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A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force.^[1] 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[link]

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".^{[citation needed]} 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[link]

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

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

More information about this system can be found on the page: général.

Late Soviet and Russian system

The Russian Empire followed the European system, but the Red Army used a variant of French system from 1917 to 1935, with ranks/positions like kombrig (brigade commander), komdiv (division commander), komcor (corps commander), and two grades of komandarm (army commander). Marshal of the Soviet Union was introduced in 1935, and general ranks were re-introduced in 1940.

This system presents an unusual mix of general ranks. Colonel general rank appears just above lieutenant general, where a full general should be, and there is additional general of the army rank just below marshal of the Soviet Union. Additionall, a marshal and a chief marshal are both equivalent to general of the army, but sit below marshal of the Soviet Union. Thus the system borrows from European (general major and lieutenant general), German (colonel general) and French revolutionary (general of the army and marshal) systems.

The late Soviet system was used in the militaries of the Eastern Bloc and continues to be used in Military of Russia, however most Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries now switched to the European system.

Other variations[link]

Other nomenclatures for general officers include the titles and ranks:

• Adjutant general
• Commandant-general
• Inspector 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/Slovenian/Macedonian 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)
• 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 – very senior British military position before 1855.

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[link]

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[link]

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)
• Leo Sviha (Czech Republic) Generalissimo Sviha has 1 Leg,1 Eye and to 1 Hand 2 Fingers
• Kindral (Estonia)
• Général (France)
• General (Germany)

• SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer (Nazi Germany, SS four-star rank)
• Generaloberst der Ordnungspolizei (Nazi Germany, police four-star rank)
• Armeegeneral (East Germany, four-star rank)

• στρατηγός (Strategos) (Greece)
• Rav 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)
• Đại tướng (Vietnam)

Army generals' insignia[link]

• General-de-exercito Brasil.gif

  General-de-exercito (Brazilian Army)

• ROCA-1GEN.jpg

  Shang Jiang
  (Republic of China Army)

• 

  General
  (Colombian Army)

• 

  General of the Bundeswehr, Germany

• 

  General de Ejercito del Ejercito del Ecuador (Ecuadorian Army)

• ES-Army-OF21.jpg

  Kindral (Maavägi –
  Estonian ground force)

• 

  Kenraali (collar & sleeve) (Finnish Army and Finnish Air Force)

• 

  Général
  (French Army)

• 

  Strategos
  (Hellenic Army)

• 

  General
  (Indian Army)

• 

  Rav aluf
  (Israel Defense Forces)

• 

  Generale
  (Italian Army)

• 

  General (Both Mexican Army and Mexican Air Force)

• 

  Generaal
  (Royal Netherlands Army)

• General Pak Army.jpg

  General
  (Pakistan Army)

• 

  General
  Portuguese Army

• 

  General
  (Romanian Land Forces)

• 

  Army general
  (Russia)

• 

  General
  (Serbian Land Forces)

• 

  General
  (Swedish Army)

• CH Gen.gif

  General
  (Switzerland)

• 

  พลเอก – Phon Ek
  (Royal Thai Army)

• 

  General (US Army and
  US Marine Corps)

Air force generals' insignia[link]

• 

  Général/Generaal
  (Belgian Air Component)

• 

  General
  (Colombian Air Force)

• 

  Kindral (Õhuvägi –
  Estonian Air Force)

• 

  Generale
  Italian Air Force

• 

  General (Both Mexican Army and Mexican Air Force)

• 

  Generaal (Royal Netherlands Air Force)

• 

  Army General
  (Russian Air Force)

• 

  General
  (US Air Force)

Generals' insignia of disbanded armies[link]

• 

  Armeegeneral
  (National People's Army (GDR))

• 

  General (Heer) (3)

• 

  General (Luftwaffe) (4)

• 

  Army General
  (Army of the Soviet Union)

• 

  General of the Army
  (Yugoslav People's Army)

Air force and navy equivalents[link]

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[link]

• Général
• Generalissimo
• List of comparative military ranks
• List of Roman generals
• Shogun

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up general officer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• 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

Martin "The General" Cahill (May 23, 1949 – August 18, 1994) was a prominent Irish criminal from Dublin.

Cahill generated a certain notoriety in the media, which referred to him by the sobriquet "The General". The name was also used by the media in order to discuss Cahill's activities while avoiding legal problems with libel. During his lifetime, Cahill took particular care to hide his face from the media—he would spread the fingers of one hand and cover his face.

Early life[link]

He was born in a slum district on Dublin's North Side, the second of twelve surviving children of Patrick Cahill, a lighthouse keeper and alcoholic, and Agnes Sheehan.^{[citation needed]} By the time he was in national school, Martin and his older brother John were stealing food to supplement the family's income. In 1960, the family was moved to 210 Captains Road Crumlin as part of the Dublin slum clearances. Martin was sent to a Christian Brothers School (CBS) on the same road where he lived but was soon playing truant and committing frequent burglaries with his brothers. At 15, he attempted to join the Royal Navy, but was rejected, allegedly after offering to break into houses for them and because he had a criminal record.^[1]

Career[link]

At age 16, he was convicted of two burglaries and sentenced to an industrial school run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate at Daingean, County Offaly. After his release, he met and married Frances Lawless, a girl from Rathmines where his family was now living.

With his brothers, he continued to commit multiple burglaries in the affluent neighbourhoods nearby, at one point even robbing the Garda Síochána depot for confiscated firearms. The Cahill brothers soon turned to armed robbery, and by the early 1970s Gardai at the Dublin Central Detective Unit (CDU) had identified the Cahill brothers as major criminals, when they teamed up with the notorious Dunne gang in Crumlin to rob security vans escorting cash from banks.

Rise to prominence[link]

In 1978, the Dublin Corporation began preparing to demolish Hollyfield Buildings. Cahill, then serving a four-year suspended prison sentence, fought through the courts to prevent his neighborhood's destruction. Even after the tenements were demolished, he continued to live in a pitched tent on the site. Finally, Ben Briscoe, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, paid a visit to his tent and persuaded him to move into a new house in a more upscale district of Rathmines.^[2]

Cahill and his gang famously stole gold and diamonds with a value of over IR£2 million (€2.55 million) from O'Connor's jewellers in Harolds Cross (1983). The jewellers subsequently was forced to close, with the loss of more than one hundred jobs. He was involved in stealing some of the world's most valuable paintings from Russborough House (1986)^[3] and shaking down restaurants and hot dog vendors in Dublin's night club district.^[4]

Tango squad[link]

Fearing the increasing role that forensic science could play in detecting his robberies, in May 1982 Cahill had a bomb placed under the car of chief forensic scientist, Dr James O'Donovan, partly disabling the scientist. As a result, the Gardaí set up a Special Surveillance Unit (SSU), called the Tango Squad, to specifically target and monitor Cahill's gang on a permanent, 24/7 basis. Cahill was given the callsign Tango-1.^[5]

In February 1988, a Today Tonight report identified Cahill as the man behind the O'Donovan bomb plot, the Beit robbery and the robbery of O'Connors jewellery depot. As a result, PD leader Dessie O'Malley raised in the Dáil the revelations that Cahill owned such expensive property in Cowper Downs, despite having never worked, remarking that Cahill must have needed the extra wall space to "hang his artwork by the Dutch masters."^[5]

From July 1988, the Tango Squad increased their pressure on Cahill, making it obvious to Cahill and everyone who was looking where he went. They also placed a direct presence on the estate at Cowper Downs, placing a surveillance unit in the home of developer John Sisk, whose house backed onto Cahill's. Showing signs of getting at the criminal, he ordered the slashing of 197 cars tyres on one night,^{[clarification needed]} but after arrest on suspicion of ordering the crime, he returned home to find his own Mercedes-Benz smashed, with Gardaí waiting to advise him of his rights.^[5]

Lacey kidnapping[link]

In early 1993 John "The Coach" Traynor met with his boss Cahill to provide him with inside information about the inner workings of the National Irish Bank (NIB) head office and branch at College Green, Dublin. Traynor told Cahill that the bank regularly held more than €10 million in cash in the building. The plan was to abduct NIB CEO John Lacey, his wife and four children and take them to an isolated hiding place. There they would be held with fellow gang member, but acting as a "hostage" Jo Jo Kavanagh, who would frighten Lacey into handing over every penny stored in the bank's vaults.^[6]

On 1 November 1993, Cahill's gang seized Lacey and his wife outside his home in Blackrock.^[7] Holding them at Lacey's home, Kavanagh was brought in and tied up, telling the family that he had been abducted two weeks before. On 2 November, Kavanagh drove Lacey to College Green to collect the ransom money, with Lacey eventually withdrawing IR£300,000 from an accessible cash machine.^[7] Kavanagh then drove the pair and the money to the local Gardaí station, where he told them the pair had been kidnapped and forced to take part in a robbery.^[6]

With a ransom note requesting payment of €10 million in cash, the Gardaí began investigating. They quickly found that Kavanagh had claimed child allowance during his two week "capture," and so arrested him. Cahill then planned with Kavanagh to "raid" Kavanagh's home, and show intent to kill the Lacey family by shooting Kavanagh in the leg. Kavanagh was then to call the Irish newspapers from his hospital bed, and claim he was a victim of the Lacey kidnapping gang.

However, the plan failed, and the gang were arrested.^[6]

Assassination[link]

With all gang members from the Lacey kidnapping released on bail, on 18 August 1994, Cahill left his home in Cowper Downs and began driving to a local video store to return a borrowed copy of A Bronx Tale. Upon reaching a road junction (where Oxford Road meets Charleston Road) he was repeatedly shot in the face and upper torso and died almost instantly. The gunman, who was armed with a .357 Magnum revolver, jumped on a motorbike and disappeared from the scene.

After a Roman Catholic requiem mass, Cahill was buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery. In 2001, his gravestone was vandalized and broken in two.^[8]

Aftermath[link]

There are a number of theories about who murdered Martin Cahill and why.

Within hours of Cahill's murder, the Provisional IRA claimed responsibility in a press release. The reasons cited were Cahill's alleged involvement with a Portadown unit of the Ulster Volunteer Force. The unit in question had attempted a bomb attack on a Dublin pub which was hosting a Sinn Féin fund-raiser on the 21 May 1994. The UVF operatives were halted by the doorman Martin Doherty. In the ensuing struggle, Doherty, who the IRA subsequently announced was a volunteer in their Dublin Brigade, was shot dead.^[9][10] The Provisionals further alleged that Cahill had been involved in selling the stolen Beit paintings to the UVF gang led by Billy Wright.^[11] The UVF then fenced the paintings for money, which they used to buy guns from South Africa. This act supposedly sealed Cahill's fate, and put him at the top of an IRA hit list.^[12] In a later statement, the IRA said that it was Cahill's involvement with and assistance to pro-British death squads which forced us to act.^[13]

Another theory surfaced after the publication of Paul Williams's The General, which claims to have insights from the Garda officers who investigated Cahill's murder. Reputedly, two of Cahill's underlings, John Gilligan and John Traynor, had put together a massive drug trafficking ring. When Cahill demanded a cut of the profits, Gardai believe that Traynor and Gilligan approached the IRA and suggested that Cahill was importing heroin, a drug that the IRA despised and were trying to curtail the distribution of within Dublin. Reputedly, this, and Cahill's past dealings with the Ulster loyalists, gave the IRA reason to order his assassination; the hit was paid for and funded by Gilligan.^[6] This theory is put forward in Paul Williams's book Evil Empire. Additionally, Martin Cahill, My Father, a 2007 book written by Cahill's daughter, Frances, alleges he detested and steered clear of the drug trade.

Yet another theory claims that John Gilligan was ultimately responsible for the murder. Depicted in the film Veronica Guerin, this theory was outlined by journalist Henry McDonald as follows,

"In 1993 Gilligan gets out jail and borrows IR£400,000 from Cahill, which the General had raised from the proceeds of his daring theft of the Beit Dutch masters paintings. Gilligan then uses the loan to finance the importation of tonnes of cannabis from Holland into the Irish Republic. When Cahill demands IR£1.5 million in return for his loan, Gilligan decides to rid himself of the troublesome crime boss. Gilligan ... goes to the so-called commanding officer of the Irish National Liberation Army in Dublin and asks him to shoot Cahill. In return, Gilligan offers the INLA killer IR£26,000. Gilligan then bribes a senior member of the IRA in Dublin, who also controls a security firm in the city, to claim responsibility for the shooting. When Cahill is gunned down in Rathmines, the IRA figure with links to organised crime manages to convince the Provo leadership that his unit carried out the assassination. The IRA then admits responsibility for the murder."^[14]

McDonald cites an unnamed Garda officer involved in the investigation as saying that the film "showed the true picture of what happened, not only to [Veronica Guerin] but also to Cahill".^[14]

The unnamed officer continued: "In the Boorman film, the Provos are depicted as the ones who dispatch the General because he is working with the UVF. The fact is Cahill had no direct links with the UVF, only indirect ones through a criminal fence who managed to get rid of some of the stolen Beit paintings ... I'm glad this new film shatters the myth that the IRA killed Cahill for some sort of noble reason."^[14]

McDonald also quotes Jimmy Guerin, the murdered journalist's brother, as saying: "The film shows Gilligan procuring the murder of Cahill and that as far as everyone involved in both investigations knows is the real version of events."^[14]

CAB asset seizure[link]

Following the 1996 murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, the Dail set up the Criminal Assets Bureau, to seize assets of those who were both convicted of crimes, and also seemingly had no obvious means of income. The CAB was set-up to focus mainly on high-profile drug dealers, but had an open approach to all convicted criminals. Cahill denied that he was ever involved in drug dealing, however his brother Peter was convicted of supplying heroin in the 1980s.^[15]

In 1984, Cahill had bought his growing family a house on the Cowper Downs development, on the southside of Dublin, paying IR£80,000 cash despite having no paid formal employment since he left his first and only job in 1969. On 1 May 2005, under an agreement with his widow Frances, the CAB seized and subsequently sold the property.^[5]

In popular culture[link]

In 1998 John Boorman directed a biopic titled The General, starring Brendan Gleeson as Cahill. The movie won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie was based on the book by Irish crime journalist, Paul Williams, who is also the crime editor of the Irish tabloid the News of the World. Boorman himself once had his home burgled by Cahill, who stole the gold record which Boorman had won for the Deliverance soundtrack. This incident is alluded to in the film.^[16]

The 2003 film Veronica Guerin implies that John Gilligan ordered Cahill's murder. In the film Gilligan and Traynor are not portrayed as Cahill's subordinates. Instead, Gilligan appears as a rival mob boss, and Traynor as a lower level associate.

The film Ordinary Decent Criminal, starring Kevin Spacey, is loosely inspired by the General.

In 2004, a book written by Matthew Hart was released entitled The Irish Game: A True Story of Crime and Art, which depicted the story of the Russborough House heist in 1986 and Cahill's involvement.

Quotes[link]

• "Reform school was my primary school, St. Patrick's Institution my secondary school, and Mountjoy my university—they taught me everything I know."^[17]

• "Whatever it is you say I am, I am not. Whatever it is you want from me, I will give. Whatever it is you take from me, you can take. What is it you can do to me? The worst thing you can do is kill me, after that I won't care, I am still free."^[18]

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

• Martin Cahill at Find-A-Grave

El General
Birth name	Edgardo Franco
Also known as	El General
Born	(1964-27-10) March 10, 1964 (age 47) Panama City
Origin	Panama
Genres	Reggae en Español, Reggaeton, Raggamuffin
Occupations	Singer
Years active	1998-2004
Labels	RCA, BMG, Sony Music

El General (born Edgardo Franco) is a Panamanian Reggae artist considered by some to be one of the Fathers of Reggaeton. During the early 1990s, he initiated the Spanish spoken dancehall that would later become reggaeton. Early examples of this were the international and somewhat mainstream songs, “Te Ves Buena” and “Tu Pum Pum.” Both songs, performed in Spanish rap, were very successful in North America. After getting his foot in the door of the commercial market, many other Spanish rappers became famous in the mainstream as well, such as Vico C and DJ Negro.^[1] He has a unique, easy to listen to style of dance music and has produced many well known songs all over Latin America. His musical works have become popular in Latin America over the last few years. This style is called Reggae en Español which would later form Reggaeton, because he makes reggae music with Spanish lyrics.

Early history[link]

El General began singing and composing songs at the age of 12 in Rio Abajo, his home. After getting a scholarship, the young artist moved to the U.S. to study business administration, soon becoming a professional accountant. He started his career when he was 19 years old, and during 17 years, his albums achieved gold status 32 times and platinum 17 times, and several other awards. El General's type of music from Panama was something much different from the reggae of Jamaica. The popular music in Panama was called petroleo.^[2]

Songs like "Muevelo" (1991), "Tu Pum Pum" (1988), "Rica y Apretadita", and "Te Ves Buena" are among his greatest hits In 1992, El General received the an MTV award for best Latin video with the great success of "Muevelo" produced by Pablo "Pabanor" Ortiz & Erick "More" Morillo..^[3]

His breakout performance came in 1994, when he was featured on the song Robi-Rob's Boriqua Anthem Part 2 from C+C Music Factory's the "Anything Goes" album.

Later career[link]

In 2004, he announced his retirement from the music industry after an incident with the government of Panama because of the cancellation of his diplomatic passport. However, he alleged he would dedicate more time to his career as a producer and entrepreneur.

Retirement[link]

He is currently dedicated to his foundation Niños Pobres Sin Fronteras (Poor Children Without Borders) in Panama City hosting a program of his own called Sal, Azúcar, Miel y Canela (Salt, Sugar, Honey and Cinnamon) at Radio Kids.

In 2007, he became a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses, to which his grandmother also is a member. Now he spends his time teaching others about the Bible.^[4]

Discography[link]

• La Ficha Clave (2004)
• "To' Rap-Eao" (2003)
• El General The Hits (2003)
• Move it Up (2003)
• "General De Fiesta" (2002)
• IS BACK (2001)
• Back to the Original (2001)
• Serie 2000: El General (2000)
• Colección Original: El General (1998)
• Grandes Exitoss (1998)
• Rapa Pan Pan (1997)
• Clubb 555 (1995)
• Es Mundial (1994)
• El Poder de El General (1992)
• Muevelo Con El General(1991)
• Estas Buena (1990)
• No Me Va a Matar (1990)

References[link]

^[5][6][7]

Buster Keaton
Born	Joseph Frank Keaton (1895-10-04)October 4, 1895 Piqua, Kansas, United States
Died	February 1, 1966(1966-02-01) (aged 70) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States
Cause of death	Lung cancer
Occupation	Actor, director, producer and writer
Years active	1898–1966
Influenced	Jackie Chan, Peter Jackson, Mel Brooks, Donald O'Connor, Stanley Donen, Blake Edwards, Nick Park
Spouse	Natalie Talmadge (m. 1921–1932) Mae Scriven (m. 1933–1936) Eleanor Norris (m. 1940-1966; his death)

Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer.^[1] 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".^[2]

Buster Keaton (his lifelong stage name) was recognized as the seventh-greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.^[3] 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."^[2]

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."^[4]

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.^[5]

Early life in vaudeville[link]

Keaton was born Joseph Frank Keaton^[6] 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^[6]—and "Frank" for his maternal grandfather, who disapproved of the parents' union. Later, Keaton changed his middle name to "Francis".^[6] His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton, a native of Vigo County, Indiana. Joe Keaton owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini called 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 Keaton (née Myra Edith Cutler), happened to go into labor.^[7]

According to a frequently-repeated story, which may be apocryphal,^[8] 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.^[9]

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."^[10] 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.^[10]

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.^[11]

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,^[10] so Keaton and his mother, Myra, left for New York, where Buster Keaton's career swiftly moved from vaudeville to film.^[12]

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.^[13][14]

Silent film era[link]

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. Fairbanks recommended Keaton to take up the role for the remake five years later, since the film was to have a comic slant.

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). Keaton then moved to full-length features, his first starring role being in The Saphead (1920).

Keaton's writers included Clyde Bruckman and Jean Havez, but the most ingenious gags were generally 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!"^[15] The more adventurous ideas called for dangerous stunts, performed by Keaton at great physical risk. During the railroad water-tank scene in Sherlock Jr., Keaton broke his neck when a torrent of water fell on him from a water tower, but he 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.^[16]

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."^[17] 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."^[18] Keaton even inspired full academic study.^[19]

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".^[20] 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.^[21]

Sound era and television[link]

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. However, MGM did allow Keaton to direct his last originally developed/written silent film The Cameraman, 1928, which was his first project under contract with MGM.

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 roles 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.

Keaton was so depleted during the production of 1933's What! No Beer? that MGM fired 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[link]

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.^[22]

Columbia Pictures[link]

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 Del Lord, a veteran director for Mack Sennett. 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.^[23] The final entry was She's Oil Mine, and Keaton swore he would never again "make another crummy two-reeler."^[23] These Columbia films are his final starring series for any film studio.

1940s and feature films[link]

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, appearing near the end of the film It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). Jimmy assisted 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). The appearance is all the more touching since it was Keaton's last public appearance.

Keaton 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[link]

Keaton pretending to have his foot stuck in the railroad tracks of a train ride at Knott's Berry Farm in 1956

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. He also appeared in the early television series Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town. 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.

Keaton as a time traveler in The Twilight Zone episode, "Once Upon a Time", November 1961.

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.^[24]

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.^[25] Actor Paul Peterson, a regular on "The Donna Reed Show," recalls in the book "The Fall of Buster Keaton" (2010, Scarecrow Press) that Keaton "put together an incredible physical skit. His skills were amazing. I never saw anything like it before or since."

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.^[26]

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.^[27]

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 made in 1962 by Jim Mohr in Buffalo, NY 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, a gag first seen in his 1921 short The High Sign. Harvey Korman played a policeman in the scene.^[28]

Keaton with fellow comedian Joe E. Brown in a 1962 episode of Route 66.

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.^[29]

Marriages[link]

In 1921, Keaton married Natalie Talmadge, sister-in-law of his boss, Joseph Schenck, and sister of actresses Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge. She co-starred with Keaton in Our Hospitality. The couple had two sons, James (1922–2007) and Robert (1924–2009), but after the birth of Robert, the relationship began to suffer.^[30]

According to Keaton's autobiography, Natalie turned him out of their bedroom and hired detectives to follow him. Her extravagance was another factor in the breakdown of the marriage. During the 1920s, according to his autobiography, he dated actress Kathleen Key.^[31]

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.^[21]

During the height of his popularity, Keaton spent $300,000 to build a 10,000-square-foot (930 m²) 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 previously "lost" 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. Among the discovered films is Keaton's long-lost classic The Boat.^[32]

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. The singular event that triggered Mae filing for divorce in 1935 was her finding Keaton in flagrante dilecto with the infamous Leah Clampitt Sewell on the 4th of July of that same year in a hotel in Santa Barbara.^[33] When they divorced in 1936, it was again at great financial cost to Keaton.^[34]

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.

Death[link]

Keaton died of lung cancer on February 1, 1966, aged 70, in Woodland Hills, California.^[35] Despite being diagnosed with cancer in January 1966, he was never told that he was terminally ill or that he had cancer; Keaton thought that he was recovering from bronchitis. Confined to a hospital during his final days, Keaton was restless and paced the room endlessly, desiring to return home. In a British television documentary about 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.^[36] Eleanor Keaton died in 1998, from emphysema and lung cancer, aged 80.

Buster Keaton, Movie Star

Influence and legacy[link]

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

In 1955, Keaton was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.

Jacques Tati is described as "taking a page from Buster Keaton's playbook."^[37]

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. 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.^[38]

In 1994, caricaturist Al Hirschfeld penned a series of silent film stars for the United States Post Office, including Rudolph Valentino and Keaton.^[39] 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".^[40]

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.

Comedian Richard Lewis stated that Keaton was his prime inspiration, and spoke of having a close friendship with Keaton's widow Eleanor. Lewis was particularly moved by the fact that Eleanor said Lewis' eyes looked like Keaton's.^[41]

Pork pie hats[link]

Keaton seated, in costume, wearing his signature pork pie hat, circa 1939.

Keaton designed and modified his own pork pie hats during his career. In 1964, he told an interviewer that in making "this particular pork pie", he "started with a good Stetson and cut it down", stiffening the brim with sugar water.^[42] 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 observed that during his silent period, such a hat cost him around two dollars; at the time of his interview, he said, they cost almost $13.^[42]

Keaton in music[link]

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[link]

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Camille Keaton

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• 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 0-691-00442-0
• 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 978-0-9675917-4-2
• 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[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Buster Keaton

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Buster Keaton

• Buster Keaton at the Internet Movie Database
• Buster Keaton at the TCM Movie Database
• 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)