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, and here (Wikipedia))

see Buster Keaton and the Rise of Modernism in America

born 4 October 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, as Joseph Frank Keaton Jr.
married to actress Natalie Talmadge; two sons
married another in 1930s
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

for an excellent article about Keaton by Dan Callahan, in the senses of cinema series, click here

Robert is a well-known Australian pianist, composer and improviser. He has a particular fascination with improvising accompaniments for silent films (at least three of his great-aunts and -uncles used to play professionally for the "silents" in the period following World War 1) and has been presenting some of the classics in this genre for many years. His work with silent films transcends mere background music, combining his various pianistic, composing and improvising abilities to create an instant soundscape for the images on the screen. With this approach he enters into a genuine artistic partnership with the film. He has a particular affinity with Buster Keaton and over the last ten years has interpreted most of the Keaton classics. Having retired as Professor and Dean of Music at the University of Newcastle, Robert is now Head of the School of Music, University of Auckland.

The caricature of Robert at the top of the page is by KVRP member Sue Prescott. For a larger version (292KB), click here.

The Romeo and Juliet story played out in a tenement neighborhood with Buster and Virginia's families hating each other over the fence separating their buildings. A comment by rick_7 from Manchester, England: If I were King of the World, I would force everybody to begin the day with a cup of tea and a Buster short, such is the powerful joyousness of his comedy. Neighbors is among his best: a frenetic mixture of farce and stuntwork, hung - of course - on the thinnest of plots. Buster and Virginia Fox are lovers from warring families, living in opposite tenement buildings, separated by a large wooden fence. In their desire to communicate they unsurprisingly raise hell, and we're treated to astonishing wire-work and acrobatics, ingenious slapstick and some dated but decent "blackface" gags. All in all, a must-see. cast & crew: Buster Keaton: Virginia Fox: Joe Roberts: Joe Keaton: Edward F. Cline: James Duffy: The Flying Escalantes: Joseph M. Schenck: Fred Gabourie: Elgin Lesslie: Metro Pictures Corporation: The Boy The Girl Her Father His Father The Cop The Judge themselves producer technical director cinematography production company Written & directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton The Art of Buster Keaton During the early comedies of most screen comedians, you can see them working on their characters, trying certain characteristics as they honed their on-screen personas. Harold Lloyd would imitate Charlie Chaplin in his Lonesome Luke comedies before perfecting his bespectacled, everyman character. And Chaplin would play a variety of rambunctious characters in his early films at Keystone. However, from his first comedies, Buster Keaton's trademark stone face was evident. During three years of apprentice work with Fatty Arbuckle, Keaton would occasionally smile, and even laugh, but even then, Keaton fought against reactions. His character's most recognizable trait--an unwavering dead pan expression--had already taken firm root, and by the time he began making his own shorts in 1920, Keaton's screen persona was set. In a very real sense, however, Keaton had been working on his screen persona since he was only four years old. It was at this young age that Keaton had entered the family vaudeville act. Wielding a mop, his father would smack young Buster in the face, and Buster would stare dumbfounded for several seconds before muttering "ow." The stone face was born. When he was 25 years old, Keaton received an offer from producer Joseph Schenck to make his own solo comedies. After watching Arbuckle make movies during their three years together, Keaton was ready to go it alone. He'd paid close attention to Arbuckle and the mechanics of filmmaking. The subsequent movies that Keaton made for Schenck are among the greatest screen comedies ever created ... by Gary Johnson, more

Review by Robert Wilfred Franson: There was a time when the all-electric house, or at least a house enlivened with neat labor-saving electrical gadgets, was a gleam in the eye of many inventors, manufacturers, salesmen, and householders. Buster Keaton made The Electric House in 1922, near the beginning of that era of great electrical promise. This short film may reasonably be called science fiction, although made before that term was coined toward the end of the silent-film period. With more sophistication as to the gadgeteers' promises, and self-consciousness as to the process, and a lot more gadgets - we really still are developing within that era. The Electric House starts with Buster Keaton's graduation ceremony as the first of his comic misfortunes, including a mix-up of diplomas so Buster mistakenly receives a diploma in electrical engineering. This leads to a job opportunity: electrifying the family house of the girl he's sweet on. A great chance, so Buster studies hard and soon installs a useful and impressive set of electric appliances. Escalator and dishwasher are useful; the electrified pool table is cute; and the electric toy train that carries plates with food out from the kitchen and conveys empty dishes back is the sort of thing that model-train enthusiasts dream of to justify setting up permanent track layouts in the house. When the family returns from vacation to try out their new electrified house, all goes well at first. But the fellow graduate who was supposed to receive the electrical diploma shows up and decides to cross the wires and sabotage Buster's showplace, so all the gadgets begin acting unpredictably. Buster's efforts to understand what is going wrong, and then to cope are hilarious. Yet he does cope, with thoughtfulness and perseverance - including the actor's standard physical bravery as his own stuntman. The Electric House is funny, imaginative, fast-moving. An excellent movie.

Written & directed by Buster Keaton & Eddie Cline, The Electric House stars Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox, Joe Keaton, Louise Keaton, Myra Keaton & Joe Roberts.