At the tender age of 65, Michael Keaton’s career spans the best part of forty plus years. From actor to producer and the director’s chair, Keaton’s roles have been varied from TV to film. His next project on the big screen, which is out in cinema’s February 17th, is McDonalds Kingpin, Ray Kroc in The Founder.
In The Founder, Keaton plays the rather assertive and abhorrent Ray Kroc, a simple salesman from Illinois, selling milkshake mixers on the road from the back of his car. When a big order comes through from one restaurant, he’s compelled to take a trip down to the said restaurant to find out what’s going on. Arriving in Southern California he is taken aback at the fast and efficient service and the customers it attracts. The restaurant, McDonald’s, a simple hamburger stand run by brothers Mac (John Carroll Lynch) and Dick (Nick Offerman) McDonald. As the drama unfolds, the brother’s let Kroc in on the business with the idea of expanding through franchises throughout the country, taking this simple ran, family business to a worldwide global sensation but not without its deeply immoral and greedy twist which saw Kroc evolve into a billion-dollar money magnet at the expense of others.
Related: The Founder Trailer.
To celebrate the release of The Founder, we take a look at the many faces of Michael Keaton in a career that has seen him play the role in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice – to which rumours of a Beetlejuice 2 sequel are a plenty – to Batman, turning from villain to hero to eventual villain again in the upcoming Spiderman: Homecoming as The Vulture.
Beetlejuice (1988)
Beetlejuice, or otherwise known as Betelgeuse, was Keaton’s big breakthrough role, although only a supporting role, it made his name – which is his stage name, changed from Michael Douglas – a household favourite, earning Keaton acclaim. Donning the black and white suit and make-up with wild hair, Beetlejuice was an obnoxious, rude and devious creature from the afterlife hired to help the recently deceased couple Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) Maitland rid their home of an upper-class boujie family by scaring them with ghoulish haunting. In the process, they end up befriending the teenage Winona Ryder which sees them team up to get rid of the stubborn Beetlejuice.
Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992)
In 1989, Keaton swapped the goofy looking costume of Beetlejuice to don the black mask and cape of comic book hero Batman aka Bruce Wayne. Teaming up again with director Tim Burton, it was the first in the Warner Bro’s initial Batman franchise. Surrounded by controversy over Keaton’s ability to be able to make the transition from comedy actor to a more serious role, he was soon laughing in the faces of the doubters in true joker style – the first was seen as a Joker (Jack Nicholson) origin story – as it became a financial and critical success. In 1992, Keaton reprised the role in Batman Returns, again, alongside Burton as director. With the introduction of Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), Danny Devito as the Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, Batman Returns took on a darker sinister feel with Burton given more creative control. Whilst still a major financial success, the new darker side was met with trepidation by critics. There were talks Keaton would reprise the role again in the third film in this franchise but without Tim Burton at the helm, Keaton refused to take part in any further productions and was replaced by Val Kilmer.
Jackie Brown (1997) & Out of Sight (1998)
Keaton was active throughout the 90’s in many roles, one in which was the supporting role as ATF Agent Ray Nicolette in Quentin Tarantino’s third feature length film, crime thriller Jackie Brown, which Tarantino had adapted from Elmore Leonard’s 1992 novel Rum Punch. Playing Jackie’s nemesis with one aim, to bring down her illegal smuggling of money on behalf of boss Ordell Robbie played by Samuel L. Jackson. Just a year later, we saw Keaton play the role of Ray Nicolette again in Out of Sight, which was directed by Ocean’s Eleven and Magic Mike director Steven Soderbergh and starred George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.
Birdman (2014)
Fast forward to 2014 and Keaton soared into action with the comedy drama Birdman alongside a cast that included Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts. A film that was nominated for a staggering 39 awards in which saw Keaton take home a tremendous 26 of those – which includes a Golden Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy. Keaton plays the lead, Riggan Thomson, a down and out Hollywood actor who is best known for his role as Superhero Birdman as he struggles to put together a Broadway adaptation of a short story by Raymond Carver.
Spotlight (2016)
Hot on the heels of the undoubted success of Birdman, Keaton wowed yet again in the biographical crime drama Spotlight. Spotlight tells the story, which unveils the relentless, determination of the prize-winning investigative news team at The Boston Globe, uncovering the truth behind the widespread and systematic child sex abuse in Boston by a number of Roman Catholic priests. Keaton played the role of Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson, the editor of the spotlight team with heartfelt grit and fortitude alongside a cast of Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Liev Schreiber. Keaton again was nominated for 16 awards and won 12 of those to add to his awards cabinet.
Related: Spotlight Press Conference.
With a career that spans from 1975 to the present day, Keaton has starred in an almighty 70 roles – with another two yet to be released – within TV and Film from the likes of voice roles in Minions and Toy Story 3, to films such as White Noise, Robocop and Need for Speed to TV appearances in Fraser and 30 Rock, a list so long we could only choose a handful. With The Founder we witness his career isn’t flagging in the slightest and we hope to see him on our screens for many more years to come.
