Billy Bevan
Acting
- Born:
- 1887-09-29
- Died:
- 1957-11-26
- Place of birth:
- Orange, New South Wales, Australia
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Billy Bevan (born William Bevan Harris, 29 September 1887 – 26 November 1957) was an Australian-born vaudevillian, who became an American film actor. He appeared in 254 American films between 1916 and 1950. Bevan was born in the country town of Orange, New South Wales, Australia. He went on the stage at an early age, traveled to Sydney and spent eight years in Australian light opera, performing as Willie Bevan. He sailed to America with the Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company in 1912 and later toured Canada. Bevan broke into films with the Sigmund Lubin studio in 1916. When the company disbanded, Bevan became a supporting actor in Mack Sennett movie comedies. An expressive pantomimist, Bevan's quiet scene-stealing attracted attention, and by 1922 Bevan was a Sennett star. He supplemented his income, however, by establishing a citrus and avocado farm at Escondido, California. Usually filmed wearing a derby hat and a drooping mustache, Bevan may not have possessed an indelible screen character like Charlie Chaplin but he had a friendly, funny presence in the frantic Sennett comedies. Much of the comedy depended on Bevan's skilled timing and reactions; the famous "oyster" routine performed on film by Curly Howard, Lou Costello, and Huntz Hall—in which a bowl of "fresh oyster stew" shows alarming signs of life and battles the guy trying to eat it—was originated on film decades earlier by Bevan in the short film Wandering Willies. By the mid-1920s Bevan was often teamed with Andy Clyde; Clyde soon graduated to his own starring series. The late 1920s found Bevan playing in wild marital farces for Sennett. The advent of talking pictures took their toll on the careers of many silent stars, including Billy Bevan. Bevan began a second career in "talkies" as a character actor and bit player in roles such as that of a bus driver in the 1929 film High Voltage, a hotel employee in the Mae Murray film Peacock Alley, and the supporting role of Second Lieutenant Trotter in Journey's End in 1930. His starring roles had come to an end, however, and for the next 20 years he often would play rowdy Cockneys (as in Pack Up Your Troubles with The Ritz Brothers), and affable Englishmen (as in Tin Pan Alley and Terror by Night). He played a friendly bus conductor opposite Greer Garson in one of the opening scenes of Mrs. Miniver. Bevan died in 1957 in Escondido, California, just before new audiences discovered him in Robert Youngson's silent-comedy compilations. (The Youngson films mispronounce his name as "Be-VAN"; Bevan himself offered the proper pronunciation in a Voice of Hollywood reel in 1930.)
Known For
Filmography
30 Years of Fun
The Golden Age of Comedy
Hans Christian Andersen
The Slappiest Days of Our Lives
Three Secrets
Rogues of Sherwood Forest
Fortunes of Captain Blood
Tell It to the Judge
The Secret Of St. Ives
The Secret Garden
Let's Live a Little
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Black Arrow
The Swordsman
It Had to Be You
Moss Rose
Cluny Brown
Devotion
Terror by Night
The Picture of Dorian Gray
National Velvet
Tonight and Every Night
The Pearl of Death
The Invisible Man's Revenge
The Lodger
Jane Eyre
The Return of the Vampire
Forever and a Day
London Blackout Murders
Happy Times and Jolly Moments
I Married a Witch
Counter-Espionage
Mrs. Miniver
This Above All
The Man Who Wouldn't Die
Confirm or Deny
Suspicion
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Shining Victory
Penny Serenade
Tin Pan Alley
The Long Voyage Home
Rebecca
The Invisible Man Returns
The Earl of Chicago
We Are Not Alone
Pack Up Your Troubles
Captain Fury
Let Freedom Ring
A Christmas Carol
Arrest Bulldog Drummond
Shadows Over Shanghai
Mysterious Mr. Moto
The Young in Heart
Blond Cheat
The Girl of the Golden West
Bringing Up Baby
The Wrong Road
The Sheik Steps Out
Another Dawn
Slave Ship
Personal Property
God's Country and the Woman
Lloyd's of London
Piccadilly Jim
Private Number
Dracula's Daughter
Champagne Charlie
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Song and Dance Man
A Tale of Two Cities
The Widow from Monte Carlo
The Last Outpost
Black Sheep
Vanessa: Her Love Story
Mystery Woman
Caravan
Limehouse Blues
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
One More River
Shock
Stingaree
The Lost Patrol
Pop's Pal
Alice in Wonderland
The Way to Love
Too Much Harmony
The Big Squeal
Thundering Taxis
Peg o' My Heart
A Study in Scarlet
Uncle Jake
Looking Forward
Techno-Crazy
Cavalcade
Luxury Liner
She Whoops To Conquer
Me and My Gal
Payment Deferred
Honeymoon Beach
The Spot on the Rug
Vanity Fair
Sky Devils
The Silent Witness
Who's Who in the Zoo
Waterloo Bridge
Transatlantic
Chances
Born to Love
For the Love o' Lil
Monte Carlo
Temptation
Journey's End
Scotch
Peacock Alley
Weak But Willing
The Trespasser
High Voltage
Don't Get Jealous
Pink Pajamas
Calling Hubby's Bluff
The Sky Hawk
His New Stenographer
The Lion's Roar
Riley the Cop
Hubby's Weekend Trip
Motorboat Mamas
His Unlucky Night
The Girl from Nowhere
The Bicycle Flirt
The Best Man
The Beach Club
The Girl from Everywhere
The Bull Fighter
Gold Digger of Weepah
The Golf Nut
Cured in the Excitement
A Small Town Princess
Peaches and Plumbers
Easy Pickings
Should Sleepwalkers Marry?
Flirty Four-Flushers
Masked Mamas
Should Husbands Marry?
Hoboken to Hollywood
Hubby’s Quiet Little Game
A Sea Dog's Tale
Ice Cold Cocos
Musclebound Music
Fight Night
Hayfoot, Strawfoot?
Wandering Willies
Circus Today
Trimmed in Gold
Whispering Whiskers
From Rags to Britches
Over Thereabouts
Butter Fingers
The Iron Nag
Sneezing Beezers
Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies
The Lion's Whiskers
Giddap!
Honeymoon Hardships
Off His Trolley
The Cannon Ball Express
Galloping Bungalows
Wandering Waistlines
Little Robinson Corkscrew
Three Foolish Weeks
Lizzies of the Field
East of the Water Plug
Wall Street Blues
The Hollywood Kid
The White Sin
One Spooky Night
Inbad the Sailor
One Cylinder Love
The Extra Girl
Pitfalls of a Big City
Nip and Tuck
When Summer Comes
The Crossroads of New York
Gymnasium Jim
On Patrol
The Duck Hunter
Around the Town: British Film Stars and Studios
Bright Eyes
Be Reasonable
Love and Doughnuts
Astray from the Steerage
A Small Town Idol
Love, Honor and Behave
The Quack Doctor
Married Life
Distilled Love
Cupid In Quarantine
Her Rustic Romeo
Are Married Policemen Safe?
Somebody's Widow
Bombs and Bandits
Pirates of the Air
Gertie's Gasoline Glide