People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Photograph by Melbourne Spurr; Silent Era image collection.

Buster Keaton

Born 4 October 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, USA, as Joseph Frank Keaton VI.
Died 1 February 1966 in Los Angeles, California, USA, of lung cancer.

Brother of Harry Keaton and Louise Keaton.

Married actress Natalie Talmadge, 31 May 1921; divorced, 25 July 1932;
son, Joseph Talmadge Keaton VII (Buster Keaton Jr.), born 2 June 1922;
son, Robert Talmadge Keaton, born 3 February 1924.
Married actresss Mae Elizabeth Scriven, 8 January 1933; divorced, 4 October 1935.
Married actress and dancer Eleanor Ruth Norris, 28 July 1940; until Buster’s death, 1 February 1966.

Buster Keaton began performing in vaudeville as a toddler with father Joe Keaton and mother Myra Keaton in 1896. Began motion picture work with Roscoe Arbuckle for Comique in The Butcher Boy (1917). Keaton suspended his film career to serve in World War I, returning afterwards to his work with Arbuckle. His own series of short film comedies were began in 1920 when Arbuckle went into feature film production.

As a film comedian, he is second only to comedian Charles Chaplin in world popularity today, while Keaton’s feature-length comedy-drama The General (1926) is the single most-popular film of the entire silent era for today’s audiences.

References: Website-IMDb.