Silent film fans can be divided into two camps; the Charlie Chaplin camp and the Buster Keaton camp.  I proudly wear my badge as a member of Keaton Troop 104.

My initiation took place in the early-1970s when the PBS station in New York City, Channel 13, was still figuring out its broadcasting schedule. Programmers would air  Buster Keaton shorts in between episodes of Sesame Street and the Electric Company.  On those rare occasions when my mother would allow me to stay home from school due to a tummy ache, I’d sit and watch PBS while Keaton performed his poetry in films like Cops, The Scarecrow and One Week.

Fixed with a stoic expression, Keaton kept moving and usually moving pretty fast:

(How many of you caught the Myth of Sisyphus reference?)

Even when the world was crashing down around him, Keaton didn’t give up:

But Keaton films aren’t all chases and rough and tumble.

Here he is looking most dashing in a suit  as the clever  detective who unknowingly avoids disaster in Sherlock Jr:

(Complete film here, folks.  But watch it.  It’s worth it.)

I just want that one day, when I retire, that people still remember me like they remember Buster. I really want someone to respect me the way they respect Buster.  ~Jackie Chan

This article on Sherlock Jr features Jackie Chan discussing how huge an influence Keaton is on his screen presence and action scenes in his movies.

Keaton’s touch can be found today on Academy award winning films and even iPad apps such as The Fabulous Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore:

Another of my favorite directors, Woody Allen, based the premise of The Purple Rose of Cairo on Sherlock Jr.:

Speaking of absurdity, here’s Keaton starring in Samuel Beckett’s Film:

Surrealist, absurdist, dadaist, existentialist, actor, writer, director, action hero, amateur engineer, athlete, leading man, ukulele player.

Genius.

Happy Birthday, Buster.