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60 free Buster Keaton trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Buster Keaton is the silent comedian film critics keep rediscovering, and this quiz covers why. It begins with the child hurled around vaudeville stages in The Three Keatons, the Houdini nickname story that was probably invented, and the 1917 afternoon when Fatty Arbuckle hired him on the spot. Then the great decade: the kit house of One Week, the one-man audience of The Playhouse, the police parade in Cops, the Hatfield-McCoy feud of Our Hospitality, the projectionist who walks into the screen in Sherlock Jr., the seven-million-dollar bride hunt of Seven Chances, and the locomotive that really did fall through a burning bridge in The General. From there it follows the falling facade of Steamboat Bill Jr., the MGM contract Chaplin and Lloyd warned him against, the Jimmy Durante talkies, the firing by Louis B. Mayer, the comeback in two-reelers and television, the cameo among Sunset Boulevard's 'waxworks', the only real scene he shared with Chaplin, Samuel Beckett's Film, the handcar ride across Canada and the pork pie hats he cut down from Stetsons. The easy tier suits anyone who has seen the window gag; the expert end asks about the 40th Infantry Division, William Goodrich and Muskegon. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Keaton and his films, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
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Q 01Buster Keaton's stoic, unsmiling screen expression earned him what nickname?
The Great Stone Face
He adopted the deadpan on stage as a child after noticing that audiences laughed less when he smiled.
Q 02What were Buster Keaton's real first and middle names?
Joseph Frank
He was born on October 4, 1895, into a touring vaudeville family.
Q 03Keaton was born in 1895 in Piqua, a small town in which US state?
Kansas
Family lore also claimed a storm once carried the infant Buster four blocks and set him down unharmed.
Q 04By Keaton's own story, which famous performer nicknamed him 'Buster' after he tumbled down stairs unhurt?
Harry Houdini
The tale is probably apocryphal; another version credits an actor named George Pardey.
Q 05As a small child, Keaton performed with his parents in a vaudeville act billed as what?
The Three Keatons
His father would hurl him around the stage, and the act ran up against laws banning child performers.
Q 06Keaton's 1917 film debut 'The Butcher Boy' starred which comedian, who hired him on the spot?
Roscoe Arbuckle
Keaton went on to appear in 14 of his shorts, and later defended him publicly during the Virginia Rappe scandal.
Q 07During World War I, Keaton served in France with which unit of the US Army?
40th Infantry Division
An ear infection contracted in uniform permanently damaged his hearing.
Q 08Which 1920 short about newlyweds assembling a sabotaged kit house was Keaton's first independent release?
One Week
The spinning house and the train collision were filmed for real, not with models.
Q 09In the opening sequence of the 1921 short 'The Playhouse', Keaton famously does what?
Plays every role, including the audience
It was a jibe at producer Thomas Ince, who credited himself lavishly on his films.
Q 10In the 1922 short 'Cops', Keaton's character is chased by the entire LAPD after accidentally doing what?
Tossing a bomb into a parade
The Los Angeles alley where it was shot is now named Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley.
Q 11Keaton's 1923 feature 'Our Hospitality' is built around a family feud modelled on which real one?
The Hatfields and McCoys
His wife and his father Joe Keaton both appear in the film.
Q 12In Sherlock Jr. (1924), what side ambition does Keaton's projectionist harbour?
Amateur detective
The film's walk-into-the-screen conceit strongly influenced Woody Allen's 'The Purple Rose of Cairo'.
Q 13Keaton initially hired his disgraced friend and mentor to co-direct 'Sherlock Jr.' under which pseudonym?
William Goodrich
His old boss was $750,000 in debt after the trials that followed Virginia Rappe's death.
Q 21'The General' was among the first films chosen for the US National Film Registry in which inaugural year?
1989
'Sherlock Jr.' followed in 1991 and 'Cops' in 1997.
Q 22How does Keaton survive the falling building facade in 'Steamboat Bill, Jr.' (1928)?
An open window falls around him
The prop weighed two tons and the window offered only a few inches of clearance around his body.
Q 23What natural disaster strikes the river town in the climax of 'Steamboat Bill, Jr.'?
A cyclone
The storm tears the walls off the hospital where Bill Jr. is lying, setting up the falling-facade gag.
Q 14In 'The Navigator' (1924), why does Keaton's wealthy Rollo Treadway end up adrift on an ocean liner?
He boarded the wrong ship
To patch a leak he later dons a deep-sea diving suit, one of the film's most celebrated sequences.
Q 15In 'Seven Chances' (1925), Keaton's Jimmie must marry by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday to inherit how much?
$7 million
The famous avalanche of boulders chasing him downhill was added only after a preview screening.
Q 16Keaton's 1926 masterpiece 'The General' was inspired by which real Civil War episode?
The Great Locomotive Chase
The story came from William Pittenger's 1889 memoir; Keaton plays engineer Johnnie Gray.
Q 17Most of 'The General' was shot around Cottage Grove in which state, chosen for its old-fashioned railroads?
Oregon
The cast and crew arrived in May 1926 with 18 freight cars of cannons, coaches and props.
Q 18In 'The General', what is the pursuing locomotive that plunges through the burning bridge called?
The Texas
The shot was the most expensive single take of the silent era, and a real locomotive was destroyed for it.
Q 19Who played Annabelle Lee, the love interest in 'The General'?
Marion Mack
Keaton hired her from the ranks of the Sennett Bathing Beauties.
Q 20Which director called 'The General' the greatest comedy, and perhaps film, ever made?
Orson Welles
On release it got mixed reviews and mediocre box office, and Keaton was never again given total control of a film.
Q 24'Steamboat Bill, Jr.' was Keaton's last picture for which distributor before he moved to MGM?
United Artists
It was not a box-office success, which helped push him into the studio deal he later called his worst mistake.
Q 25Which 1928 film was Keaton's first under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer?
The Cameraman
He later called the move to MGM 'the worst mistake of my career'.
Q 26Which two fellow comedians warned Keaton against signing with MGM, saying he would lose his independence?
Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd
Keaton signed anyway, partly because his recent independent films had underperformed.
Q 27Which studio head fired Keaton in 1933, ending his career as a leading man in features?
Louis B. Mayer
The final straw came when Keaton refused to report for a Saturday photo-op so he could serve as a college baseball mascot.
Q 28At MGM in the early 1930s Keaton was teamed in three talkies with which loud, rambunctious comic?
Jimmy Durante
The films were 'Speak Easily', 'The Passionate Plumber' and 'What! No Beer?'.
Q 29What was the name of Keaton's first wife, a sister of film stars Norma and Constance?
Natalie Talmadge
They divorced in 1932 and she changed their two sons' surname to Talmadge.
Q 30What is the Beverly Hills mansion Keaton had built for $300,000 in 1926 commonly called?
The Italian Villa
He sold an earlier house to MGM executive Eddie Mannix at cost before commissioning it.