Joseph Frank " Buster " Keaton October 4, β February 1, [ 1 ] was an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He frequently maintained a stoic, deadpan facial expression that became his trademark and earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". 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 s, including One Week , The Playhouse , Cops , and The Electric House He then moved to feature-length films; several of them, such as Sherlock Jr.
Keaton's career declined after , 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 , ending his career as a leading man in feature films. He recovered in the s, marrying 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 , Charlie Chaplin 's Limelight , and a variety of television programs.
He earned an Academy Honorary Award in Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from to " when he "worked without interruption" as having made him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies".
He was named Joseph to continue a tradition on his father's side he was sixth in a line bearing the name Joseph Keaton [ 1 ] and Frank for his maternal grandfather, who disapproved of his parents' union. His father was 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. 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!
Keaton retold the anecdote over the years, including in a interview with the CBC 's Telescope. At the age of 3, Keaton began performing with his parents in The Three Keatons.
