Joe Roberts
Actor · 1871 – 1923 · Albany, New York, USA
"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. He played the role of "Roaring Bill" Rivers in 1922's The Primitive Lover starring Constance Talmadge—Keaton's sister-in-law—and the silent film actor Harrison Ford; and a drill master in the Clyde Cook comedy The Misfit,[4] released in March 1924, after Roberts' death. When Keaton began making feature films in 1923, he apparently intended to continue working with Roberts. Roberts had roles in Keaton's Three Ages and Our Hospitality (both 1923). During the filming of the second feature, Roberts had a stroke but insisted on returning to the set to finish the film. After completion, Roberts suffered another stroke and died shortly afterwards.
Movies22
Movie7.5ComedyRomanceA young man falls for a young woman on his trip home; unbeknownst to him, her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.
Our Hospitality
1923 · 330 votes
Movie7.8ComedyNewlyweds receive a build-it-yourself house as a wedding gift—and the house can, supposedly, be built in "one week". A rejected suitor secretly re-numbers packing crates, and the husband struggles to assemble the house according to this new 'arrangement' of its parts.
One Week
1920 · 342 votes
Movie6.9ComedyA down on his luck young man makes several attempts at committing suicide but fails them too. He then finds himself becoming more confident through a series of petty adventures, to such an extent that this becomes his undoing.
Hard Luck
1921 · 106 votes
Movie6.8ComedyThe rituals of courtship, romantic rivalry, and love play out three times as a man vies with a villain for the girl. In the Stone Age, the rivalry is set off by dinosaurs, a turtle used as a ouija board, and a round of golf with stones. In ancient Rome, the men display their brawn through a chariot race, using dogs instead of horses. In contemporary times, the man finds himself overcome by modernity, including a very fragile car.
Three Ages
1923 · 145 votes
Movie6.2ComedyBuster and a woman are mistakenly married and her initially unfriendly family begins to treat him nicely when they come to believe he has a large inheritance awaiting him.
My Wife's Relations
1922 · 100 votes
Movie7.0DramaAn American boy turns out to be the long-lost heir of a British fortune. He is sent to live with the cold and unsentimental lord who oversees the trust.
Little Lord Fauntleroy
1921 · 18 votes
Movie6.5ComedyIn order to impress the father of a girl he is keen on, a young man goes to the city in search of work. In his letters home he writes of his various jobs which her imagination expands into much nobler ones than those that he is actually attempting.
Day Dreams
1922 · 96 votes
Movie7.2ComedyA series of misadventures occur when Buster is mistaken for a criminal on the lam.
The Goat
1921 · 183 votes
Movie6.8ComedyFantasyUpon waking from the dream of a theater peopled entirely by numerous Buster Keatons, a lowly stage hand causes havoc everywhere he works.
The Play House
1921 · 148 votes
Movie7.2ComedyFamilyBuster Keaton gets involved in a series of misunderstandings involving a horse and cart. Eventually he infuriates every cop in the city when he accidentally interrupts a police parade.
Cops
1922 · 237 votes
Movie7.1ComedyRomanceThe Romeo and Juliet story played out in a tenement neighborhood with Buster and Virginia's families hating each other over the fence separating their buildings.
Neighbors
1920 · 165 votes
Movie7.4ComedyTwo farmhands compete for the love of the farmer's daughter.
The Scarecrow
1920 · 175 votes
Movie6.5ComedyHorrorA bank teller becomes involved with a hold-up, counterfeiters and a theatrical troupe posing as spooks in a haunted house.
The Haunted House
1921 · 151 votes
Movie7.0THE MISFIT - starring Clyde Cook, with Blanche Payson and Joe Roberts. A rarely-seen silent comedy short. Henpecked hubby Clyde totes groceries and paints floors for his wifey, escaping at last...by joining the U.S. Marines. The basic training sequence was shot at the Buster Keaton studios; this may be "Big" Joe Roberts' final screen role.
The Misfit
1924 · 1 votes
Movie6.7ComedyBuster clowns around in a blacksmith's shop until he and the smithy get in a fight which sends the smithy to jail. Buster helps several customers with horses, then destroys a Rolls Royce while fixing the car parked next to it.
The Blacksmith
1922 · 112 votes
Movie6.2ComedyWesternA mix of guns and mistaken identity leads to chaos in this satirical parody of William S. Hart's melodramatic westerns, finding Buster in the frozen north - "the last stop on the subway".
The Frozen North
1922 · 92 votes
Movie6.7ComedyIn an attempt to forget his lost sweetheart, Buster takes a long trip at sea where he boards a whaling ship with a strict captain.
The Love Nest
1923 · 104 votes
Movie6.1WesternComedyA butterfly collector unwittingly wanders into an Indian encampment while chasing a butterfly, but the tribe has resolved to kill the first white man who enters their encampment because white oil tycoons are trying to force them from their land.
The Paleface
1922 · 104 votes
Movie6.8ComedyBotany major Buster mistakenly graduates in electrical engineering and is hired to wire a new home.
The Electric House
1922 · 112 votes
Movie6.7ComedyA young golfer is mugged by an escaped convict and finds himself in a prison where he foils a jailbreak.
Convict 13
1920 · 141 votes
Movie7.1CrimeComedyBuster is thrown off a train near an amusement park. There he gets a job in a shooting gallery run by the Blinking Buzzards mob. Ordered to kill a businessman, he winds up protecting the man and his daughter by outfitting their home with trick devices.
The High Sign
1921 · 130 votes
Movie6.7ComedyRomanceA free-spirited girl is caught between her love for her husband and her attraction to a handsome adventurer.
The Primitive Lover
1922 · 5 votes