Buster Keaton

16AUG26

My October art-challenge from 2020: Stars from the Silent Movies

BUSTER KEATON
4th October 1895 - 1st February 1966

He is the first male actor I chose for my set of portraits, because "The General" is one of my favourite silent movies.

I first watched it as a child, back in the 1980s, when German TV still showed the classics. My mum taped it on VCR and it became one of those films that you watch over and over again. I devoted this drawing to my mother, because Keaton is one of her favourite actors. He was a true master of physical comedy, his dead-pan face only making the unintentionally hilarious situations that his characters found themselves in, only funnier. He started acting when he was only three years old, learning how to fall safely, so that he wouldn't injure himself. His life went from Vaudeville acts, to only going to school one time, to becoming a well paid theatre performer, to serving in the infantry during World War I, to becoming one of the most famous faces of early cinema.

His is also a cautionary tale, as he was a heavy smoker, which was what ultimately led to his death, at the age of 70, from lung cancer.

Salvador Dalí was deeply impressed with Keaton's films, calling them "anti-artistic" and "pure poetry". He created a collage called: "El Casamiento de Buster Keaton" in his honour.