Buster Keaton
The Man Who Wouldn’t Lie Down
The silent screen’s “Great Stone Face,” and arguably its most prodigious comedian, Buster Keaton is famous for films such as The General and The Navigator. Dardis traces both the development and decline of this great performer with compassion and accuracy, from his childhood in vaudeville to his glory days as a silent screen star and MGM contract actor, his descent into alcoholism, and his twilight years as a nearly forgotten relic of the era.
Tom Dardis has produced the definitive life. I don’t think it will ever be superseded. . . . It is scholarly yet readable, the fullest, most objective and factually detailed book on virtually every aspect of Buster’s career and personality: artistic, financial, and psychological.
New York Review of Books
The silent screen’s "Great Stone Face," and arguably its most prodigious comedian, Buster Keaton is famous for films such as The General and The Navigator. Tom Dardis traces both the development and the decline of this great performer with compassion and accuracy, from his childhood in vaudeville to his glory days as a silent screen star and MGM contract actor, his descent into alcoholism, and his twilight years as a nearly forgotten relic of the era.
Tom Dardis has produced the definitive life. I don’t think it will ever be superseded. . . . It is scholarly yet readable, the fullest, most objective and factually detailed book on virtually every aspect of Buster’s career and personality: artistic, financial, and psychological.
New York Review of Books
Dardis’s writing is delightful. The pictures add life to the words. This readably packaged and printed book is a must for all silent film fans. The results are funny and lovely and painfully sad, much like a Keaton movie.
Richmond News Leader
Tom Dardis’s biography provides the fullest study yet of Buster Keaton’s life and work.
Sight and Sound
