Surely you recognize Hollywood star Buster Keaton. He’s the one who always insisted on doing his own stunts, and they weren’t just pratfalls. He was the first true action star.
Like Chaplin and Lloyd, Keaton routinely risked his life performing virtually all his own stunts. He nearly drowned while filming a river scene in Our Hospitality (1923) when a safety line broke, and he actually broke his neck filming a scene in Sherlock, Jr. (1924), when he fell onto a railroad track while dangling from a water tower. Both of these scenes were used in the final films. (Keaton didn’t even realized he’d broken his neck until 11 years later, when he finally got around to having it X-rayed.)
-via the Presurfer
Keaton was a true artist. A man of his time and a man before his time.