Buster keaton

 Do not try Buster Keaton stunts at home, ladies and gents, or you might die. Buster Keaton was a skilled stunt man that took many risks and those types of stunts can kill you, so much so that insurance companies won't let you do those stunts anymore. He is what you call a skilled expert and insanely lucky. He is also made of rubber.

Courtesy of Pinterest

Today we talk about one of the most hilarious comedians and stunt men I've ever seen. He started in silent movies with physical comedy. I'll go into three parts of his life; his acting, his stunts, and his life outside acting. 

His Acting

Not only was he an actor, but also a director, which is usually where seasoned actors who stick with Hollywood end up going if I've caught onto the pattern. He could also edit and write. He also did stunts that insurance companies will no longer sign off on. He was known for a straight face during comedy scenes, which earned him the nickname "the great stone face". Keaton transitioned from silent films to the talkies (movies with sound). For a while, he dealt with alcoholism, but he came back strong guest-staring in many movies and TV shows. Some have put him above Charlie Chaplin in their ranking of silent film stars. He did 19 short films and 10 silent films over 8 years.

His Stunts

Okay, here's where we really talk about his fame. Keaton's stunts, if done wrong, could have killed him. He's famous for these gutsy stuntwork films that are comedy gold. If he'd done one thing wrong he'd have never seen old age. This is why insurance companies won't allow actors to imitate his stunts at this point. Stunt men end up in hospitals often. We know this. What we don't want to see is dead actors. Keaton was one of a kind. 

Outside Acting

He started as a child vaudeville actor at age 5. At a few months old he nearly suffocated because he was accidentally shut in a trunk while his parents were busy performing, which led to him being left at the boarding house ever since that incident. Legend has it his family escaped from fires and trainwrecks. At nearly 3 years old he caught his finger in a clothing wringer and lost a joint, threw a brick at a tree and hit himself with it on accident, and was sucked out a window by a cyclone only to be gently put down a few streets back. This was when his stage career began and this was also when his parents came to the conclusion he'd be safer onstage. 

Courtesy of Pinterest

Joseph Frank (later Francis) Keaton was born to parents Joseph and Myra Keaton, Medicine show performers, on October 4, 1895. He allegedly used to crawl right on stage from the wings at 9 months old. The easiest way to care for him without interrupting the show was to bring him with them to their shows. The actresses and women in the show loved him. He at one point stood behind his father and mouthed the words of his father's monologue in the exact same costume - unrehearsed! He had talent and everyone could see it, so they included him in shows all the time. He'd rough house with his father, sing, dance, write comedy, play piano and ukelele, juggle, and do magic. As a kid, he didn't really have much public schooling, mostly tutors and his mother teaching him to fill in gaps. He turned out to be too entertaining to teachers and students, funnily enough. Less than one day of school proved that. 

The laws on child labor actually thought all the throwing around comedy onstage was abusive, though not a single bruise could be found on the child, and his parents often did get arrested. They tried to pass him off as a midget a few times to avoid that. Close friends and family have insisted he had a happy childhood and he was not abused at all. With the child labor people watching their every move it is unlikely that they could have gotten away with it. No bruises meant he was clearly not abused. The only thing Keaton said was that his father did drink, therefore he had to fend for himself often as he got older. His only real injury came from a train wreck. Joseph Keaton loved his son and was proud of him.

When Keaton was 21 his father became a violent alcoholic. The act wasn't quite the same and Keaton had to look out for himself a little more. He knew how to land, apparently, so he didn't get as much damage. According to Busterkeaton.org:

The article, curious in light of Joe's increasing on-stage violence, goes on to interview 19-year-old Buster:

“The funny thing about our act,” declared Buster after his final toss Tuesday, “is that dad gets the worst of it, although I’m the one who apparently receives the bruises . . . 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.”

— Detroit News, December 4, 1914

Courtesy of Pinterest

He quit in January 1917 and Keaton and his mother stranded Joseph Keaton in California temporarily. He immediately was signed to another act, given his stardom. He did some work with his mentor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, standing by him despite scandal, until Arbuckle died. He had a brief time as a cryptographer and entertainer during WWI (in France). 

Another thing about Keaton was his pain tolerance. His shoe got stuck in an elevator and he crushed his foot. Under strict orders to do nothing strenuous he filmed a dance number. Cue the Captain Picard face palm. The man was impervious to pain. 

On Our Hospitality (1923), he almost drowned in a river sequence. On The General (1926), he was knocked unconscious by a cannon. On the Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1927) set, he broke his nose (playing baseball), and the most remarkable of all, he broke his neck shooting a scene for Sherlock Jr. (1924). In the scene, he runs along the top of a train and then grabs a waterspout. Water gushes down on the track and Buster is obscured for a moment. During that moment, he was forced by the pressure of the water down onto the tracks, where he hit his neck. But if you watch the film closely, you see Buster get up and run off—still in the same take. It was years before he discovered what had given him those awful headaches. (courtesy of busterkeaton.org)

He married Natalie Talmadge in 1920, had two sons, and divorced in 1932. He had literally been kicked out of the bedroom after the second son was born. It was not a great marriage, but he loved her.

When he signed over to MGM he admitted that he'd made a mistake and given up his creativity. Chaplin and Lloyd had also advised him against it. 1932-34 were the worse years of his life. His friend Arbuckle died, his wife divorced him claiming he drank, two other friends died, he was sued for taxes and declared bankruptcy, he struggled with drinking, and he illegally married his second wife while drunk (which got plastered in headlines). And he was fired for refusal to work on inferior pictures. He was forced into a sanitarium in 1934, where he allegedly got out thanks to Houdini's secrets and got his life on track again. 

MGM did break him of some of his brilliance in film, though. He did keep doing acting after that, but it wasn't the same because he lost creative freedom. He did do theatre again. That brought him life. His best work was mostly when he had creative freedom to do what he wanted and didn't have to fight with studios that he wasn't running. 

He often laughed and smiled offscreen, though he'd go stonefaced when a camera pointed at him. He married again in 1940 to Eleanor Norris, who was 21 to his 44. They were happily married until he died of lung cancer in 1966 at age 70. His last film appearance was A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. 

“I think I have had the happiest and luckiest of lives. Maybe this is because I never expected as much as I got . . . And when the knocks came I felt it was no surprise. I had always known life was like that, full of uppercuts for the deserving and the undeserving alike.”
— Buster Keaton

https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/99741%7C25179/Buster-Keaton/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Buster-Keaton

https://www.busterkeaton.org/