Buster Keaton(1895 — 1966)

In “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” (1928), Buster Keaton performed one of the most dangerous stunts in the history of cinema: the façade of a two-ton house collapses on top of him, and he is saved only because an open window falls exactly where his body stands. The margin of error was just a few centimeters; the entire crew had preferred to look away during the take.

Keaton was nicknamed “the man who never laughs” or “the Great Stone Face.” Very early on, he understood that his deadpan expression made audiences laugh more than if he had smiled, and he made it his trademark for the rest of his career.

During the filming of “Sherlock Jr.” (1924), Keaton fractured a vertebra in his neck during a scene in which a jet of water from a water tower hurled him onto the railroad tracks. He finished the take and only discovered how serious the injury was years later, during a medical examination.

Keaton came from vaudeville: as a child, he was part of the family act “The Three Keatons,” in which his father literally threw him across the stage. This early training in falls and acrobatics explains his exceptional physical control on screen.

For “The General” (1926), Keaton had a real steam locomotive plunge into a river from a collapsing bridge: it was the most expensive shot in silent-era cinema. The wreck of the machine remained in the Oregon river for decades and became a tourist attraction.