The Great Stone Face: Captivating Vintage Photos of Buster Keaton Through the 1920s and 1940s

In the golden age of silent cinema, one man shined brightest: Buster Keaton.

He is best known for his silent film work, which featured his trademark physical comedy as well as a stoic, impassive expression, which earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".

Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked almost without interruption", making him "the greatest actor-director in the history of films".

In 1996, Entertainment Weekly recognized Keaton as the seventh greatest film director of all time, writing that "More than Chaplin, Keaton understood films: He knew they contained a four-sided frame containing a malleable reality. From which their personality can bounce.”

A vaudeville child star, Keaton grew up to be a tinkerer, an athlete, a visual mathematician; His films offer laughs of whimsical physical invention and a sheer determination close to philosophical grandeur.

Born Buster Keaton on October 4, 1895, in Piqua, Kansas, christened Joseph Frank Keaton, he was destined for a life full of entertainment.

Raised in a vaudevillian family, he made his stage debut at the age of three and earned the nickname "Buster" from Harry Houdini himself after falling down the stairs without injury.

Keaton's cinematic fame rose during the prosperous era of silent films in the 1920s.

Teaming up with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, he ventured into film, and distinguished himself for his unique physical dexterity, deadpan expression, and innovative approach to comedy storytelling.

He created a series of 19 two-reel comedies, including One Week (1920), The Playhouse (1921), Cops (1922), and The Electric House (1922).

His best-known works from this period include "The General" (1926) and "Sherlock Jr." (1924), which showed his skill in combining physical comedy with technical ingenuity.

The General is seen as his masterpiece: Orson Welles considered it "the greatest comedy ever made... and perhaps the greatest film ever made".

Comedy director Leo McCarey recalls the freewheeling days of making slapstick comedy, saying, “We all tried to steal each other's gagmen. But we had no luck with Keaton because he came up with his own best gags and we couldn't steal them!”

More adventurous ideas required dangerous stunts, which Keaton performed at great physical risk. During the railroad water-tank scene in Sherlock Jr., Keaton broke his neck when a torrent of water from a water tower fell on him, but he did not realize this until years later.

A scene in Steamboat Bill, Jr. required Keaton to stand still in a particular spot. Then, the front of the two-story building fell forward onto Keaton. Keaton's character emerges unscathed because of an open window.

The stunt required precision, as the prop house weighed two tons, and the window had only a few inches of clearance around Keaton's body. This sequence produced one of the most memorable images of his career.

His career declined when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and lost his artistic freedom. His wife divorced him, he lost his home, and he fell into alcoholism.

He recovered in the 1940s, remarried, and revived his career as a respected comedian for the rest of his life, earning an Academy Honorary Award in 1959.

Late in his career, Keaton made cameo appearances in Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, Chaplin's Limelight, Samuel Beckett's film, and the Twilight Zone episode "Once Upon a Time".

Keaton is often described as being ahead of his time; Anthony Lane wrote, "He was too good, in many ways, too early... No action thriller of the last, blood-soaked decade could match the kinetic violence at the end of Steamboat Bill, Jr., in which a storm “Pulls Keaton through one random disaster after another.”