Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank Buster Keaton October 4, 1895 February 1, 1966 was an American actor, director, producer, writer, and stunt performer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname The Great Stone Face.

Keaton was born into a vaudeville family in Piqua, Kansas, the small town where his mother, Myra Keaton ne Cutler, happened to go into labor. He was named Joseph to continue a tradition on his fathers side he was sixth in a line bearing the name Joseph Keaton and Frank for his maternal grandfather, who disapproved of his parents union. Later, Keaton changed his middle name to Francis. His father was Joseph Hallie Joe Keaton, who owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company, which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side.According to a frequently repeated story, which may be apocryphal, Keaton acquired the nickname Buster at about eighteen months of age. Keaton told interviewer Fletcher Markle that Houdini happened to be present one day when the young Keaton took a tumble down a long flight of stairs without injury. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience, Houdini remarked, That was a real buster According to Keaton, in those days, the word buster was used to refer to a spill or a fall that had the potential to produce injury. After this, it was Keatons father who began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster. Keaton retold the anecdote over the years, including a 1964 interview with the CBCs Telescope. ........

Source: Wikipedia