Joe Roberts
Actor, Film actor
1871 – 1923
Who was Joe Roberts?
Joe Roberts was an American comic actor, who appeared in 16 of Buster Keaton's 19 silent short films of the 1920s.
"Big Joe" Roberts, as he was known in vaudeville, toured the country with his first wife, Lillian Stuart Roberts as part of a rowdy act known as Roberts, Hays, and Roberts. Their signature routine was called "The Cowboy, the Swell and the Lady." At this time, in the first decade of the twentieth century, Buster Keaton's father, Joe Keaton, had started a summer Actors' Colony for vaudevillians between Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake in Michigan. Roberts became acquainted with the Keaton family as a member of this community.
When Buster Keaton's film apprenticeship years with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle came to an end, and Keaton began making his own shorts in 1920, he asked Roberts to join him. Roberts' hefty 6'3" frame, usually playing a menacing heavy or authority figure, made a striking and amusing contrast to the thin, 5'6" Keaton.
IMDB shows that Roberts made only two films without Keaton.
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- Born
- Feb 2, 1871
Albany - Also known as
- Big Joe
- Spouses
- Nationality
- United States of America
- Profession
- Died
- Oct 28, 1923
Los Angeles
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"Joe Roberts." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 May 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/joe_roberts>.
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