Joseph Hallie Keaton (July 6, 1867 – January 13, 1946) was an American vaudeville performer and silent film actor.
He was the father of actor Buster Keaton and appeared with his son in several films.
Keaton was born a few miles south of Terre Haute, Indiana, to Libbie Jane and Joseph Francis Keaton IV.
Leaving home in 1889, the year of the Land Rush, he homesteaded in the Oklahoma territory for a time, securing a claim three and a half miles northwest of Edmond.
A few months into Keaton's residency, the neighboring homesteader (a Canadian whom Keaton had befriended on their shared journey west) was murdered and partially buried by a claim jumper; the body was subsequently discovered, and "justice was meted out" to the murderer by Keaton and a group of three or four men that included Robert Galbreath Jr.
On May 31, 1894, Joe Keaton eloped with Myra Edith Cutler, who became known as Myra Keaton.
Myra performed with Joe in a vaudeville act called the Two Keatons.
Joe and Myra's first child was Joseph Frank Keaton, who became known as the silent film actor Buster Keaton; their other children were Harry Keaton and Louise Keaton.
When Buster was only a few years old, he joined the act, which became the Three Keatons.
The act was a rough-and-tumble one, with Buster being thrown around on stage most of the time.
As the years went by, Joe Keaton became an alcoholic; when Buster was 21, Myra left him, taking Buster with her.
However, after Buster found success in silent film, he supported Joe and gave him small parts in several movies.
Myra and Joe reunited, but eventually split up again.
He lived alone in a Hollywood hotel for many years.
He stopped drinking with the help of a girlfriend who was a Christian Scientist.
Joe Keaton died on January 13, 1946, at his home in Hollywood after a long illness, according to the New York Times.
However, Buster later said he was hit by a car, and state death records show that he died in Ventura.
He was buried in Inglewood Cemetery in Inglewood, California, in an unmarked grave.
In 2018, Keaton fans around the world raised the necessary funds and had the grave marked with a headstone.
During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.
A young man falls for a young woman on his trip home; unbeknownst to him, her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.
The Romeo and Juliet story played out in a tenement neighborhood with Buster and Virginia's families hating each other over the fence separating their buildings.
The story involves Arbuckle coming to the western town of Mad Dog Gulch after being thrown off a train and chased by Indians. He teams up with gambler/saloon owner Bill Bullhum, in trying to keep the evil Wild Bill Hickup away from Salvation Army girl, Salvation Sue. Fatty and Buster have a series of adventures trying to beat St. John, until they discover his one weakness: his ticklishness.
Fatty plays a village blacksmith in “Jazzville,” an imaginary rural village. There is a rivalry between Fatty and Cy Klone, the garage owner, over the affections of a pretty schoolteacher. A city chap unites the two rivals when he tries to steal the girl. An annual village ball features amateur talent in vaudeville stunts with Keaton as a wriggling Fatima who charms a long black stocking from a cigar box like a snake. The film is presumed lost.