Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank Keaton grew up in vaudeville, touring with his family's act before he could read. In the early 1920s, working with producer Joseph M. Schenck and director Edward F. Cline, he turned out a string of short comedies — One Week, The Playhouse, Cops, The Electric House — that built his reputation for physical invention. He scaled up to features, and between 1924 and 1928 released Sherlock Jr., The General, Steamboat Bill, Jr., and The Cameraman, films that critics would later call untouchable. Then he signed with MGM in 1928, surrendered creative control, and watched it all collapse: h…