Buster Keaton

Comedian / Filmmaker / Actor

Born: 4 October 1895
Died: 1 February 1966 (Lung cancer)
Birthplace: Piqua, Kansas
Best known as: Silent film comedy great

Name at birth: Joseph Francis Keaton VI

Known as "The Great Stone Face," Keaton got big laughs out of his relentlessly blank expression in silent film comedies like The Saphead (1920), Sherlock, Jr. (1924), and his famous The General (1927). Keaton was one of silent film's most famous comedians; his popularity waned in the 1930s, but he made a nostalgic flurry of films before his 1966 death.

Extra credit: Keaton was briefly a cryptographer with U.S. forces in France during World War I.

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