When only a few months old, (Buster Keaton) nearly suffocated after being accidentally shut in a costume trunk off stage while his mother and father performed, an incident that encouraged his parents to begin leaving him at whatever boarding house they were residing in. According to family legend, the Keatons then escaped from a series of fires and train wrecks that would have destroyed a less charmed family. Finally, on one harrowing day when he was nearly three: Buster caught his right forefinger in a clothes wringer, losing the first joint, gashed his head near the eye with a brick that boomeranged after he threw it at a peach tree and was sucked out of an upstairs window by a passing cyclone that carried him floating through the air and conveniently deposited him, unhurt, in the middle of a street a few blocks away. After that, his parents decided he'd be safer on stage ... (read more here)

born 4 October 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, as Joseph Frank Keaton Jr.
married to actress Natalie Talmadge; two sons; divorced
married in 1930s; divorced
married Eleanor Ruth Norris in 1940; together until Buster's death on February 1 1966 of lung cancer

began in vaudeville with father Joe Keaton and mother Myra Keaton in 1896
began film work in 1917 for Comique

from http://www.touchstone.freeserve.co.uk/keaton/about.html:

Buster Keaton was one of the greatest screen comedians the world has ever seen. Born in 1895 when film-making was in its infancy, by the end of the 1920s he had become the most versatile star of the silent era. Actor, comedian, stuntman, writer, director. He excelled at them all. The most graceful of actors, his films are filled with wonderful moments, from deceptively simple but effective gags through to elaborate and life threatening stunts. He was a pioneer in the use of special effects, appearing on-screen simultaneously nine times in The Playhouse (1921). By the end of the 1920s he had appeared in over 20 shorts and a dozen features, among them some of the greatest comedies ever seen. The General, his 1926 masterpiece, often appears in lists of the 'Top 100 Films Of All Time'. At the start of the thirties, with changes in studio structures and the introduction of sound, Buster lost artistic control over his films. He became dependant on alcohol, and as the 1930s and 1940s passed he moved out of the public eye. He continued to make films, but nothing matched the quality of his early work. During the fifties, with appearances on television and cameos in a handful of major studio films, interest in his silent films began to grow. Prints that hadn't been seen since the 1920s were unearthed and screened to enthusiastic audiences. Just before his death in 1966, Buster Keaton was finally receiving the recognition he deserved.

see busterkeaton.com

Robert has silent film music in his blood: at least three of his great-aunts and -uncles used to play professionally for the "silents" in the period following World War 1.

A well-known concert pianist and improviser, it was a natural transition for him to play for silent films. He started when a colleague asked if he could "have a go" for a fundraising event. He undertook his first concert performances accompanying silent films about five years ago; since then his "shows" have been in demand.

When he's not playing for silent films, Robert is Professor and Dean of Music at the University of Newcastle's Conservatorium.

directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton; written by Edward F. Cline (also story)
technical direction by Fred Gabourie; cinematography by Elgin Lessley; editing by Buster Keaton; produced by Joseph M. Schenck
cast: Buster Keaton as the groom, Joe Roberts as the piano mover and Sybil Seely as the bride

Buster and Sybil are newlyweds who receive a portable house that can be put together in one week. Buster's nemesis and one of Sybil's admirers switches the numbers on the crates containing the house parts.

from At-A-Glance Film Reviews:

Decades before Jackie Chan, Buster Keaton was famous for his often perilous physical comedy and dangerous stunts. This short film is the one that contains the infamous wall-falling scene, where Buster is saved from certain doom by a well-placed window. There are no stunt doubles, camera tricks, or fancy prop gadgets -- the gag happened just as it appears, and had Keaton been standing a few inches the wrong way, the results might have been fatal. Now that's a dedicated comedian.

Though imperfect, One Week is one of Keaton's best shorts, its only flaw (a minor one, at that) the overlong storm scene. There's an abundance of truly classic American comedy here. Besides the famous stunt described above, watch for his hysterical creative solutions to his problems -- getting up on the roof, moving his house, etc. Not to be missed.

written and directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton
technical direction by Fred Gabourie; cinematography by Elgin Lessley; produced by Joseph M. Schenck
cast: Edward F. Cline as the customer in the bank, Virginia Fox as the bank president's daughter, Buster Keaton as the bank clerk and Joe Roberts as the bank cashier
two reels; produced by Comique Film Corporation, distributed by Metro Pictures; released February 10 1921

Buster is a bank clerk. Overturned glue gets everything, mostly the money, stuck to everything else. When robbers show up he can't "stick 'em up" because his hands are stuck in his pockets. The robbers' hideout is a haunted house designed to scare off police.

written by Clyde Bruckman and Jean C. Havez; directed by Donald Crisp and Buster Keaton
cast: Buster Keaton as Rollo Treadway, Kathryn McGuire as Betsy O'Brien, and Frederick Vroom as John O'Brien
six reels; produced by Buster Keaton Productions Inc., distributed by Metro Pictures; released October 13 1924

from http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Navigator,+The+(1924) (Lugosi31):

Rollo Treadway (Buster Keaton) is a very rich young man and he asks Betsy O'Brien (Kathryn McGuire) to marry him. She refuses, and, eventually, they both end up on a 500-foot yacht, the Navigator, alone. After an unintentional (and amusing) hide-and-seek, they find each other and learn to live without servants, miles from home. All goes rather well until land is sighted, for cannibals inhabit the island. After many attempts at warding them off, the man-eaters are closing in ... You should definitely see this film if you are a fan of Buster Keaton or of silent comedy in general. In some scenes, I could not stop laughing. Surely, the same effect will be produced in future viewers.