Natalie Talmadge was an occasional silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 actress who was more well-known as the sister of her movie star siblings Norma

Norma Talmadge

Norma Talmadge was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.Her most famous film was Smilin’ Through , but she also...

 and Constance Talmadge

Constance Talmadge

Constance Talmadge was a silent movie star born in Brooklyn, New York, USA, and was the sister of fellow actresses Norma Talmadge and Natalie Talmadge.-Early life:...

 until her marriage to silent film actor and comedian Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

.

Although there have been questions about her actual birth year, her birth year is listed as 1896 on the 1900, 1910, and 1920 Censuses for Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York. Talmadge was born in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. She appeared in D.W. Griffith's Intolerance

Intolerance (film)

Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...

(1916), and Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

's Our Hospitality

Our Hospitality

Our Hospitality is a silent comedy directed, produced, written by and starring Buster Keaton. Released in 1923 by Metro Pictures Corporation, the movie uses slapstick and situational comedy to tell the story of Willie McKay, a city slicker who gets caught in the middle of the infamous Canfield &...

(1923), her final appearance.

Personal life

Talmadge married Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

 on May 31, 1921, after an unusual courtship where they did not see each other for two years and exchanged no love letters. She proposed to him in a letter in January of that year by saying, "I am alone now with Mother. If you still care for me just send for me." Keaton went east from Hollywood by train and married her. The reasons for marriage on both sides have never been fully explained. They had dated, but not too seriously. It was believed that Joe Schenck, Keaton's producer and Norma's husband and producer, influenced the match, possibly arguing that it would solve several problems at once and keep the business all in the family. There was also the fact that Natalie was a quite naive young woman (her mother allegedly said that she was "so dumb, her brains rattle") who went to the altar a virgin, while Keaton was a prolific womanizer who had lost count of how many women he had been with. Although Natalie was a practicing Catholic, Keaton was an agnostic who had no interest in religion and did not wish to be married in a church. As a result, the marriage was performed as a civil ceremony.

Their marriage resulted in two sons, James, (June 2,1922-February 14, 2007), and Robert, born February 3, 1924, but was rocky and tumultuous. Natalie spent prodigious amounts on clothes and ever-more elaborate Beverly Hills homes, and after the birth of their second son she suddenly announced that she no longer wanted sex. Although accepting of this exile (imposed on him for reasons he did not understand), Keaton made it clear that he would not go without sex and would find other partners (he had been faithful to Natalie until she cut him off).

Late in the marriage Buster's career began to suffer after his contract with Schenck was sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and he became more open about his affairs with other women and turned increasingly to drink. He eventually became an unmanageable alcoholic. The marriage finally collapsed after Keaton invited one of his mistresses to their home and told her to help herself to Natalie's huge wardrobe. Following the much-publicized and acrimonious divorce in 1932 Natalie legally changed the boys' names to Talmadge and denied them any contact with their father. The name change was especially awkward for James, who was ten years old and already accustomed to his last name. Natalie and her family rigorously instructed the boys that they were Talmadges and not Keatons.

During the next few years she became involved with an actor named Larry Kent

Larry Kent

Larry Kent was an American film actor and producer.-Career:Between 1925 and 1964 Kent acted in 52 films and a handful of TV shows including Rawhide. He had a successful career as a lead and supporting actor in the silent era but failed to make the transition to sound films and was cast largely in...

. They lived together for a while in a house bought for her by her sister Constance after the famous Italian Villa mansion which Keaton had built for her had been sold in 1933. They also took vacations together on occasion, but the romance did not last. She never remarried, and in her solitary existence also developed a drinking problem (consuming up to a quart of whiskey every day) in addition to chain smoking. Natalie carried a vengeful hatred of her husband for the rest of her life and would not allow him to be mentioned in her presence. This eventually became a running joke in the family to the point where her grandchildren would often amuse themselves by saying Keaton's name just to make her enraged.

Natalie Talmadge was in frail health during her last years and died of heart failure in 1969. She was buried in the family crypt.

Source

• Marion Meade (1995), Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase, (ISBN 0-306-80802-1).
• Includes extensive detail about the Talmadge family and Natalie Talmadge's marriage to Keaton.

• 1900 United States Federal Census, Brooklyn Ward 8, Kings, New York; Roll T623_1047; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 109.
• 1910 United States Federal Census, Brooklyn Ward 29, Kings, New York; Roll T624_982; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 933; Image: 948.