Buster Keaton, Silent-Film Comedian, Dead

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30977, 5 February 1966, Page 17

Buster Keaton, Silent-Film Comedian, Dead

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 2. Buster Keaton, whose deadpan face, baggy pants and straw hat earned h i m film immortality, died of lung cancer yesterday. He was 70.

His, family learned of the malignancy three months ago but kept the news from him. Keaton was among the early giants of the silent screen, a contemporary of Charlie Chaplin, Lvurel and Hardy, Harry Langdon and Ben Turpin.

He was also Involved in frequent screen bouts with the Keystone Cops. In more recent years he made guest appearances on television and took small character roles in films. The man with the “frozen” face was born on October 4, 1896. He was named Joseph Francis Keaton, son of Joe and Myra Keaton, vaudeville acrobats. He made his first stage appearance at the age of one day. The Keatons showed their baby to the audience for a round of applause. From then on Keaton was in show business. When he was three he joined his parents’ act, developing the frozen expression which made people laugh. As he grew up Keaton became an integral part of the family act, highlighted by a skit with his father in which they swatted one another

with brooms. The late comedian, Roscoe

“Fatty” Arbuckle, met Keaton in vaudeville and later urged him to try films. They made many pie-toss-ing movies together before Keaton began starring in his own silent two-reelers. He went on to become one of M.G.M.’s top moneymaking stars. His pictures included “The Passionate Plumber,” “The Cameraman” and “Sherlock Holmes Jr.”

“The Navigator” was considered his best film. In one scene Keaton tried to shuffle stock-together cards, a comic bit that is considered a classic today. One of the highest-paid stars of silent films, Keaton was a carefree spender and reportedly went through several fortunes in his lifetime, A.A.P.-Reuter said. He filed a bankruptcy petition in 1934, listing assets Of 12,000 dollars and liabilities of 303,832 dollars.

Slapstick Went Out When talking pictures arrived, his popularity faded as his brand of slapstick comedy went out of style. Keaton enjoyed a mild comeback in the last decade after several years of inactivity, U.P.I. said. In 1954 he appeared in “Limelight” with. Chaplin—the two great silent stars united in a comedy pianoviolin sketch. His last great triumph was at the Venice Film Festival last September when he received an enthusiastic reception for his moving performance in a 22-minute silent film written by Samuel Beckett, called “Film.”

Keaton never smiled while ! performing, maintaining his

dour demeanour in spite of any catastrophe or prank, the Associated Press said.

Asked once how it began, he said: “I just never smiled when the old man tossed me around. When I was seven I was smart enough to see that the more sober I looked, the bigger the laughs.” Had he never smiled? “1 did smile once. Just once. But it didn’t take. His producer said: “Look, Buster, you’ve got the girl in your arms, you smile and the picture ends. People will love it.”

“I said, okay. He figured people would say: ‘O, goody, Keaton smiled.’ But instead at the preview they said: ‘Look, the bum smiled.’ So we remade the scene with no smile.”