Buster Keaton

Many actors and filmmakers were influenced by Keaton, including Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Blake Edwards, and Jackie Chan. Truth being stranger than fiction sometimes, Bela Lugosi was buried in his full Dracula costume, as per the request in his will, in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Buster Keaton has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1994, he was honored with his image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. He was also the subject of a song by gothic rock band Bauhaus entitled "Bela Lugosi's Dead". (Why exactly they did this is uncertain, but it is clear that Keaton required others to manage his daily living; since his condition was already terminal and uncurable when it was diagnosed, perhaps they were concerned that if he had been told, he would have stopped working. Performing before a camera or a live-audience was what Buster enjoyed most, apart from model trains; perhaps he would have died sooner and with less quality of life had he been told the truth.) Buster Keaton is interred in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Instead he was listed as a guest-star, below Tor Johnson, Vampira and Kenne Duncan. His wife and doctors let him believe that he had contracted chronic bronchitis, and he was never told that he was dying. Contrary to Burton's Ed Wood, Lugosi did not receive top billing for Plan 9.

Buster contracted lung cancer after years of smoking. Wood hired his wife's chiropractor to double for Lugosi, who is easily spotted by the fact that. He also played the central role in Samuel Beckett's only film project, Film, in 1965. However, Lugosi died three years before the funding came through (from the Baptist Church of Beverly Hills, no less). Shortly before he died, Keaton starred in one final short film called The Railrodder for the National Film Board of Canada, which saw him returning to the classic "stone face" role he had known during his heyday in the 1920s. Wood had had great difficulty in financing the project, and was only able to shoot short, silent scenes that he planned to incorporate into the whole of the film once he had found the remainder of his funding. His classic silent films did see a revival in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space featured footage of Lugosi interspersed with a double who looked nothing like him.

But he largely believed, perhaps, that he had been forgotten. One of Lugosi's most infamous roles was in a movie that was released after he was dead. He also found steady work as an actor for TV commercials. (The role was later given to Kenne Duncan, and the shots of that production made their way into Wood's Night of the Ghouls, a sequel of sorts to Wood's previous Lugosi films.). Despite its popularity, he cancelled the program because he had been unable to accumulate the amount of material to produce a new show each week. The script for Final Curtain, written by Ed Wood, was in his lap. He starred in "The Buster Keaton Comedy Show" for two seasons. He died of a heart attack, aged 73, in Los Angeles, California, while sitting in a chair.

Keaton and Chaplin share the screen for the only ten minutes in their lives, playing two aging former vaudeville stars trying to recapture a bit of glory, decades after both Chaplin's and Keaton's fame had peaked — though Keaton remarks, "If one more person tells me this is just like old times, I swear I'll jump out the window.". Because Lugosi appeared in B-Movies, he was featured in several episodes of the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000, most notably, Bride of the Monster. Among the best is a brief cameo in Charlie Chaplin's late film Limelight. The biographical film Ed Wood, by Tim Burton, portrayed Wood's relationship with Lugosi, who was played by Martin Landau. He often made guest-appearences in films, including Billy Wilder's 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Ed Wood, a long-time fan of Lugosi's, offered him numerous roles in his films, always playing some variant of a mad scientist/vampire type, even in movies — such as Glen or Glenda — in which such a role made no sense. His career declined within a few years, and he spent most of the 1930s in obscurity, working as a gag writer for various MGM films particularly those of the Marx Brothers,(including the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera and At the Circus ) and various films of Red Skelton. Late in his life, he again got to star in movies, albeit lousy ones.

He had difficulty adapting to the studio system, and he lapsed into alcoholism. Later on, the acting jobs dried up and he became addicted to morphine, though he did get to recreate the role of Dracula one last time for the film Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948. He was forced to enter the ranks of the studio system, working at the MGM studios in a more restrictive environment that he had ever worked in previously (including vaudeville). Lugosi's attitude towards Karloff is the subject of contradictory reports, some claiming he was openly resentful of Karloff's long-term success and ability to get good roles beyond the horror arena, while others suggested the two actors were - for a time at least - good friends. Keaton's filmmaking unit was acquired by MGM in 1928, a business decision that Keaton regretted ever afterwards. Several films, such as The Black Cat and the aforementioned Son of Frankenstein paired Lugosi with his chief rival in the realm of horror movies, Boris Karloff. Between 1947 and 1954, Buster and Eleanor appeared regularly in the Cirque Medrano in Paris, where they were highly regarded as a double act. He also had a small role in the comedy classic Ninotchka opposite Greta Garbo.

All their friends advised them against it, but the marriage lasted until Buster's death. He declined an offer to appear as The Monster in Frankenstein but made an impression as the insane Ygor in two sequels, Son of Frankenstein and Ghost of Frankenstein before finally consenting to play the creature in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. In 1940, Buster married the woman who not only saved his life but also helped to salvage his career — Eleanor Norris. She was 23, and he was 44. The film was a success, but Lugosi was typecast as a horror heavy with such movies as White Zombie and Scared to Death. Bernard, Elmer. He was most famous for his title role in Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) (building on the stage role). She later divorced Buster and took half of everything they owned — half of each dining set, half of each table and chair set, half of the books, and even Buster's favorite St. He left from his native Hungary for Germany in 1919 after persecution following his complicity in the forming of an actor's union, and emigrated to the United States in 1921.

Buster re-married in the late 1930s to his nurse during an alcoholic binge that he remembered nothing about afterward. During World War I he served as an infantry lieutenant for the Central Powers. (Keaton was reunited with them about a decade later.). He however, became most notably known for his portrayal of Dracula in a stage production of Bram Stoker's classic vampire story. By the time Keaton's began work in sound pictures, Natalie had divorced him, taken his entire fortune, and refused to allow any contact between Keaton and his sons. Lugosi started his acting career on the stage in Europe in several Shakespearean plays. According to Keaton's autobiography, Natalie turned him out of the bedroom and then sent detectives to follow him to see who he was dating behind her back. He was born in Lugos, Transylvania, Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), the youngest of four children of a banker.

In 1921, he married Natalie Talmadge, sister-in-law of his boss, Joe Schenck, and sister of the famous actress Norma Talmadge. After the birth of their second son, their marriage began to suffer. Béla Lugosi was the stage name of actor Blaskó Béla Ferenc Dezső (October 20, 1882–August 16, 1956). The fact that he had a good voice and years of stage experience promised an easier adjustment than Chaplin's silent Tramp character, whom Chaplin thought could not survive sound. He covers his face with his cape in every shot. In addition, the technical side of filmmaking fascinated him and he was forward thinking enough to want to produce sound films when they began to become technically practical and popular. He looks nothing like Lugosi. Unfortunately, many of his most acclaimed films performed poorly in the box office due to their sophistication -- the audience had a difficult time seeing Buster as a cinematic artist of considerable ambition.

This is another fine introduction for new Keaton fans. One of his last silent films, The Cameraman was released on DVD format in December, 2004. It is seen by many as a good choice for viewers who are becoming newly acquainted with silent films. The last film, a Civil War adventure, is considered his masterpiece, combining physical comedy with Keaton's love for trains.

His most famous and popular feature-length films included Our Hospitality, The Navigator, Steamboat Bill Jr., and The General. Likewise, his comedy, style, and humor has been called timeless, while other silent stars are said to have comedy that was of their era. His filmmaking style employs editing and framing techniques that are more closely aligned with today's sensibilities than the melodrama of other films of the day. He enjoyed Lloyd's films highly and often praised Chaplin for his genius.).

(It should be said that Keaton never indulged in such comparisons. Today, Lloyd is remembered as a distant third to Keaton and Chaplin, and there are some who argue that Keaton was a superior filmmaker to Chaplin. At the time, he was perhaps the third most popular comedian in America behind Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. The initial success of his movies made Keaton one of the most famous comedians in the world.

He reached the peak of his creativity during the early 1920s, and he graduated from short films to full-length features. Keaton's success encouraged the studio to give him his own production unit, and Buster Keaton began starring in a series of two-reel comedies that rocketed him to fame, including One Week, Cops, The Electric House, and The Playhouse. Keaton later recalled that he soon became Arbuckle's second director and his entire gag department! Keaton and Arbuckle became close friends, a bond that would never break — even after Arbuckle was embroiled in the "Fatty Arbuckle scandal" that cost him his career and his personal life. He was quickly hired as a co-star and gag-man.

Arbuckle invited him to the studio, where Arbuckle was under contract to Joe Schenck. It was there in February 1917 that he ran into Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Myra returned to their summer home in Michigan, while Buster travelled to New York, where he easily found work. By the time Buster was 21, Joe's alcoholism threatened the reputation of the family act, so Buster and Myra left Joe in LA.

"I don't know," he said, "ask his wife!" Despite entaglement with the law and a disastrous tour of the English Music Halls, Buster was a rising star in the theater, so much so that even when Myra and Joe tried to introduce Buster's siblings into the act, Buster remained the central attraction. The stage-hand, who was no fool, shrugged and pointed to Buster's mother. When one official saw Buster in full costume and make-up, he asked a stage-hand how old that performer was. However, this did not stop members of the public from passing a law banning child performers in vaudeville.

This would diminish the laughs from the audience, so Buster learned how to keep his famous dead-pan expression whenever he was working. In fact, Buster would have so much fun, he would begin laughing as his father threw him across the stage. Decades later, Keaton would state that he was never abused by his father, and that the falls and physical comedy was a matter of proper technical execution. So while Buster and Joe were knocked around, they were rarely injured or even bruised.

Of course, Buster deliberately goaded his dad by disobeying, for which Joe would throw Buster into scenery, the orchestra pit, or occasionally into the audience! This on-stage lead to accusations of child abuse; however, Joe had only started the act when little Buster (about four years old) showed his father that he could imitate his on-stage trick falls perfectly. The act consisted of a saxophone performance by Myra and an act between Joe and Buster where Joe tried to show the audience how to raise a small child. Keaton grew up in the world of vaudeville, performing with his parents (as "The Three Keatons") from the age of three. (To this day, Piqua is so small that the Annual Buster Keaton Celebration must be held in nearby Iola, KS.).

Currently on this site is a memorial plaque, and nearby is a small power plant than maintains a one-room Keaton museum. Buster was born in a boarding house that was later destroyed by a tornado. His mother and father, Myra and Joe Keaton, were paid performers of a travelling medicine show, and Myra happened to go into labor in Pique. Keaton was born in the town of Piqua (peek-WAY), Kansas.

It was only after Keaton was nicknamed the word became a name — one example of this early use is the comic strip character Buster Brown.). (At the time, the word "buster" either meant "bronco-buster" or a fall. His godfather was Harry Houdini, and Keaton himself credited Houdini with dubbing him "Buster" after seeing him, aged three, tumble down a flight of stairs without injury. Like his contemporaries, he came from vaudeville.

His trademark was physical comedy while keeping a deadpan expression on his face at all times, which earned him the nickname of "The Great Stone Face". Joseph Francis "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 - February 1, 1966) was a popular and influential American silent-film comic actor and filmmaker. Meade Buster Keaton: cut to the chase. ISBN 0-306-80178-7.

New York: Da Capo Press. My Wonderful World of Slapstick. Keaton, Buster; Samuels, Charles (1982).