Natalie Talmadge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Natalie Talmadge (1899-1969) was a silent film actress. She appeared in D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), and Buster Keaton's Our Hospitality (1923). Today, however, she is better known as the first wife of Buster Keaton than for her film roles.
Talmadge was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was the sister of actresses Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge, and daughter of Margaret Talmadge.
[edit] Personal life
Talmadge married Buster Keaton in 1921, and the 1923 film Our Hospitality turned out to be her final film.
She bore Keaton two sons, James and Robert, but divorced him in a bitter 1932 split, after his many affairs with other women, career decline and drinking caused too many problems in the marriage. Her heavy spending on clothes that helped drive Keaton into debt and her refusal to resume sexual relations with Keaton after the birth of their second son also contributed to their marital tensions.
She herself developed an alcohol problem, and died of a cardiac arrest in 1969.
[edit] 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.
