Anecdotes

Died quietly at home in his sleep, shortly after playing cards with his wife.

While remodeling his home in 1952, James Mason discovered several reels of Keaton's "lost" films (Mason had purchased Keaton's Hollywood mansion) and immediately recognized their historical significance. He took upon himself the responsibility for their preservation.

When he married Natalie Talmadge, the Talmadge family was one of the great acting dynasties in both theater and film, and the gossip in Hollywood was that Keaton married her to gain respect in the industry, a rumor he never quite lived down during his peak. Ironically, Keaton is now a film legend, while most people would be hard-pressed to answer who the Talmadges are.

Fractured his neck while filming Sherlock Junior (1924) but did not learn about it until a doctor saw X-rays of his neck during a routine physical examination many years later.

Was hearing-impaired since 1918, after serving in Germany fighting World War I.

Not only did Keaton do all his own stunts, but he also acted as a stunt double for other actors in the films, as needed.

He often surrounded himself with tall, heavyset actors in his films, typically as his antagonists, to make his character seem to be at as much of a physical disadvantage as possible. The similarly-diminutive Charlie Chaplin (Charles Chaplin) also did this.

Said he learned everything about moviemaking and comedy from Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle.

A heavy smoker for most of his life, he was diagnosed with lung cancer during the first week of January 1966 after a month-long coughing bout, but he was never told that he had cancer or was terminally ill, as his doctors feared that the news would be detrimental to his health. Keaton thought that he was recovering from a severe case of bronchitis. Despite his failing health, he was active and walking about almost until the day he died.

Keaton was one of the few actors who welcomed the advent of sound films. He knew his character didn't need dialog, but he looked forward to sound effects. "When somebody goes boom, they really go *boom*" he once said.

Acting mentor to comedienne Lucille Ball.

In one scene in Sherlock Junior (1924), filmed at a train station, Keaton was hanging from a tube connected to a water basin. The water poured out and washed him on to the track, fracturing his neck. This footage appears in the released film.

A baseball fanatic, Keaton not only held games between takes, but also incorporated it into applications for employment. According to legend, two of the questions on the application he used to hire actors read "Are you a good actor?" and "Are you a good baseball player?" Anyone who answered "Yes" to either had a job with Keaton.

He became an alcoholic when his career collapsed around 1930, only kicking his habit and regaining his self-esteem when he married Eleanor Norris (Eleanor Keaton), his wife from 1940 until his death in 1966.

Unlike many silent movie stars, Buster was eager to go into sound, because he had a fine baritone voice with no speech impediments and years of stage experience, so dialogue was not a problem.

Loved to play baseball. He would sometimes play between takes on the movie set. Furthermore, for the annual Hollywood charity baseball game for Mt. Sinai Hospital in the 1930s, he always led the comedians' team and developed comedy business on field with his writers.

Because most of his childhood was spent in vaudeville with his parents, he had few peers. However, he enjoyed a more regular childhood during his family's annual summer getaways to an Actor's Colony on Lake Michigan in Muskegon, Michigan. In fact, the city of Muskegon has erected a historical marker to note his stomping ground.

When he was three years old he got his right index finger caught in a clothes wringer and it was crushed and had to be amputated at the first knuckle. The injury is most clearly visible in Le Garage de Fatty (1920), when Keaton steadies Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle's head with his right hand while wiping oil off his face with his left.

Keaton, Charles Chaplin, and Stan Laurel all referred to their screen characters as "The Little Fellow".

His performance as Johnny Gray in Le Mécano de la 'Général' (1926) is ranked #34 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).

Met Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle for the first time strolling down Broadway in New York City. Arbuckle was with Keaton's old vaudeville acquaintance Louis Anger, who introduced them. Arbuckle immediately asked Keaton to visit the Colony Studio, where he was set to begin a series of comedies for Joseph M. Schenck. The famous comedy team was born.

He is believed to be the first person to use "Buster" as a name and popularizing its usage ever after.

On a whim, Keaton took crew member Edward Brophy and used him in a comedy role in Le caméraman (1928). That decision launched Brophy on his own notable comedy career.

There is much legend regarding the conception of his nickname, Buster. Many attribute the name to the legendary Harry Houdini, who was the partner of Joe Keaton (Buster's father) in the medicine-show group "Kathleen Marownen", after he saw a young Buster fall down a set of stairs with no injury. Others have said that it was Joe who conceived the name after he saw Buster's accident; others say that Joe Keaton fabricated the incident for a good story to tell on vaudeville. Which of these stories is actually true is unknown.

Perhaps as a result of an accident that crushed his right index finger at age 3, he developed the ability to use his right hand for certain tasks and his left hand for others. He wrote left-handed but played the ukulele right-handed. When he played baseball (his favorite sport), he threw right-handed and batted left-handed.

He died the same day as his Les bijoux volés (1931), Le Professeur (1932), and Boulevard du Crépuscule (1950) co-star Hedda Hopper.

The three top comedians in silent-era Hollywood were Keaton, Charles Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd. All three produced, controlled and owned their own films. Keaton was convinced to sell his studio and films to MGM in the 1920s, while Chaplin and Lloyd retained ownership of their films. Chaplin and Lloyd became wealthy, while Keaton endured years of financial and personal problems.

Was voted the 7th-Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly, making him the highest-rated comedy director. Charles Chaplin did not make the list.

He was awarded two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for Motion Pictures at 6619 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Television at 6321 Hollywood Boulevard.

Was named the 21st-Greatest Actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends List by the American Film Institute.

He appears in four of the American Film Institute's 100 Funniest Movies: Le Mécano de la 'Général' (1926) at #18, Un monde fou, fou, fou, fou (1963) at #40, Sherlock Junior (1924) at #62, and La croisière du navigator (1924) at #81.

Dick Van Dyke delivered the eulogy at Keaton's funeral service in 1966.

He was already quite ill with the cancer that would eventually kill him by the time he made his last completed film, Le forum en folie (1966). He used a stunt double in this film, as well as most of the films he made as an MGM contract player. Before signing with MGM in 1928, he had performed all of his own stunts and even doubled for cast members in his own films, as in Sherlock Junior (1924), where he played both himself, riding on the handlebars of a motorcycle, and the man who falls off the back of it.

La croisière du navigator (1924) was his most successful movie by gross revenue.

Most biographers overlook his appearance on the ABC-TV variety show The Hollywood Palace (1964). At the end of the first winter/spring season, series producers Nick Vanoff and William O. Harbach scheduled the show's host Gene Barry with guest stars Keaton and Gloria Swanson to appear together in a comedy sketch. Keaton was at that time appearing in Un monde fou, fou, fou, fou (1963). Bringing famous Hollywood film stars onto the show was the producers' main goal. Getting Swanson and Keaton on the show was considered a coup and an opportunity to promote the film. The sketch starred Swanson as Cleopatra and Keaton as Marc Antony, staged on a stepped Roman platform terrace surrounded by a 20-inch-high parapet wall and Roman columns, with the pair falling in love. It was written by Joe Bigelow and Jay Burton, but director Grey Lockwood encouraged Swanson and Keaton to contribute any ideas, bits, or routines that they wished, which they did. On the first day of rehearsal Swanson was on the stage, gazing up at the lighting fixtures overhead. She asked for lighting director Jack Denton to come to the stage, which he did, and Swanson began pointing out how she wanted which lights to focus on her and Keaton during the sketch--side light, key light, back light, which color gels to use, etc. Denton made sure that all of her suggestions were implemented. Keaton's idea was that the sketch should end with "Antony" and "Cleopatra" sitting on the parapet wall bench, join hands, raising their legs high and falling backwards out of sight over the wall. He and Swanson rehearsed the fall several times, and did the stunt themselves when it came time to actually shoot the scene for the show.

Wanted to become an engineer as a child.

Contributed gags (uncredited) to the Red Skelton film Mon héros (1948). No one could figure out a simple yet funny way to get Aubrey out of the house when the angry dog was holding him hostage. Buster, employed by MGM as a roving gag man, was called to the set, looked at the setup, and came up with the idea of removing the door hinges and letting the dog in as Aubrey got out. The most famous gag in the movie took him all of five minutes to devise. Some of the other gags he contributed were some he had done himself years earlier.

Appeared in some 16 commercials including Colgate Toothpaste, Alka-Seltzer, North West Orient Airline, U.S. Steel, Shamrock Oil, 7-Up, Marlboro Cigarettes, Budweiser Beer, Ford Motors, Wen Power Tools, Milky Way Chocolate Bar, Seneca Apple Juice, and Simon Pure Beer.

Pictured on one of ten 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating stars of the silent screen, issued 27 April 1994. Designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, this set of stamps also honored Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, Charles Chaplin, Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Zasu Pitts, Harold Lloyd, Theda Bara, and the Keystone Kops.

In later years, Buster Keaton became better acquainted with fellow comedian Stan Laurel. The two of them met up once in a while. At Laurel's funeral, Keaton was one of the invited attendees.

On August 19, 2019, he was honored with a day of his film work during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.

He was voted the 35th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Keaton and his in-laws generally didn't get on well together. He felt that they were snooty and condescending to him because he was a comedian.

He and his parents formed an acrobatic group called "The Three Keatons" in his early youth.

Following his death, he was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

Broke his ankle while filming Frigo à l'Electric Hotel (1922) when he slipped on the escalator, and was still recovering from it when he made Frigo fregoli (1921), in which his stunts were considered to be tamer than usual.

He has appeared in eight films that were selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: La maison démontable de Malec (1920), Buster et les flics (1922), Sherlock Junior (1924), La croisière du navigator (1924), Le Mécano de la 'Général' (1926), Cadet d'eau douce (1928), Le caméraman (1928), and Boulevard du Crépuscule (1950). He has also directed seven films that are in the registry: "One Week", "Cops", "Sherlock Jr.", "The Navigator", "The General", "Steamboat Bill, Jr.", and "The Cameraman.".

His favorite film was "Hard Luck" (1921), which was a lost film but a copy has been found.

First married Mae Scriven in Mexico on January 1, 1932 before his divorce from Natalie Talmadge was final, then again legally in 1933.

David Jason is one of his biggest fans and claims to channel him whenever he does his own stunts. He was quite honored when the "Daily Mirror" compared them.