Q 01/05

Buster Keaton's stoic, unsmiling screen expression earned him what nickname?

A) The Sad Clown

B) The Great Stone Face

C) The Iron Mask

D) The Silent Sphinx

Answer · why

B) The Great Stone Face

The Great Stone Face began as stagecraft: as a child in his family's act he found, in his own words, that 'the more serious I turned, the bigger laugh...

Q 02/05

What were Buster Keaton's real first and middle names?

A) Charles Spencer

B) William Claude

C) Joseph Frank

D) Harold Clayton

Answer · why

C) Joseph Frank

Joseph Frank carried a name from each side: his father was Joseph, or Joe, and his mother's father was Frank Cutler, whose travelling show Joe had joi...

Q 03/05

Keaton was born in 1895 in Piqua, a small town in which US state?

A) Kansas

B) Ohio

C) Michigan

D) Missouri

Answer · why

A) Kansas

Kansas was an accident of the tour: his vaudeville parents were only passing through Piqua when his mother went into labour.

Q 04/05

By Keaton's own story, which famous performer nicknamed him 'Buster' after he tumbled down stairs unhurt?

A) W. C. Fields

B) Harry Houdini

C) George M. Cohan

D) Al Jolson

Answer · why

B) Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini worked travelling medicine shows with Keaton's father, and the nickname is said to be his word for the fall; a rival account gives the l...

Q 05/05

As a toddler, Keaton joined his family's knockabout vaudeville act, billed as what?

A) The Flying Keatons

B) The Keaton Family

C) The Tumbling Keatons

D) The Three Keatons

Answer · why

D) The Three Keatons

The Three Keatons looked so violent that his father, to see off child-welfare investigators, had him inspected for bruises by New York's mayor; Joe th...