California, USA), Hollywood Boulevard, Buster Keaton -- 2012 -- 5002.jpg|thumb|left|Keaton's star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]] ]]

Keaton was presented with a 1959 [[Academy Honorary Award]] at the [[32nd Academy Awards]], held in April 1960.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/99741%7C25179/Buster-Keaton/biography.html |title=Buster Keaton |publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]]| access-date= January 21, 2018 }}</ref> Keaton has two stars on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]]: 6619 Hollywood Boulevard (for motion pictures); and 6225 Hollywood Boulevard (for television).

Six of his films have been included in the [[National Film Registry]], making him one of the most honored filmmakers on that list: ''[[One Week (1920 film)|One Week]]'' (1920)'', [[Cops (film)|Cops]] (''1922)'', [[Sherlock Jr.]]'' (1924)'', [[The General (1926 film)|The General]]'' (1926)'', [[Steamboat Bill, Jr.]]'', and ''[[The Cameraman]]'' (both 1928)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.busterkeaton.org/overview |title=Services 2 — The Damfinos |publisher=Busterkeaton.org |date=October 3, 2020 |accessdate=February 26, 2022 |archive-date=February 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201191453/https://www.busterkeaton.org/overview |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A 1957 film biography, ''[[The Buster Keaton Story]]'', starring [[Donald O'Connor]] as Keaton was released.<ref name="p34" /> The screenplay, by [[Sidney Sheldon]], who also directed the film, was loosely based on Keaton's life but contained many factual errors and merged his three wives into one character.<ref>{{cite web|last=Erickson |first=Hal |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/86310/The-Buster-Keaton-Story/overview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027114441/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/86310/The-Buster-Keaton-Story/overview |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 27, 2009 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |title=The Buster Keaton Story |author-link=Hal Erickson (author) |date=2009 |access-date=February 17, 2010}}</ref> A 1987 documentary, ''[[Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow]]'', directed by [[Kevin Brownlow]] and [[David Gill (film historian)|David Gill]], won two [[Emmy Award]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.emmys.com/awards/nominations/award-search?search_api_views_fulltext=Buster+Keaton+a+Hard+Act+to+follow&submit=Search&search_api_views_fulltext_1=&search_api_views_fulltext_3=&search_api_views_fulltext_2=&search_api_views_fulltext_4=&field_nominations_year=1949-01-01+00%3A00%3A00&field_nominations_year_1=2014-01-01+00%3A00%3A00&field_nomination_category=All |title=Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (American Masters) |publisher=Emmys.com |access-date=June 22, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180313224310/http://www.emmys.com/awards/nominations/award-search?search_api_views_fulltext=Buster+Keaton+a+Hard+Act+to+follow&submit=Search&search_api_views_fulltext_1=&search_api_views_fulltext_3=&search_api_views_fulltext_2=&search_api_views_fulltext_4=&field_nominations_year=1949-01-01+00%3A00%3A00&field_nominations_year_1=2014-01-01+00%3A00%3A00&field_nomination_category=All |archive-date=March 13, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[International Buster Keaton Society]] was founded on October 4, 1992: Keaton'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, authors, artists, graphic novelists, musicians, and designers, as well as those who simply admire the magic of Buster Keaton. The Society's nickname, the "Damfinos", draws its name from a boat in Keaton's 1921 comedy, ''[[The Boat (1921 film)|The Boat]]''.

[[File:Buster Keaton in costume.jpg|thumb|190px|upright|Keaton in costume with his signature [[pork pie hat]], c. 1939]]

In his essay ''Film-arte, film-antiartístico'', artist [[Salvador Dalí]] declared the works of Keaton to be prime examples of "anti-artistic" filmmaking, calling them "pure poetry". In 1925, Dalí produced a collage titled ''The Marriage of Buster Keaton'' featuring an image of the comedian in a seated pose, staring straight ahead with his trademark boater hat resting in his lap.<ref>Elder, R. Bruce (2015). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=mhXaAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA623 Dada, Surrealism, and the Cinematic Effect] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221218001513/https://books.google.com/books?id=mhXaAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA623&dq= |date=December 18, 2022 }}''. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. p. 623. {{ISBN|1554586410}}.</ref>

Film critic [[Roger Ebert]] stated, "The greatest of the silent clowns is Buster Keaton, not only because of what he did, but because of how he did it. [[Harold Lloyd]] made us laugh as much, [[Charlie Chaplin]] moved us more deeply, but no one had more courage than Buster."<ref>Ebert, Roger, and Mary Corliss (2005). ''The Great Movies II''. New York: Broadway Books. p. 93. {{ISBN|9780307485663}}.</ref> In his presentation for ''[[The General (1926 film)|The General]]'', filmmaker [[Orson Welles]] hailed Buster Keaton as "the greatest of all the clowns in the history of the cinema... a supreme artist, and I think one of the most beautiful people who was ever photographed". Welles said Keaton was "beyond all praise... a very great artist, and one of the most beautiful men I ever saw on the screen. He was also a great director. In the last analysis, no one came near him."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bogdanovich |first=Peter |title=[[This is Orson Welles]] |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=1998 |edition=Revised |pages=38}}</ref>

Filmmaker [[Mel Brooks]] has credited Keaton as a major influence, saying: "I owe (Buster) a lot on two levels: One for being such a great teacher for me as a filmmaker myself, and the other just as a human being watching this gifted person doing these amazing things. He made me believe in make-believe." He also admitted to borrowing the idea of the changing room scene in ''[[The Cameraman]]'' for his own film ''[[Silent Movie]]''.<ref name="Brooks">{{cite web|url=http://www.tipjar.com/dan/melbrooks.htm|title=Mel Brooks on Buster Keaton--The Lybarger Links Interview|website=www.tipjar.com|access-date=May 31, 2018|archive-date=May 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170522192228/http://www.tipjar.com/dan/melbrooks.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Keaton's ''[[Sherlock Jr]]''., in which he walks into the movie he is projecting, was an influence [[Woody Allen]]'s ''[[The Purple Rose of Cairo]],'' in which a character walks out of a movie and into real life''.''<ref>{{Citation |title=The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) - IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089853/trivia/ |language=en |access-date=January 15, 2023}}</ref> [[George Lucas]] was influenced by Keaton for the character of [[Jar Jar Binks]] in ''[[Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace]]''. Most notably he borrowed from ''The General'', ''The Navigator,'' and ''Seven Chances''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-04-15 |title=Jar Jar Binks actor based his Star Wars character on this movie legend |url=https://www.thedigitalfix.com/star-wars/jar-jar-binks-actor-character-on-movie-legend |access-date=2024-02-20 |website=The Digital Fix |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1994, caricaturist [[Al Hirschfeld]] penned a series of silent film stars for the [[United States Postal Service|United States Post Office]], including [[Rudolph Valentino]] and Keaton.<ref>[[Associated Press]], Polly Anderson, January 20, 2003. "Famed Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld Dies".</ref> Hirschfeld said that modern film stars were more difficult to depict, that silent film comedians such as [[Laurel and Hardy]] and Keaton "looked like their caricatures".<ref>Leopold, David. [https://books.google.com/books?id=L-D7ZvwQUIAC ''Hirschfeld's Hollywood''], Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, p. 20.</ref>

In 1996, ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' recognized Keaton as the seventh-greatest film director, writing that "More than [[Charlie Chaplin|Chaplin]], Keaton understood movies: He knew they consisted of a four-sided frame in which resided a malleable reality off which his persona could bounce. A vaudeville child star, Keaton grew up to be a tinkerer, an athlete, a visual mathematician; his films offer belly laughs of mind-boggling physical invention and a spacey determination that nears philosophical grandeur."<ref name="Entertainment Weekly"/>

Actor and stunt performer [[Johnny Knoxville]] cites Keaton as an inspiration when coming up with ideas for ''[[Jackass (franchise)|Jackass]]'' projects. He re-enacted a famous Keaton stunt for the finale of ''[[Jackass Number Two]]''.<ref name="Knoxville">{{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1541047,00.html |title=The Strange Behavior of Johnny Knoxville |last=Ressner |first=Jeffrey |date=September 29, 2006 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=May 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019063230/http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1541047,00.html |archive-date=October 19, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> Comedian [[Richard Lewis (comedian)|Richard Lewis]] stated that Keaton was his prime inspiration, and spoke of having a close friendship with Keaton's widow Eleanor. Lewis was particularly moved by the fact that Eleanor said his eyes looked like Keaton's.<ref>TCM voice-over, October 2011, "Buster Keaton Month".</ref>

In 2012, [[Kino Lorber]] released ''The Ultimate Buster Keaton Collection'', a 14-disc [[Blu-ray]] box set of Keaton's work, including 11 of his feature films.<ref name="DGA">{{cite journal |last=Rafferty |first=Terrence |title=DVD Classics: Laugh Out Loud |journal=DGA Quarterly |date=January 2013 |volume=Winter |url=http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/Categories/DVD-Classics.aspx?IID={F5122F4A-5C20-48DA-9A46-D9C8C04A26A1} |access-date=January 12, 2013}}</ref> In 2016, [[Tony Hale]] portrayed Keaton in an episode of ''[[Drunk History]]'' focusing on the silent comedian's supposed rivalry with [[Charlie Chaplin]], who was played by musician [[Billie Joe Armstrong]]. On June 16, 2018, the International Buster Keaton Society laid a four-foot plaque in honor of both Keaton and Charles Chaplin on the corner of the shared block (1021 Lillian Ave) where each had made many of their silent comedies in Hollywood.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.laweekly.com/arts/keaton-weekend-in-la-celebrates-the-great-silent-comedian-9517544|title=Keaton Weekend in L.A. Celebrates the Great Silent Comedian|first=Nathaniel|last=Bell|date=June 12, 2018|access-date=September 6, 2018|archive-date=August 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819150051/https://www.laweekly.com/arts/keaton-weekend-in-la-celebrates-the-great-silent-comedian-9517544|url-status=dead}}</ref> In honor of the event, the City of [[Los Angeles]] declared the date "Buster Keaton Day".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://hollywoodworldmagazine.com/2018/05/22/city-of-los-angeles-to-declare-june-16-2018-buster-keaton-day/|title=City of Los Angeles to declare June 16, 2018 "Buster Keaton Day"|date=May 22, 2018|access-date=December 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819182141/https://hollywoodworldmagazine.com/2018/05/22/city-of-los-angeles-to-declare-june-16-2018-buster-keaton-day/|archive-date=August 19, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2018, filmmaker [[Peter Bogdanovich]] released ''[[The Great Buster: A Celebration]]'', a documentary about Keaton's life, career, and legacy. In 2022, two works on Keaton appeared within a month of each other. Critic [[Dana Stevens (critic)|Dana Stevens]] published a cultural history of Keaton's life and work, ''Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stevens |first=Dana |author-link=Dana Stevens (critic) |date=January 25, 2022 |title=Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema and the Invention of the 20th Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s7UYEAAAQBAJ |location=New York |publisher=Atria Books |isbn=9781501134197 |oclc=1285369307}}</ref> It was followed a month later by [[James Curtis (biographer)|James Curtis]]' biography ''Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Curtis |first=James |author-link=James Curtis (biographer) |date=February 15, 2022 |title=Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sq5hEAAAQBAJ |location=New York |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=9780385354219 |oclc=1252413511}}</ref> In 2023, Keaton's life and work was depicted in the graphic novel biography ''Buster: A Life in Pictures'', written by Ryan Barnett and illustrated by Matthew Tavares.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barnett |first=Ryan |year=2023 |title=Buster: A Life in Pictures |others=Illustrated by Matthew Tavares |location=Montreal |publisher=Knockabout Media |isbn=9781778288302 |oclc=1371294919}}</ref>

[[Anthony Lane]] wrote: "He was just too good, in too many ways, too soon... No action thriller of the last, blood-streaked decade has matched the kinetic violence at the end of ''Steamboat Bill, Jr.'', in which a storm pulls Keaton through one random catastrophe after another. Anyone who thinks that the movie-within-a-movie is a recent conceit, the province of ''The Purple Rose of Cairo'' and ''Last Action Hero'', should check out ''Sherlock Jr.'', a film in which Keaton ''dreams'' himself into another film: he strolls up the aisle of the theatre, hops into the action, and fights to keep up with the breakneck changes of scene. As for ''The General'', where do you start? It's a film about a train, but it's also a spirited romance, peppered with bickering and longing, and its evocation of the Civil War period has never been surpassed... He is the first action hero; to be precise, he is a small, pale-faced American who is startled, tripped, drenched and inspired into ''becoming'' a hero."<ref>{{cite magazine| author=Antony Lane| title=The Fall Guy| date=October 15, 1995| magazine=The New Yorker| url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/10/23/buster-keaton-the-fall-guy}}</ref>

==Filmography==
{{Main|Buster Keaton filmography}}

'''Directed features:'''
*''[[Three Ages]]'' (1923)
*''[[Our Hospitality]]'' (1923)
*''[[Sherlock Jr.]]'' (1924)
*''[[The Navigator (1924 film)|The Navigator]]'' (1924)
*''[[Seven Chances]]'' (1925)
*''[[Go West (1925 film)|Go West]]'' (1925)
*''[[Battling Butler]]'' (1926)
*''[[The General (1926 film)|The General]]'' (1926)
*''[[College (1927 film)|College]]'' (1927)
*''[[Steamboat Bill, Jr.]]'' (1928)
*''[[The Cameraman]]'' (1928)
*''[[Spite Marriage]]'' (1929)

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* [[Agee, James]], "Comedy's Greatest Era" from ''[[Life Magazine|Life]]'' (September 5, 1949), reprinted in ''Agee on Film'' (1958), McDowell, Obolensky (2000), Modern Library
* Anobile, Richard J. (ed.) (1976), ''The Best of Buster: Classic Comedy Scenes Direct from the Films of Buster Keaton''. Crown Books.
* [[Benayoun, Robert]], ''The Look of Buster Keaton'' (1983) St. Martin's Press
* Bengtson, John (1999), ''Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton'', Santa Monica Press.
* {{Cite book |last=Blesh |first=Rudi |authorlink=Rudi Blesh |year=1967|url=https://archive.org/details/keaton0000bles/page/344/mode/2up|title=Keaton |publisher=Secker & Warburg|via=Internet Archive}}
* Brighton, Catherine (2008), ''Keep Your Eye on the Kid: The Early Years of Buster Keaton'', Roaring Brook Press. An illustrated children's book about Keaton's career.
* [[Brownlow, Kevin]], "Buster Keaton" from ''The Parade's Gone By''. Alfred A. Knopf (1968), University of California Press (1976)
* [[Byron, Stuart]] and Weis, Elizabeth (eds.) (1977), ''The National Society of Film Critics on Movie Comedy'', Grossman/Viking
* Carroll, Noel (2009), ''Comedy Incarnate: Buster Keaton, Physical Humor, and Bodily Coping'', Wiley-Blackwell
* [[James Curtis (biographer)|Curtis, James]], ''Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life,'' (2022) Alfred A. Knopf, Penguin Random House
* [[Dardis, Tom]], ''Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down'', Scribners (1979), Limelight Editions (2004)
* [[David Robinson (film critic)|Robinson, David]] (1969), ''Buster Keaton'', Indiana University Press, in association with [[British Film Institute]]
* [[Durgnat, Raymond]] (1970), "Self-Help with a Smile" from ''The Crazy Mirror: Hollywood Comedy and the American Image'', Dell
* Edmonds, Andy (1992), ''Frame-Up!: The Shocking Scandal That Destroyed Hollywood's Biggest Comedy Star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle'', Avon Books
* [[Everson, William K.]] (1978), ''American Silent Film'', Oxford University Press
* [[Gilliatt, Penelope]] (1973), "Buster Keaton" from ''Unholy Fools: Wits, Comics, Disturbers of the Peace'', Viking
* Horton, Andrew (1997), ''Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr.'' Cambridge University Press
* Keaton, Buster (with [[Charles Samuels]]) (1960), ''[https://archive.org/details/mywonderfulworld00bust My Wonderful World of Slapstick]'', Doubleday
* Keaton, Buster (2007), ''Buster Keaton: Interviews'' ([[Conversations with Filmmakers Series]]), University Press of Mississippi
* Keaton, Eleanor, and Vance, Jeffrey (2001), ''Buster Keaton Remembered'', Harry N. Abrams {{ISBN|0-8109-4227-5}}
* [[Walter Kerr|Kerr, Walter]] (1975), ''The Silent Clowns'', Alfred A. Knopf, (1990) Da Capo Press {{ISBN|0-394-46907-0}}
* Kline, Jim (1993), ''The Complete Films of Buster Keaton'', Carol Pub. Group
* Knopf, Robert (1999), ''The Theater and Cinema of Buster Keaton'', Princeton University Press {{ISBN|0-691-00442-0}}
* Lahue, Kalton C. (1966), ''World of Laughter: The Motion Picture Comedy Short, 1910–1930'', University of Oklahoma Press
* {{Interlanguage link|Jean-Patrick Lebel|fr|3=Jean-Patrick Lebel|lt=Lebel, Jean-Patrick}} (1967), ''Buster Keaton'', A.S. Barnes
* Maltin, Leonard (1978), ''The Great Movie Comedians'', Crown Books
* [[Maltin, Leonard]] (revised 1983), ''Selected Short Subjects'' (first published as ''The Great Movie Shorts'', 1972, Crown Books), Da Capo Press
* [[Mast, Gerald]] (1973, 2nd ed. 1979), ''The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies'', University of Chicago Press
* McCaffrey, Donald W. (1968), ''4 Great Comedians: Chaplin, Lloyd, Keaton, Langdon'' A.S. Barnes
* McPherson, Edward (2005), ''Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat'' Newmarket Press {{ISBN|1-55704-665-4}}
* [[Meade, Marion]] (1995), ''Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase'', HarperCollins
* Mitchell, Glenn (2003), ''A–Z of Silent Film Comedy'', B.T. Batsford Ltd.
* Moews, Daniel (1977), ''Keaton: The Silent Features Close Up'' University of California Press
* {{cite book |last1=Neibaur |first1=James L. |last2=Niemi |first2=Terri |title=Buster Keaton's Silent Shorts |publisher=Scarecrow Press |publication-place=Lanham Toronto Plymouth, UK |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-8108-8741-1}}
* Neibaur, James L. (2010), ''The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for MGM, Educational Pictures, and Columbia'', Scarecrow Press
* Neibaur, James L. (2006), ''Arbuckle and Keaton: Their 14 Film Collaborations'', McFarland & Co.
* Oderman, Stuart (2005), ''Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle: A Biography of the Silent Film Comedian'', McFarland & Co.
* Oldham, Gabriella (1996), ''Keaton's Silent Shorts: Beyond the Laughter'', Southern Illinois University Press
* Rapf, Joanna E. and Green, Gary L. (1995), ''Buster Keaton: A Bio-Bibliography'', Greenwood Press
* Robinson, David (1969), ''The Great Funnies: A History of Film Comedy''. E.P. Dutton.
* Scott, Oliver Lindsey (1995), ''Buster Keaton: The Little Iron Man''. Buster Books.
* Smith, Imogen Sara (2008), ''Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy''. Gambit Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-9675917-4-2}}.
* Staveacre, Tony (1987), ''Slapstick!: The Illustrated Story''. Angus & Robertson Publishers.
* [[Yallop, David]] (1976), ''The Day the Laughter Stopped: The True Story of Fatty Arbuckle''. St. Martin's Press.

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|d=no|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no|wikt=no|s=Author:Joseph Frank Keaton|commons=Category:Buster Keaton}}
* {{IMDb name|0000036}}
* {{Tcmdb name}}
* {{Rotten-tomatoes-person|buster_keaton|Buster Keaton}}
* [http://www.busterkeaton.org/ The International Buster Keaton Society]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127131107/https://www.busterkeaton.org/ |date=January 27, 2021 }}.
* [http://kansastravel.org/busterkeatonmuseum.htm Buster Keaton Museum]
* [http://www.actorscolony.com/ Buster Keaton and the Muskegon Connection]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111005190654/http://provocativepenguin.com/2011/08/five-easy-clips-buster-keaton/ Buster Keaton in Five Easy Clips] (archived)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051025084501/http://silentgents.com/PKeaton.html Buster Keaton Photo Galleries] (includes rare images of BK smiling and laughing; archived)

{{Buster Keaton|state=collapsed}}
{{Academy Honorary Award}}
{{Authority control}}

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