Joe Keaton

Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton (July 6, 1867 – January 13, 1946) was an American vaudeville performer and silent film actor. He was the father of actor Buster Keaton.

He was born as Joseph Hallie Keaton, a few miles south of Terre Haute, Indiana. Keaton was born to Libbie Jane and Joseph Francis Keaton IV. Leaving home in 1889, the year of the Land Rush, Keaton 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. 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.

Buster joined the act when he was only a few years old. 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, which forced Buster to quit the act by the time he was a teenager. However, after he found success in silent film, Buster provided Joe with small parts in several movies. Myra and Joe split up long after Buster had become an adult. He lived alone in a Hollywood hotel for many years and was said to have stopped drinking after becoming a Christian Scientist.

Joe Keaton died on January 13, 1946, at his home in Hollywood, California, after a long illness.