Buster Keaton
Director, screenwriter, actor, and comedian, Buster Keaton stands out as one of the most relevant figures when it comes to talking about silent film actors. Part of the success of his productions was based on unforgettable physical humor gags in which his face remained expressionless. Hence, he earned the nickname "Stone Face".
Among Buster Keaton's films, it is worth mentioning some that I consider essential: The Modern Sherlock Holmes (1924), The Machinist of The General (1926), The Cameraman (1928), and The Schoolboy (1927). However, there are many productions in which Buster Keaton revealed himself as one of the great silent film actors.
Charley Bowers
Long before we could enjoy Disney movies, figures like Charley Bowers surprised the world with his animated productions. We are talking about a silent film actor who also worked as a director, screenwriter, cartoonist, and animator.
In his works he combined stop-motion animation with live-action, being himself the one who starred in many of them. Among his filmography, films such as Egged On (1926), Now You Tell One (1926), It's a Bird (1930) or the surprising Fatal Footsteps (1926) stand out.
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd was another of the great icons of silent cinema. Despite passing away in 1971, to this day he is still considered one of the most influential comic actors in history, and just like Buster Keaton or Chaplin, his film career continued after the arrival of talkies.
Probably his most outstanding work is The Flying Man (1923) thanks to that unforgettable clock scene. However, he also participated in several silent feature films, including Freshwater Sailor (1921), Doctor Jack (1922), and Little Brother (1927).
Charles Chaplin
What can we say about Charlie Chaplin? Of course, it is unthinkable to talk about silent film actors without mentioning him, since he is probably one of the best-known faces in the history of cinema. In addition to working as a comedian and performer, Chaplin was a director, screenwriter, and musical composer, dealing with several departments at the same time during the development of his productions.
I believe that all of Charlie Chaplin's films are worth seeing because, in each one of them, he shows enormous artistic talent. However, if I had to highlight just a few, I would recommend The Boy (1921), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), El gran dictator (1940), and, outside of silent films, Candilejas (1952), a self-tribute to his career in which he gets to share the screen with the aforementioned Buster Keaton.
Fatty Arbuckle
Roscoe Arbuckle (Fatty Arbuckle) was a key figure in this stage of the Seventh Art not only because he was known as a great comic actor in the United States, but also because he was a mentor to Chaplin and the discoverer of silent film actors such as Buster Keaton.
He offered the world some very interesting pieces of silent cinema, of which I would highlight The Butcher (1917), Hollywood (1923), Behind the Scenes (1919), or The Buttons (1918).
