With the possible exception of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton stands as the greatest comedian of the silent movie era. Keaton appeared in well over 100 shorts and features during his fifty-year film career. At the height of his popularity, he played aloof, stone-faced characters (he only smiled once in a film), who fiercely battled both nature and out-of-control machinery to achieve modest goals (usually for the affections of a woman). Much of his best work was lost for decades, only to be rediscovered by an appreciative new generation of filmgoers in the 1950s.

Buster Keaton

Keaton began learning his craft at an early age. Born Joseph Francis Keaton in Piqua, Kansas, in 1895, Buster spent his youth traveling the vaudeville circuit with his parents, who staged a mildly popular comedy act. By age five, Buster, who received his nickname from a family friend after he tumbled...