34 Facts About Eleanor Keaton

Eleanor Ruth Keaton was an American dancer and variety show performer.

Eleanor Keaton was an MGM contract dancer in her teens and became the third wife of silent-film comedian Buster Keaton at the age of 21.

Eleanor Keaton is credited with rehabilitating her husband's life and career.

Eleanor Keaton Ruth Norris was born in Hollywood, California, in May 1918.

Eleanor Keaton was the eldest of two daughters of Ralph and Jessie Norris.

Eleanor Keaton's mother raised her and her sister on a small pension from the studio.

Eleanor Keaton appeared in the chorus of several MGM musicals, including Born to Dance and Rosalie.

Eleanor Keaton was known as "one of the best bridge players in Hollywood", and a friend introduced her to the game at Eleanor Keaton's house in Cheviot Hills.

One time she snapped back at another player who "made a nasty remark" about a card she had played, and Eleanor Keaton raised his eyes and noticed her.

Eleanor Keaton was working at MGM as a gag writer, producing comedy routines for the Marx Brothers and others at a salary of $200 a week.

Eleanor Keaton spent his free time playing cards with friends.

Eleanor Keaton sensed that she could give Keaton what he needed: not just a wife, but "a combination valet, cook, housekeeper, bill payer, and constant reminder".

The couple moved into Buster's mother's home and Eleanor Keaton ran the household for the three of them.

Eleanor Keaton said that neither she nor Buster wanted to have children, explaining, "I figured I'd raised him and that was enough".

Eleanor Keaton told Tibbetts that Buster was generally good about controlling his drinking, and that together they decided that he could have a "cocktail hour" before dinner.

Eleanor Keaton said he drank two beers before dinner for the rest of his life.

The act was well-received and well-paying: Eleanor Keaton received $1,500 per performance at the Cirque Medrano.

Eleanor performed with her husband on The Buster Keaton Show in the early 1950s.

Eleanor Keaton accompanied Buster to all of his engagements and location shooting for his films.

Eleanor Keaton performed in state fairs in Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Tennessee, and Alabama; in fact, it was on a return trip from the Kansas State Fair that Eleanor, driving while Buster dozed, stopped the car when she realized they were in Piqua and introduced him to the place he had been born while his parents were touring in a medicine show.

Eleanor Keaton was widely credited with rehabilitating Buster's life and career.

Eleanor Keaton has carried him, content and at times happy, across the threshold of his seventies.

Eleanor Keaton has lived with the most difficult and tragic of human beings, the exiled and estranged artist.

Eleanor Keaton attended film festivals and film screenings celebrating his work around the world.

Eleanor Keaton gave many interviews to journalists, biographers, and film historians, speaking candidly about her husband's personality, opinions, career, and their life together.

Eleanor Keaton appeared in the television documentaries Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow and Buster Keaton: Genius in Slapshoes.

Eleanor Keaton was later honored as a recipient of The Buster, an award given by the International Buster Keaton Society.

Eleanor Keaton attended events in Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Los Angeles, Muskegon, Michigan, and Piqua, Kansas.

In June 1998, Eleanor Keaton donated more than 900 items of her husband's personal memorabilia from 1938 to 1966 to the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the urging of biographer Jeffrey Vance, who argued that these materials should be preserved in an archive rather than in the hands of private collectors or sold at auction.

Eleanor Keaton contributed many stories and personal photographs to Vance for his 2001 coffee-table book Buster Keaton Remembered.

Eleanor Keaton owned a pet shop and bred St Bernard dogs descended from one of Buster's pets.

Eleanor Keaton served as a gag consultant for Hollywood filmmakers such as Mel Brooks, and was invited to speak at silent-film screenings, such as the annual Last Remaining Seats film series at the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Eleanor Keaton was an honorary member of the International Buster Eleanor Keaton Society and The Sons of the Desert, a Laurel and Hardy appreciation society.

In October 1998, Eleanor Keaton was hospitalized at the Motion Picture Relief Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills suffering from emphysema and lung cancer.