A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given.

The term General is used in two ways: as the generic title for all grades of general officer; and as a specific rank. Since the late twentieth century, the rank of General is usually the highest active rank of a military not at war.

All general officer ranks

The various grades of general officer are at the top of the rank structure. Lower-ranking officers are known as field officers or field-grade officers, and below them are company-grade officers. All officers who commanded more than a single regiment came to be known as "general officers". The word "general" is used in its ordinary sense in English (and other languages) as relating to larger, general, military units, rather than smaller units in particular.

Common systems

There are two common systems of general ranks.

Variations of one form, the old European system, were once used throughout Europe. It is used in the United Kingdom (although it did not originate there), from which it eventually spread to the Commonwealth and the United States of America. The General Officer ranks are named by prefixing General, as an adjective, with field officer ranks, although in some countries the highest general officers are titled Field Marshal or Marshal.

The other is derived from the French Revolution, where generals' ranks are named according to the unit they (theoretically) command.

Old European system {| style="border:1px solid #8888aa; background-color:#f7f8ff; padding:5px; font-size:95%; margin: 0px 12px 12px 0px;" |align="center"| Field Marshal or General Field Marshal |- |align="center"| ''Colonel General'' |- |align="center"| General or Captain General |- |align="center"| Lieutenant General |- |align="center"| Sergeant Major General or Major General |- |align="center"| ''Brigadier (General)'' |}

The system used either a ''brigadier general'' rank, or a ''colonel general'' rank (i.e. exclude one of the italicised ranks.)

The rank of field marshal was used by some countries as the highest rank, while in other countries it was used as a divisional or brigade rank. Many countries (notably pre-revolutionary France and eventually much of Latin America) actually used two brigade command ranks, which is why some countries now use two stars as their brigade general insignia. (Mexico and Argentina still use two brigade command ranks.)

In some nations (particularly in the Commonwealth), the equivalent to Brigadier General is Brigadier, which is not always considered by these armies to be a general officer rank, although it is always treated as equivalent to the rank of Brigadier General for comparative purposes. Unlike other general officers, the brigadier general rank is not derived from a ''field'' rank of brigadier.

The rank of ''major general'' is a shorter form of ''sergeant major general'', and is lower than lieutenant general as a lieutenant outranks a sergeant major, although outranked by a major.

French (Revolutionary) system {| style="border:1px solid #8888aa; background-color:#f7f8ff; padding:5px; font-size:95%; margin: 0px 12px 12px 0px;" |align="center"| Marshal |- |align="center"| Army General |- |align="center"| Corps General |- |align="center"| Divisional General |- |align="center"| Brigade General |} More information about this system can be found on the page: Général.

Other variations

Other nomenclatures for general officers include the titles and ranks:

Adjutant General

Commandant-General

Inspector General

Captain General

General-in-Chief

General of the Army (which is distinct from the title Army General)

General of the Air Force (USA only)

General of the Armies of the United States (of America), a title created for General John J. Pershing, and subsequently granted posthumously to George Washington.

General Admiral (German Navy)

Air General and Aviation General (Chilean Air Force; roughly equivalent to Air Chief Marshal and Air Vice-Marshal respectively)

Wing General and Group General (Mexican Air Force; roughly equivalent to Air Commodore and Acting Air Commodore respectively)

Lieutenant-Colonel General (A Serb rank immediately inferior to Colonel General, and roughly equivalent to Commonwealth/US Major General)

Director General (a common administrative term sometimes used as an appointment in military services)

Director General of National Defence (most senior rank in the Mexican Armed Forces)

Director of Intelligence Bureau (senior most 4 star Indian Police Service post in India)

Controller General (general officer rank in the French National Police)

Prefect General (the most senior rank of the Argentine Naval Prefecture)

Master-General of the Ordnance

In addition to militarily educated generals, there are also generals in medicine and engineering. The rank of most senior chaplain, Chaplain General, is also considered to be a general officer rank.

The specific General rank

In the Old European system, a General, without prefix or suffix (and sometimes referred to informally as a "full general"), is usually the most senior type of general, above Lieutenant General and directly below Field Marshal. Usually it is the most senior peace-time rank, with more senior ranks (for example, Field Marshal) being used only in wartime, or as honorary titles.

In some armies, however, the rank of Captain General, General of the Army, Army General or Colonel General occupied or occupies this position. Depending on circumstances and the army in question, these ranks may be considered to be equivalent to a full General or to a Field Marshal.

The rank of General came about as a "Captain-General", the captain of an army in general (i.e., the whole army). The rank of Captain-General began appearing around the time of the organization of professional armies in the 17th century. In most countries "Captain-General" contracted to just "General".

General ranks by country

The following articles deal with the rank of General, or its equivalent, as it is or was employed in the militaries of those countries.

General (Australia)

General (Canada)

Shang Jiang (China) - People's Republic of China (PRC) and Republic of China (ROC/Taiwan)

Kenraali (Finland)

Kindral (Estonia)

Général (France)

General (Germany)

Obergruppenführer (Nazi Germany, SS rank)

Strategos (Greece)

Aluf (Israel)

Generale (Italy)

Daejang (Korea - DPRK and ROK)

General (Mexico)

Generał (Poland)

Army General (Philippines)

Army General (Russia)

General (Sri Lanka)

General (Sweden)

General (Switzerland)

General (United Kingdom)

General (United States)

Army generals' insignia

Air force generals' insignia

Generals' insignia of disbanded armies

Air Force and Navy equivalents

Some countries (such as the United States) use the General Officer ranks for both the army and the air force; others only use the General Officer ranks for the army, while in the air force they use Air Officers as the equivalent of General Officers. They use the air force rank of Air Chief Marshal as the equivalent of the specific army rank of General. This latter group includes the British Royal Air Force and those based on it (e.g., India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Nigeria, etc.).

In most navies, Flag Officers are the equivalent of General Officers, and the naval rank of Admiral is equivalent to the specific army rank of General. A noteworthy historical exception was the Cromwellian naval rank ''General at sea''. In recent years in the American service there is a tendency to use ''Flag Officer'' and ''Flag Rank'' to refer to generals and admirals of the services collectively.

See also

Général

Generalissimo

List of comparative military ranks

List of Roman generals

Shogun

References

External links

Generals of World War II

Schema-root.org: US Generals News feeds for US Generals in the news

Marines.mil: General Officer Biographies Biographies of US Marine Corps General Officers

Bios & Information on Generals of Western History Information on 10 Generals who influenced Western History

Category:Generals Category:Military ranks

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name	Buster Keaton
birth name	Joseph Frank Keaton
birth date	October 04, 1895
birth place	Piqua, Kansas, U.S.
death date	February 01, 1966
death place	Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
other names	Joseph Francis Keaton
occupation	ActorDirectorProducerWriter
years active	1898–1966
spouse	Natalie Talmadge (1921–32)Mae Scriven (1933–36)Eleanor Norris (1940-66) (his death)}}

Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 February 1, 1966) was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".

Keaton was recognized as the seventh-greatest director of all time by ''Entertainment Weekly''. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Keaton the 21st-greatest male star of all time. Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, [when] he worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies." Orson Welles stated that Keaton's ''The General'' is the greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made. A 2002 worldwide poll by ''Sight & Sound'' ranked Keaton's ''The General'' as the 15th best film of all time. Three other Keaton films received votes in the magazine's survey: ''Our Hospitality'', ''Sherlock, Jr.'', and ''The Navigator''.

Early life in vaudeville

Keaton was born Joseph Frank Keaton into a vaudeville family. He was named "Joseph" to continue a tradition on his father's side—he was sixth in a line bearing the name Joseph Keaton—and "Frank" for his maternal grandfather, who disapproved of the parents' union. Later, Keaton changed his middle name to "Francis". His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton, a native of Vigo County, Indiana. Joe Keaton owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini, the ''Mohawk Indian Medicine Company'', which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side. Buster Keaton was born in Piqua, Kansas, the small town where his mother, Myra Edith Cutler, happened to go into labor.

According to a frequently-repeated story, which may be apocryphal, Keaton acquired the nickname "Buster" at about eighteen months of age. Keaton told interviewer Fletcher Markle that Harry Houdini happened to be present one day when the young Keaton took a tumble down a long flight of stairs without injury. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience, Houdini remarked, "That was a real buster!" According to Keaton, in those days, the word "buster" was used to refer to a spill or a fall that had the potential to produce injury. After this, it was Keaton's father who began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster. Keaton retold the anecdote over the years, including during a 1964 interview with the CBC's ''Telescope''.

At the age of three, Keaton began performing with his parents in ''The Three Keatons''. He first appeared on stage in 1899 in Wilmington, Delaware. The act was mainly a comedy sketch. Myra played the saxophone to one side, while Joe and Buster performed on center stage. The young Keaton would goad his father by disobeying him, and the elder Keaton would respond by throwing him against the scenery, into the orchestra pit, or even into the audience. A suitcase handle was sewn into Keaton's clothing to aid with the constant tossing. The act evolved as Keaton learned to take trick falls safely; he was rarely injured or bruised on stage. This knockabout style of comedy led to accusations of child abuse, and occasionally, arrest. However, Buster Keaton was always able to show the authorities that he had no bruises or broken bones. He was eventually billed as "The Little Boy Who Can't Be Damaged," with the overall act being advertised as "'The Roughest Act That Was Ever in the History of the Stage." Decades later, Keaton said that he was never hurt by his father and that the falls and physical comedy were a matter of proper technical execution. In 1914, Keaton told the ''Detroit News'':

The secret is in landing limp and breaking the fall with a foot or a hand. It's a knack. I started so young that landing right is second nature with me. Several times I'd have been killed if I hadn't been able to land like a cat. Imitators of our act don't last long, because they can't stand the treatment.

Keaton claimed he was having so much fun that he would sometimes begin laughing as his father threw him across the stage. Noticing that this drew fewer laughs from the audience, he adopted his famous deadpan expression whenever he was working.

The act ran up against laws banning child performers in vaudeville. It is said that, when one official saw Keaton in full costume and makeup and asked a stagehand how old he was, the stagehand then pointed to the boy's mother, saying, "I don't know, ask his wife!" According to one biographer, Keaton was made to go to school while performing in New York, but only attended for part of one day. Despite tangles with the law and a disastrous tour of music halls in the United Kingdom, Keaton was a rising star in the theater. Keaton stated that he learned to read and write late, and was taught by his mother. By the time he was 21, his father's alcoholism threatened the reputation of the family act, so Keaton and his mother, Myra, left for New York, where Buster Keaton's career swiftly moved from vaudeville to film.

Although he did not see active combat, he served in World War I, during which time he suffered an ear infection that permanently impaired his hearing.

Silent film era

In February 1917, Keaton met Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle at the Talmadge Studios in New York City, where Arbuckle was under contract to Joseph M. Schenck. Joe Keaton disapproved of films, and Buster also had reservations about the medium. During his first meeting with Arbuckle, he asked to borrow one of the cameras to get a feel for how it worked. He took the camera back to his hotel room, dismantled and reassembled it. With this rough understanding of the mechanics of the moving pictures, he returned the next day, camera in hand, asking for work. He was hired as a co-star and gag man, making his first appearance in ''The Butcher Boy''. Keaton later claimed that he was soon Arbuckle's second director and his entire gag department. Keaton and Arbuckle became close friends.

In 1920, ''The Saphead'' was released, in which Keaton had his first starring role in a full-length feature. It was based on a successful play, ''The New Henrietta'', which had already been filmed once under the title "The Lamb" with Douglas Fairbanks playing the lead. It is said to have been Fairbanks that recommended Keaton to take up the role for the remake five years later.

After Keaton's successful work with Arbuckle, Schenck gave him his own production unit, Buster Keaton Comedies. He made a series of two-reel comedies, including ''One Week'' (1920), ''The Playhouse'' (1921), ''Cops'' (1922), and ''The Electric House'' (1922). Based on the success of these shorts, Keaton moved to full-length features. Keaton's writers included Clyde Bruckman and Jean Havez, but the most ingenious gags were often conceived by Keaton himself. Comedy director Leo McCarey, recalling the freewheeling days of making slapstick comedies, said, "All of us tried to steal each other's gagmen. But we had no luck with Keaton, because he thought up his best gags himself and we couldn't steal ''him!''" The more adventurous ideas called for dangerous stunts, also performed by Keaton at great physical risk. During the railroad water-tank scene in ''Sherlock Jr.'', Keaton broke his neck when he fell against a railroad track, but did not realize it until years afterward. A scene from ''Steamboat Bill Jr.'' required Keaton to run into the shot and stand still on a particular spot. Then, the facade of a two-story building toppled forward on top of Keaton. Keaton's character emerged unscathed, thanks to a single open window which passed directly over him. The stunt required precision, because the prop house weighed two tons, and the window only offered a few inches of space around Keaton's body. The sequence became one of the iconic images of Keaton's career.

The film critic David Thomson later described Keaton's style of comedy: "Buster plainly is a man inclined towards a belief in nothing but mathematics and absurdity ... like a number that has always been searching for the right equation. Look at his face — as beautiful but as inhuman as a butterfly — and you see that utter failure to identify sentiment." Gilberto Perez describes "Keaton's genius as an actor to keep a face so nearly deadpan and yet render it, by subtle inflections, so vividly expressive of inner life. His large deep eyes are the most eloquent feature; with merely a stare he can convey a wide range of emotions, from longing to mistrust, from puzzlement to sorrow."

Aside from ''Steamboat Bill Jr.'' (1928), Keaton's most enduring feature-length films include ''Our Hospitality'' (1923), ''The Navigator'' (1924), ''Sherlock Jr.'' (1924), ''Seven Chances'' (1925), ''The Cameraman'' (1928), and ''The General'' (1927). ''The General'', set during the American Civil War, combined physical comedy with Keaton's love of trains, including an epic locomotive chase. Employing picturesque locations, the film's storyline reenacted an actual wartime incident. Though it would come to be regarded as Keaton's proudest achievement, the film received mixed reviews at the time. It was too dramatic for some filmgoers expecting a lightweight comedy, and reviewers questioned Keaton's judgment in making a comedic film about the Civil War, even while noting it had a "few laughs". The fact that the heroes of the story were from the Confederate side may have also contributed to the film's unpopularity.

It was an expensive misfire, and Keaton was never entrusted with total control over his films again. His distributor, United Artists, insisted on a production manager who monitored expenses and interfered with certain story elements. Keaton endured this treatment for two more feature films, and then exchanged his independent setup for employment at Hollywood's biggest studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Keaton's loss of independence as a filmmaker coincided with the coming of sound films (although he was interested in making the transition) and mounting personal problems, and his career in the early sound era was hurt as a result.

Marriages

In 1921, Keaton married Natalie Talmadge, sister-in-law of his boss, Joseph Schenck, and sister of actresses Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge. During the first three years of the marriage, the couple had two sons, James (1922–2007) and Robert (1924–2009), but after the birth of Robert, the relationship began to suffer.

According to Keaton's autobiography, Natalie turned him out of their bedroom and sent detectives to follow him to see whom he was dating behind her back. Her extravagance was another factor in the breakdown of the marriage. During the 1920s, according to his autobiography, he dated actress Kathleen Key. When he ended the affair, Key flew into a rage and tore up his dressing room.

After attempts at reconciliation, Natalie divorced Keaton in 1932, taking his entire fortune and refusing to allow any contact between Keaton and his sons, whose last name she had changed to Talmadge. Keaton was reunited with them about a decade later when his older son turned 18. The failure of his marriage, along with the loss of his independence as a filmmaker, led Keaton into a period of alcoholism.

During the height of his popularity, Keaton spent $300,000 to build a home in Beverly Hills, which was later owned by James Mason and Cary Grant. Keaton's "Italian Villa" can be seen in Keaton's film ''Parlor, Bedroom and Bath''. Keaton later said, "I took a lot of pratfalls to build that dump." Mason found numerous cans of rare Keaton films in the house in the 1950s; the films were quickly transferred by Raymond Rohauer to safety film before the original cellulose nitrate prints further deteriorated.

Keaton was at one point briefly institutionalized; however, according to the TCM documentary ''So Funny it Hurt'', Keaton escaped a straitjacket with tricks learned during his vaudeville days. In 1933, he married his nurse, Mae Scriven, during an alcoholic binge about which he afterwards claimed to remember nothing (Keaton himself later called that period an "alcoholic blackout"). Scriven herself would later claim that she didn't know Keaton's real first name until after the marriage. When they divorced in 1936, it was again at great financial cost to Keaton.

In 1940, Keaton married Eleanor Norris (1918–1998), who was 23 years his junior. She has been credited with saving his life by stopping his heavy drinking, and helped to salvage his career. The marriage lasted until his death. Between 1947 and 1954, they appeared regularly in the Cirque Medrano in Paris as a double act. She came to know his routines so well that she often participated in them on TV revivals.

Sound era and television

Keaton signed with MGM in 1928, a business decision that he would later call the worst of his life. He realized too late that the studio system MGM represented would severely limit his creative input. For instance, the studio refused his request to make his early project, ''Spite Marriage'', as a sound film and after the studio converted, he was obliged to adhere to dialogue-laden scripts. For the first time, Keaton was forced to use a stunt double during some of the more dangerous scenes, as MGM wanted badly to protect its investment. He also stopped directing, but continued to perform and made some of his most financially successful films for the studio. MGM tried teaming the laconic Keaton with the rambunctious Jimmy Durante in a series of films, ''The Passionate Plumber'', ''Speak Easily'', and ''What! No Beer?'' The latter would be Keaton's last starring feature. The films proved popular. (Thirty years later, both Keaton and Durante had cameo parts in ''It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World''.)

In the first Keaton pictures with sound, he and his fellow actors would shoot each scene three times: one in English, one in Spanish, and one in either French or German. The actors would phonetically memorize the foreign-language scripts a few lines at time and shoot immediately after. This is discussed in the TCM documentary ''Buster Keaton: So Funny it Hurt'', with Keaton complaining about having to shoot lousy films not just once, but three times. His stage name in Spanish markets was ''Pamplinas'' ("Nonsense"), and his nickname was ''Cara de palo'' ("Wooden face").

Behind the scenes, Keaton's world was in chaos, with divorce proceedings and alcoholism contributing to production delays and unpleasant incidents at the studio. Keaton was so depleted during the production of 1933's ''What! No Beer?'' that MGM released him after the filming was complete, despite the film being a resounding hit. In 1934, Keaton accepted an offer to make an independent film in Paris, ''Le Roi des Champs-Élysées''. During this period, he made one other film in Europe, ''The Invader'' (released in America as ''An Old Spanish Custom'' in 1936).

Educational Pictures

Upon Keaton's return to Hollywood, he made a screen comeback in a series of 16 two-reel comedies for Educational Pictures. Most of these are simple visual comedies, with many of the gags supplied by Keaton himself. The high point in the Educational series is ''Grand Slam Opera'', featuring Buster in his own screenplay as an amateur-hour contestant. When the series lapsed in 1937, Keaton returned to MGM as a gag writer, including the Marx Brothers films ''At the Circus'' (1939) and ''Go West'' (1940), and providing material for Red Skelton. He also helped and advised Lucille Ball in her comedic work in films and television.

Columbia Pictures

In 1939, Columbia Pictures hired Keaton to star in ten two-reel comedies, running for two years. The director was usually Jules White, whose emphasis on slapstick made most of these films resemble White's Three Stooges comedies. Keaton's personal favorite was the series' debut entry, ''Pest from the West'', a shorter, tighter remake of Keaton's little-viewed 1935 feature ''The Invader''; it was directed not by White but by Mack Sennett veteran Del Lord. Moviegoers and exhibitors welcomed Keaton's Columbia comedies, proving that the comedian had not lost his appeal. However, taken as a whole, Keaton's Columbia shorts rank as the worst comedies he made, an assessment he concurred with in his autobiography. The final entry was ''She's Oil Mine'', and Keaton swore he would never again "make another crummy two-reeler." He stuck to his word, and the Columbia entries would be his final starring series for any film studio.

1940s and feature films

Keaton's personal life had stabilized with his 1940 marriage, and now he was taking life a little easier, abandoning Columbia for the less strenuous field of feature films. Throughout the 1940s, Keaton played character roles in both "A" and "B" features. Critics rediscovered Keaton in 1949 and producers occasionally hired him for bigger "prestige" pictures. He had cameos in such films as ''In the Good Old Summertime'' (1949), ''Sunset Boulevard'' (1950), and ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' (1956).

Keaton also had a small bit part as Jimmy The Crook near the beginning of the long, frantic chase scene in ''It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (1963), directing Spencer Tracy's character, Captain C. G. Culpepper, in storing his police car in a shoreline garage. Keaton was given more screen time in ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' (1966). He also appeared in a comedy routine about two inept stage musicians in Charlie Chaplin's ''Limelight'' (1952), recalling the vaudeville of ''The Playhouse''. With the exception of ''Seeing Stars'', a minor publicity film produced in 1922, ''Limelight'' was the only time in which the two would ever appear together on film.

In 1949, comedian Ed Wynn invited Keaton to appear on his CBS Television comedy-variety show, ''The Ed Wynn Show'', which was televised live on the West Coast. Kinescopes were made for distribution of the programs to other parts of the country since there was no transcontinental coaxial cable until September 1951.

1950s and television

In 1950, Keaton had a successful television series, ''The Buster Keaton Show'', which was broadcast live on a local Los Angeles station. An attempt to recreate the first series on film as ''Life with Buster Keaton'' (1951), which allowed the program to be broadcast nationwide, was less well-received. A theatrical feature film, ''The Misadventures of Buster Keaton'', was fashioned from the series. Keaton said he canceled the filmed series himself because he was unable to create enough fresh material to produce a new show each week. Keaton also appeared on Ed Wynn's variety show. At the age of 55, he successfully recreated one of the stunts of his youth, in which he propped one foot onto a table, then swung the second foot up next to it, and held the awkward position in midair for a moment before crashing to the stage floor. ''I've Got a Secret'' host Garry Moore recalled, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all those falls, and he said, 'I'll show you'. He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. So that's how he did it—it ''hurt''—but you had to care enough not to care."

Unlike his contemporary Harold Lloyd, who kept his films from being televised (and therefore became lesser known to today's audiences), Keaton's periodic television appearances helped to revive interest in his silent films in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1954, Keaton played his first television dramatic role in "The Awakening", an episode of the syndicated anthology series ''Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents''. About this time, he also appeared on NBC's ''The Martha Raye Show''.

On April 3, 1957, Keaton was surprised by Ralph Edwards for the weekly NBC program ''This Is Your Life''. The half hour program, which also promoted the release of the biographical film ''The Buster Keaton Story'' with Donald O'Connor, summarized Keaton's life and career up to that point.

In December 1958, Keaton was a guest star as a hospital janitor who provides gifts to sick children in a special Christmas episode of ''The Donna Reed Show'' on ABC. The program was titled "A Very Merry Christmas". He returned to the program in 1965 in the episode "Now You See It, Now You Don't". The 1958 episode has been included in the DVD release of Donna Reed's television programs.

In August 1960, Keaton accepted the role of mute King Sextimus the Silent in the national touring company of ''Once Upon A Mattress'', a successful Broadway musical. Eleanor Keaton was cast in the chorus, and during rehearsals, she fielded questions directed at her husband, creating difficulties in communication. After a few days, Keaton warmed up to the rest of the cast with his "utterly delicious sense of humor", according to Fritzi Burr, who played opposite him as his wife Queen Aggravaine. When the tour landed in Los Angeles, Keaton invited the entire cast and crew to a spaghetti party at his Woodland Hills home, and entertained them by singing vaudeville songs.

In 1960, Keaton returned to MGM for the final time, playing a lion tamer in a 1960 adaptation of Mark Twain's ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn''. Much of the film was shot on location on the Sacramento River, which doubled for the Mississippi River setting of Twain's original book.

In 1961, he starred in ''The Twilight Zone'' episode "Once Upon a Time", which included both silent and sound sequences. Keaton played time traveler Mulligan, who traveled from 1890 to 1960, then back, by means of a special helmet.

Keaton also found steady work as an actor in TV commercials, including a popular series of silent ads for Simon Pure Beer in which he revisited some of the gags from his silent film days. In 1963, Keaton appeared in the episode "Think Mink" of ABC's ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' sitcom, starring Fess Parker.

In 1964, Keaton appeared with Joan Blondell and Joe E. Brown in the final episode of ABC's circus drama, ''The Greatest Show on Earth'', starring Jack Palance. That same year, he appeared on Lucille Ball's CBS television show, ''The Lucy Show'', in an episode ("A Day in the Park") filmed in color but initially televised in black and white; this featured him sitting on a park bench, reading a newspaper, which he gradually unfolded into a huge, single sheet. Harvey Korman played a policeman in the scene.

At the age of 70, Keaton suggested that, for his appearance in the 1965 film ''Sergeant Deadhead'', he run past the end of a firehose into a six-foot-high flip and crash. When director Norman Taurog balked, expressing concerns for Keaton's health, Keaton said, "I won't hurt myself, Norm, I've done it for years!" Keaton also starred in three other films for American International Pictures (''Beach Blanket Bingo'', ''Pajama Party'', and ''How to Stuff a Wild Bikini'').

In 1965, Keaton starred in a short film called ''The Railrodder''for the National Film Board of Canada. Wearing his traditional porkpie hat, he travelled from one end of Canada to the other on a motorized handcar, performing gags similar to those in films he made 50 years before. The film is also notable for being Keaton's last silent screen performance. ''The Railrodder'' was made in tandem with a behind-the-scenes documentary about Keaton's life and times, called ''Buster Keaton Rides Again'', also made for the National Film Board. He played the central role in Samuel Beckett's ''Film'' (1965), directed by Alan Schneider. Also in 1965, he traveled to Italy to play a role in ''Due Marines e un Generale'', co-starring alongside with the famous Italian comedian duo of Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia.

Keaton's last film appearance was in ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' (1966) which was filmed in Spain in late 1965. He amazed the cast and crew by doing many of his own stunts, although Thames Television said his increasingly ill health did force the use of a stunt double for some scenes.

Death

Keaton died of lung cancer on February 1, 1966, in Woodland Hills, California. Despite being diagnosed with the terminal illness in January 1966, he was never told that he was terminally ill, and thought that he had bronchitis. Confined to a hospital during his final days for treatment, Keaton was restless and paced the room endlessly. In a British television documentary on his career, his widow Eleanor told producers of Thames Television that Keaton was up out of bed and moving around, and even played cards with friends who came to visit at their house the day before he died. Eleanor Keaton died in 1998, from emphysema and lung cancer, aged 80.

Influence and legacy

Keaton has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: 6619 Hollywood Boulevard (for motion pictures); and 6321 Hollywood Boulevard (for television).

A 1957 film biography, ''The Buster Keaton Story'', starred Donald O'Connor as Keaton. The screenplay, by Sidney Sheldon (who also directed the film), was vaguely based on his life, but contained many factual errors and merged his three wives into one character. Most of the story centered on his drinking problem, in the producer's attempt to imitate the success of ''I'll Cry Tomorrow'', a sudsy biography about another alcoholic celebrity (Lillian Roth). The 1987 documentary, ''Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow'', which won two Emmy Awards and was directed by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, is considered a much more accurate telling of Keaton’s story.

In 1994, caricaturist Al Hirschfeld penned a series of silent film stars for the United States Post Office, including Rudolph Valentino and Keaton. Hirschfeld said that modern film stars were more difficult to depict, that silent film comedians such as Laurel and Hardy and Keaton "looked like their caricatures".

Keaton's physical comedy is cited by Jackie Chan in his autobiography documentary ''Jackie Chan: My Story'' as being the primary source of inspiration for his own brand of self-deprecating physical comedy.

Paul Merton often stated on his show ''Silent Clowns'' how influential and hilarious Buster Keaton was to fellow comedians.

Pork pie hats

Keaton designed and fabricated many of his own pork pie hats during his career. In 1964, he told an interviewer that in making the pork pie, he started with a good Stetson hat and cut it down, stiffening the brim with concentrated sugar water. The hats were often destroyed during Keaton's wild film antics; some were given away as gifts and some were snatched by souvenir hunters. Keaton said he was lucky if he used only six hats in making a film. Keaton estimated that he and his wife Eleanor made thousands of the hats during his career.

Keaton in music

In 1987 Italian singer-songwriters Claudio Lolli and Francesco Guccini wrote a song, ''Keaton'', about his work in Italy on the film ''Due Marines e un Generale''

Filmography

See also

Camille Keaton

References

Further reading

Agee, James, "Comedy's Greatest Era" from ''Life'' (September 5, 1949), reprinted in ''Agee on Film'' (1958) McDowell, Obolensky, (2000) Modern Library

Keaton, Buster (with Charles Samuels), ''My Wonderful World of Slapstick'' (1960) Doubleday, (1982) Da Capo Press ISBN 0-306-80178-7

Blesh, Rudi, ''Keaton'' (1966) The Macmillan Company ISBN 0-02-511570-7

Lahue, Kalton C., ''World of Laughter: The Motion Picture Comedy Short, 1910-1930'' (1966) University of Oklahoma Press

Lebel, Jean-Patrick, ''Buster Keaton'' (1967) A.S. Barnes

Brownlow, Kevin, "Buster Keaton" from ''The Parade’s Gone By'' (1968) Alfred A. Knopf, (1976) University of California Press

McCaffrey, Donald W., ''4 Great Comedians: Chaplin, Lloyd, Keaton, Langdon'' (1968) A.S. Barnes

Robinson, David, ''Buster Keaton'' (1969) Indiana University Press, in association with British Film Institute

Robinson, David, ''The Great Funnies: A History of Film Comedy'' (1969) E.P. Dutton

Durgnat, Raymond, "Self-Help with a Smile" from ''The Crazy Mirror: Hollywood Comedy and the American Image'' (1970) Dell

Maltin, Leonard, ''Selected Short Subjects'' (first published as ''The Great Movie Shorts'', 1972) Crown Books, (revised 1983) Da Capo Press

Gilliatt, Penelope, "Buster Keaton" from ''Unholy Fools: Wits, Comics, Disturbers of the Peace'' (1973) Viking

Mast, Gerald, ''The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies'' (1973, 2nd ed. 1979) University of Chicago Press

Kerr, Walter, ''The Silent Clowns'' (1975) Alfred A. Knopf, (1990) Da Capo Press ISBN 0-394-46907-0

Anobile, Richard J. (ed.), ''The Best of Buster: Classic Comedy Scenes Direct from the Films of Buster Keaton'' (1976) Crown Books

Yallop, David, ''The Day the Laughter Stopped: The True Story of Fatty Arbuckle'' (1976) St. Martin's Press

Byron, Stuart and Weis, Elizabeth (eds.), ''The National Society of Film Critics on Movie Comedy'' (1977) Grossman/Viking

Moews, Daniel, ''Keaton: The Silent Features Close Up'' (1977) University of California Press

Everson, William K., ''American Silent Film'' (1978) Oxford University Press

Maltin, Leonard, ''The Great Movie Comedians'' (1978) Crown Books

Dardis, Tom, ''Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down'' (1979) Scribners, (2004) Limelight Editions

Benayoun, Robert, ''The Look of Buster Keaton'' (1983) St. Martin's Press

Staveacre, Tony, ''Slapstick!: The Illustrated Story'' (1987) Angus & Robertson Publishers

Edmonds, Andy, ''Frame-Up!: The Shocking Scandal That Destroyed Hollywood's Biggest Comedy Star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle'' (1992) Avon Books

Kline, Jim, ''The Complete Films of Buster Keaton'' (1993) Carol Pub. Group

Meade, Marion, ''Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase'' (1995) HarperCollins

Rapf, Joanna E. and Green, Gary L., ''Buster Keaton: A Bio-Bibliography'' (1995) Greenwood Press

Oldham, Gabriella, ''Keaton's Silent Shorts: Beyond the Laughter'' (1996) Southern Illinois University Press

Horton, Andrew, ''Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr.'' (1997) Cambridge University Press

Bengtson, John, ''Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton'' (1999) Santa Monica Press

Knopf, Robert, ''The Theater and Cinema of Buster Keaton'' (1999) Princeton University Press ISBN 0-69100-442-0

Keaton, Eleanor, ''Buster Keaton Remembered'' (2001) Harry N. Abrams ISBN 0-8109-4227-5

Mitchell, Glenn, ''A – Z of Silent Film Comedy'' (2003) B.T. Batsford Ltd.

McPherson, Edward, ''Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat'' (2005) Newmarket Press ISBN 1-55704-665-4

Oderman, Stuart, ''Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle: A Biography of the Silent Film Comedian'' (2005) McFarland & Co.

Neibaur, James L., ''Arbuckle and Keaton: Their 14 Film Collaborations'' (2006) McFarland & Co.

Keaton, Buster, ''Buster Keaton: Interviews'' (Conversations with Filmmakers Series) (2007) University Press of Mississippi

Brighton, Catherine, ''Keep Your Eye on the Kid: The Early Years of Buster Keaton'' (2008) Roaring Brook Press (An illustrated children's book about Keaton's career)

Smith, Imogen Sara, ''Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy'' (2008) Gambit Publishing ISBN 978-0967591742

Carroll, Noel, ''Comedy Incarnate: Buster Keaton, Physical Humor, and Bodily Coping'' (2009) Wiley-Blackwell

Neibaur, James L., ''The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for MGM, Educational Pictures, and Columbia'' (2010) Scarecrow Press

External links

The International Buster Keaton Society

Buster Keaton Museum

Buster Keaton and the Muskegon Connection

Buster Keaton in Five Easy Clips

Buster Keaton Photo Galleries (includes rare images of BK smiling and laughing)

Buster Keaton as a child performer(Univ. of Washington/ Sayre collection)

Category:Silent film directors Category:1895 births Category:1966 deaths Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:Actors from Kansas Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American silent film actors Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:Mimes Category:People from Beverly Hills, California Category:People from Woodson County, Kansas Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Slapstick comedians Category:Silent film comedians Category:Ukulele players Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Short film directors

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name	Marion Mack
birth name	Joey Marion McCreery
birth date	April 08, 1902
birth place	Mammoth, Utah
death date	May 01, 1989
death place	Costa Mesa, California
nationality
notable works	The General
occupation	ActressScriptwriter
spouse	Louis Lewyn }}

Marion Mack (8 April 1902 - 1 May 1989) was an American film actress and scriptwriter best known for co-starring with Buster Keaton in the silent film, ''The General''.

Film career

Born Joey Marion McCreery in Mammoth, Utah she moved to Hollywood in 1920 and got a job working for Mack Sennett. After appearing in several short films for Sennett, she co-wrote and appeared in a semi-autobiographical film, ''Mary of the Movies''. In 1927 she was cast in her best known role as ''Annabelle Lee'', the estranged girlfriend of Buster Keaton's character, ''Johnnie Grey'', in ''The General''. She found the strain of such a long period, 6 months, on location away from her husband so great that she decided to quit acting and concentrate on scriptwriting instead.

Later life

This second career she kept quiet and was not credited as a scriptwriter until the 1938 film ''Streamlined Swing''. After World War II she took up yet another career as a real estate agent.

''The General'' was not a commercial or critical success when first released but in the 1970s interest in the film took off again and Mack attended many showings at festivals.

Selected filmography

''Mary of the Movies'' (1923)

''One of the Bravest'' (1925)

''The Carnival Girl'' (1926)

''The General'' (1927)

''Alice in Movieland'' (1927)

References

Category:American silent film actors Category:1902 births Category:1989 deaths Category:People from Juab County, Utah Category:Actors from Utah

name	Glen Cavender
birth date	September 19, 1883
birth place	Tucson, Arizona, USA
death date	February 09, 1962
death place	Hollywood, California, USA
yearsactive	1914-1949
othername	Glen W. CavenderGlenn Cavender
occupation	Actor }}

Glen Cavender (September 19, 1883 – February 9, 1962) was an American film actor. He appeared in 259 films between 1914 and 1949.

He was born in Tucson, Arizona, and died in Hollywood, California.

Selected filmography

''Cruel, Cruel Love'' (1914)

''Dough and Dynamite'' (1914)

''Mabel, Fatty and the Law'' (1915)

''Fatty's New Role'' (1915)

''Fatty's Reckless Fling'' (1915)

''Fatty's Chance Acquaintance'' (1915)

''Fatty's Faithful Fido'' (1915)

''That Little Band of Gold'' (1915)

''Wished on Mabel'' (1915)

''Mabel's Wilful Way'' (1915)

''Fatty's Tintype Tangle'' (1915)

''Fickle Fatty's Fall'' (1915)

''A Submarine Pirate'' (1915)

''Fatty and the Broadway Stars'' (1915)

''Fatty and Mabel Adrift'' (1916)

''The Rough House'' (1917)

''The Pullman Bride'' (1917)

''A Scrap of Paper'' (1918)

''The Cook'' (1918)

''The Sheriff'' (1918)

''Hearts of Youth'' (1921)

''The Pest'' (1922)

''No Wedding Bells'' (1923)

''Pie-Eyed'' (1925)

''The Iron Mule'' (1925)

''The Snow Hawk'' (1925)

''Navy Blue Days'' (1925)

''The Sleuth'' (1925)

''The Movies'' (1925)

''The Fighting Dude'' (1925)

''My Stars'' (1926)

''Home Cured'' (1926)

''His Private Life'' (1926)

''Listen Lena'' (1927)

''That's My Line'' (1931)

External links

Category:1883 births Category:1962 deaths Category:American film actors Category:American silent film actors Category:Actors from Arizona Category:People from Tucson, Arizona Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

name	Frederick Vroom
birth date	November 11, 1857
birth place	Nova Scotia, Canada
death date	June 24, 1942
death place	Hollywood, California, USA
othername	Frederic VroomFred Vroom
years active	1915-1935
occupation	Actor }}

Frederick Vroom (11 November 1857 – 24 June 1942) was a Canadian actor of the silent era. He appeared in 70 films between 1912 and 1939.

He was born in Nova Scotia, Canada and died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack.

Selected filmography

''A Ticket to Red Horse Gulch'' (1914)

''The Prince of Avenue A'' (1920)

''The Day of Faith'' (1923)

''His Hour'' (1924)

''The Navigator'' (1924)

''Idaho'' (1925)

''The General'' (1927)

''The Terrible People'' (1928)

External links

Category:1857 births Category:1942 deaths Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian silent film actors