Buster Keaton’s biography is a very in depth and provocative biography that leaves no stone unturned.

This biography is a very interesting read that gives a lot of details from the birth to his death. It includes almost minute by minute details of his films, stage performances and life. It is a very comprehensive read that fully immerses itself into the life of Keaton.

The author has done a phenomenal job giving a comprehensive study of a comic genius from cradle to death and to gather interviews from vaudeville and silent screen is a major feat within itself. The making of the shorts and how each comedy section in the films in great deal is a treasure trove of information. The book does jump from the last film Keaton did and back to his birth and forward, but this is very sporadic and does not take away from the rhythm of the book.

Curtis traces the growth of Keaton and then we get the downward years which are simply heart-breaking. We follow his decline and how a company did not appreciate the genius that they have and how this would lead to drink and a sense of helplessness.

Overall, this is an excellent biography and though it is very lengthy the reader will end up aficionado of all of Keaton work and will start to hunt down his career via his silent films and other work. I know I did. I liked Keaton but because of this book, I am now a true fan and will be doing a Keaton series on my show in the next season to celebrate the man and his work. The only bad thing is because of the in-depth writing, I spent weeks and weeks reading this book which put my other reviews on the side but saying that I am glad I did. Fantastic and a must read.

Hello All...I am writing a review of this book for the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. So far, I have been quite pleased with the work, learning about Keaton's vaudeville background....I am looking forward to getting further in.

As his previous biographies of W.C. Fields, Spencer Tracy and Preston Sturges attest, film historian James Curtis doesn't write inconsequential profiles, he writes definitive biographies. Curtis's BUSTER KEATON: A FILMMAKER'S LIFE is the masterclass biography fans of the "Great Stone Face" comedian have been hoping for. This hefty, swift-moving book is both a superbly researched and fascinating account of the star's life and an astute, articulate and informed look at the many classic films and shorts he wrote, directed and starred in.

Buster Keaton (1895-1966) was only a toddler when he joined his parents as "The Three Keatons" in a comedic/acrobatic vaudeville act. The team found great success until Keaton's father's alcoholism broke up the act in 1917. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle recruited Buster Keaton to appear in a series of short film comedies. With Arbuckle as his mentor, Keaton was soon directing, writing and starring in his own films. Between 1920 and 1929, Keaton created 32 classic film comedies (19 shorts and 13 features), mostly made for his own company. In 1928, Keaton made the colossal mistake of signing with MGM, a studio that stripped him of his writing and directing roles and wanted him only as an actor. His films declined at the same time his marital woes and alcoholism increased. MGM fired him in 1933. He continued to work as a supporting actor (and uncredited gag writer) until his films were revived in the 1950s, which brought a heralded career resurgence.

Film buffs will cherish this monumental biography of a phenomenally talented but troubled comic filmmaker.

This monumental, definitive biography offers a masterclass on Buster Keaton's life and films.

James Curtis’ hefty new Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life is a gift to movie lovers. It’s a gorgeously formatted and produced volume, both precise and exhaustive in tracing the life and creative pursuits of the brilliant comic artist and sometime film director who reached his apogee in the 1920s. It’s perfect for a leisurely read or a stint of index-dipping into the performer’s long life and career.

Born more than 125 years ago, Keaton became a star rivaling Charlie Chaplin in the final decade of the silent era. But unlike Chaplin, whose fame barely flagged in the transition to talkies, Keaton more or less dawdled on the outskirts of celebrity, an occasional presence for most of 40 years in a few generally mediocre movies and hit-or-miss appearances on the small screen.

The 1930s were especially bad for Keaton. He sank into a period of alcoholism and too frequently indulged a recurrent impulse to gamble large sums. He divorced twice, crashing and burning in what our forebears, with glances averted, would term a “nervous breakdown.”

Then, a new marriage — to a strong woman 19 years his junior — put Keaton back on a stable, if creatively ascetic, path through TV appearances and occasional Beach Blanket teen-exploitation flicks. He died in 1968, lionized by Hollywood pros and French critics but pretty much a hazy onscreen phantom to the movie-going public.

Even at his creative peak in the 1920s, there were troubling portents, among them Keaton’s uninspiring first marriage to Natalie Talmadge, the least celebrated among three screen-star sisters, all of them inordinately attached to their domineering mother. Natalie’s private indifference to Keaton, which she apparently imprinted on their two sons, never quite blunted his need to show off or his incessant compulsion to hang out with film-industry bros or to bag an occasional ingenue. All of the above, perhaps, kindled his drive to make ostentatious purchases, including an estate rivaling the nouveau-riche palaces of his Hollywood peers.

It's a familiar tale, the creative genius gone astray, but make no mistake: Buster Keaton was a comic genius and, for a too-brief period, a film auteur of the highest magnitude. He served as director for all but a few of his silent films — shorts, two-reelers, and features alike — and proved himself a master of special effects, camera positioning and movement, pacing, and editing.

His skills as a comic performer were at least the equal of Chaplin’s, and without all the cloying sentimentality. Keaton’s niche was securely in the deadpan zone. Critics dubbed him “the Great Stone Face” and saw him as a stoic daredevil who would hurl himself into a dizzying, somersaulting descent down a mountainside or a 20-foot leap off a roof, then spring back, mid-stride, face frozen, to outpace a horde (by which I mean hundreds) of determined pursuers.

A few film actors who followed — Cary Grant and Burt Lancaster come to mind — were ex-acrobats whose athletic panache often shone through on screen, but neither equaled Keaton’s commitment to stunts that appeared to risk life and limb.

He came by this reckless physicality naturally, a performer since the age of 3 in his parents’ vaudeville act. His primary schtick: being flung headlong across the stage, off the stage, into furniture and walls, and then (you guessed it) springing back in nonplussed resignation. His dad, Joe, devised a clever device — a hidden suitcase handle sewn into Keaton’s costume — that made this bit of business easier on Joe, though probably not on his boy.

There are more than a few thrilling comic moments in the book that will stand out vividly for fans of Keaton’s movies. Curtis mentions his dazzling, shoulder-wrenching grab of a passing car in “Cops” (1922) and his celebrated close call in “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” (1928), where a collapsing building falls on him in real time but fails to smash him into a pulp, thanks to a precisely placed window opening.

For this reviewer, there are many other high points, notably a brilliantly conceived, shot, and edited sequence in “One Week” (1920) when Keaton’s character and his wife, having constructed a small house, are attempting to move it. It becomes stuck on a train track (please suspend disbelief here, reader; this is the silent era). Keaton the director sets up an extreme long shot over the house’s upper left rooftop, where we glimpse a locomotive closing fast, probably a half-mile away.

As the train nears the point of likely collision, the two characters struggle to push their new house off the track. They give up at the last moment, leaping away and saving themselves. As they (and we) brace for impact, the train roars past on an adjacent track. The couple rejoices…but then another train, emerging unseen from the opposite direction — behind the camera and our vantage point — speeds through, obliterating the house.

“Seven Chances” (1925) offers another Keaton gem. The film has lost some of its luster because of comic stereotyping, but it climaxes with a spectacular foot chase, again by hundreds of angry pursuers, through nightmarishly incongruous landscapes: a football field to a cornfield to an apiary to a swamp to a desert to an ironworks to a lofty mountainside. In this last locale, a rockslide stirs to life as Keaton dashes past. It starts with bowling-ball-size stones and progresses to eight-foot-wide boulders, which he must dodge as he sprints downhill, sometimes falling and occasionally somersaulting.

In addition to a closely observed recounting of the performer’s life, the author supplies extended narratives centering on the making of Keaton’s silent classics and a comprehensive chronology and production credits for all his films. To achieve this, he draws on the wealth of published material available: the general, trade, and fan press, plus the many autobiographies and memoirs of key supporting figures. The factual detail may be beyond the expectations of the casual reader, but it’s indispensable to the specialist.

What’s lacking, perhaps, is thoughtful critical consideration and analysis of Keaton’s artistry, but James Curtis, leaving that to other commentators, gives us far more than enough.

Every possible detail written in the life of this comic genius

From his earliest days to the final guest appearcences you will follow the professional and private life of the greatet silent flim innovator in the industry. Prepare yourself for a long, complete, tail of discovery and off beat thinking. Nobody else did it his way! Nobody had his ability to create humor that still rock the house

Buster Keaton is an interesting read. The amount of research that went into writing this book is evident by the copious details. This is a book that explores the life of a brilliant star whose influence is still felt today. Thank you to NetGalley.

This is an exhaustively and definitively researched and told biography of the great Buster Keaton, whose astonishing physicality in film can be still be seen today influencing stars like Jackie Chan and Jim Carrey. The book is a fascinating tour not only through Keaton's life but the early years of film in general. By the time Keaton was four years old, he was a professional acrobat, touring the vaudeville circuit with his performer parents. I found the most fascinating part of the book the first third, which deals with his childhood, and his time being a child stage performer. Unlike a lot of child stars, Buster was temperamentally and physically suited to the performing life, and it doesn't seem that = despite being regularly tossed around on stage in the extreme physical stunts that were popular at the time- he was ever harmed beyond a few bumps and bruises. However, there was already at least one one child welfare group out to stop child performing like this - with good reason - and his father was constantly battling the founder of the group. The fact that Buster was never seriously hurt seems more chance than skill.

As an adult, Buster moves on to the new fad at the time - movies. He is ushered in by another physical comic, "Fatty" Arbuckle, who was the John Belushi or Chris Farley of his time. The two pair up for several films before Buster goes out on his own. Here is where I took off a star, because often the narrative was only rehashes of the plots of these films, and I lost some interest. The book took me a long time to read as I kept stopping to watch YouTube videos of Buster, many of which will make your jaw drop. No CGI then remember - and the stunts he did were supremely dangerous and highly impressive.

If you're a fan of Keaton, early films, early Hollywood, or even are curious to know the man who was the major influencer on someone like Jackie Chan, check out this book.

Thank you to #NetGalley #JamesCurtis and the publisher for this honest review in exchange for an ARC of Buster Keaton.

"Buster Keaton" by James Curtis is, and I predict will be, the go to source for information on the performer, his films, and the legacy he left that is still mined by filmmakers today.

Enough time has passed since Keaton's time on this planet, and death, and history was waiting for an adept biographer, like Curtis who authored other seminal works, including one on W.C. Fields, to pull it all together. Thus, 'Buster Keaton," offers the reader the deepest of deep dives into the artist.

Additionally, whether you are reading as a casual fan or scholar the book will resonate with you. The author goes into fine exquisite detail, but not in a manner that gets in the way of the casual reader. I know that I will keep this one, and refer back to it often, especially when watching silents, shorts, and other films featuring the touch of this fine artist; arguably one of, if not the, greatest silent comedian. Thank you, James Curtis, you do film history a favor via this biography, "Buster Keaton."