For me, Buster Keaton remains the best. He is not only a comedian, he also does pantomime without laughing or grinning. He is a stuntman. He does almost magical tricks and life-threatening actions.
Its amazing he didnt die doing all them stunts, that diving board on the building I heard he was supposed to make the jump, but messed up and kept the fall in his film and changed it to him falling off the drain pipe through the window.
I'm imagining a 7 year old Norm MacDonald hearing that Buster Keaton had died. "Why is everyone so sad? 70 seems like a ripe old age to die for an actor that did his own stunts."
His last movie was a cameo in "It's Mad, Mad, Mad World". Directed by Sam Peckinpah, it is frenetically paced and has so many classic comedians and comedy actors of the 1950s-60s. Buster came in as the gas station attendant in the middle of cars speeding and spinning in and out of the station. He was in his 70s and was in the middle of the cars, doing his own stunts. We'll not see his like again. R.I.P, Buster.
This is why I objectively hate CGI. Live action is almost a lost art. Matte paintings and optical tricks. Practical effects need to come back full force! These in particular are friggin genius! I can't even express how genius they are!
Forget Chan & Cruise- The only other stuntman in Buster’s league of creativity & expertise was Jean-Paul Belmondo: both did it in street shoes, no CGI. Lloyd, Chaplin & Chaplin’s European rival were talented too, but only Keaton & Belmondo combine artless elegance, creative genius, and physical grace to such a degree that physics appear defied.
LA used to have a silent theatre and I saw 7 Chances there. The laughs just kept building until my sides literally hurt and I lost my voice. And with a silent film, you can keep laughing and laughing and it doesn't interfere with the "dialog." Fabulous experience.
Legends never die. Imagine back then without graphic effects, CGI, and animated programs to aid the mortal flesh and blood of stunt men and women? They were the time preserving legends. Respect dear great grandies.. 🤓
When he fell from the building, he misjudged the jump, but decided it will stay in the film. When he fell with water from water pump, he fell on the rails and literally broke his neck. He was never treated for that.
