Buster Keaton performed stunts that would kill most people — a two-ton building facade fell on him, missing his body by inches through a precisely measured window opening — and he never changed expression. The Great Stone Face, as he was known, created some of the most physically daring and visually inventive comedy in cinema history, was destroyed by the studio system, and was rediscovered decades later as one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived.

This episode traces Keaton from his vaudeville childhood (his father literally threw him across the stage as a toddler) through the silent film masterpieces, the MGM contract that ruined him, and the late-career revival that restored his reputation.

• Keaton's vaudeville childhood as a human prop in his parents' act
• The silent masterpieces — The General, Sherlock Jr., Steamb ...