Billy Bevan
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.)
Personal info
Gender
Male
Birthday
1887-09-29
Place of birth
Orange, New South Wales, Australia
Images
Cast
Rebecca
1940
7.89
Bringing Up Baby
1938
7.53
The Secret Of St. Ives
1949
6.00
Terror by Night
1946
6.53
Dracula's Daughter
1936
5.94
Suspicion
1941
7.13
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1936
7.54
Fortunes of Captain Blood
1950
7.10
Pop's Pal
1933
0.00
The Pearl of Death
1944
7.07
Off His Trolley
1924
0.00
A Tale of Two Cities
1935
6.80
The Invisible Man Returns
1940
6.27
The Invisible Man's Revenge
1944
5.60
Payment Deferred
1932
5.60
Mysterious Mr. Moto
1938
5.97
Tonight and Every Night
1945
5.19
Journey's End
1930
6.30
The Girl of the Golden West
1938
4.60
Bombs and Bandits
1917
0.00
The Lost Patrol
1934
6.48
Gold Digger of Weepah
1927
0.00
The Girl from Everywhere
1927
0.00
The Bicycle Flirt
1928
0.00
Motorboat Mamas
1928
0.00
The Girl from Nowhere
1928
0.00
Hubby's Weekend Trip
1928
0.00
Don't Get Jealous
1929
0.00
Counter-Espionage
1942
6.31
Cavalcade
1933
5.51
Calling Hubby's Bluff
1929
0.00
Pink Pajamas
1929
0.00
Musclebound Music
1926
0.00
Hayfoot, Strawfoot?
1926
0.00
East of the Water Plug
1924
0.00
From Rags to Britches
1925
0.00
The Man Who Wouldn't Die
1942
6.40
Trimmed in Gold
1926
0.00
Should Husbands Marry?
1926
0.00
Pitfalls of a Big City
1923
0.00
Should Sleepwalkers Marry?
1927
0.00
Wandering Waistlines
1924
0.00
One Spooky Night
1924
0.00
The Cannon Ball Express
1924
0.00
Inbad the Sailor
1923
0.00
The Crossroads of New York
1922
0.00
Sneezing Beezers
1925
0.00
Little Robinson Corkscrew
1924
0.00
Over Thereabouts
1925
0.00
Peaches and Plumbers
1927
0.00
Cured in the Excitement
1927
0.00
The Bull Fighter
1927
0.00
Weak But Willing
1929
0.00
God's Country and the Woman
1937
4.20
Pirates of the Air
1916
0.00
Luxury Liner
1933
6.30
His New Stenographer
1928
0.00
High Voltage
1929
4.60
Wandering Willies
1926
0.00
Butter Fingers
1925
5.80
Vanity Fair
1932
3.50
Hubby’s Quiet Little Game
1926
0.00
The Best Man
1928
0.00
The Beach Club
1928
0.00
Piccadilly Jim
1936
6.50
Mrs. Miniver
1942
7.10
Sky Devils
1932
4.00
The Slappiest Days of Our Lives
1951
0.00
Limehouse Blues
1934
3.71
Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies
1925
0.00
Stingaree
1934
5.75
Slave Ship
1937
4.50
Hoboken to Hollywood
1926
0.00
Lizzies of the Field
1924
6.20
Flirty Four-Flushers
1926
5.00
Masked Mamas
1926
0.00
Be Reasonable
1921
7.30
Astray from the Steerage
1921
0.00
Mystery Woman
1935
0.00
The Sky Hawk
1929
6.00
Whispering Whiskers
1926
0.00
The Wrong Road
1937
4.40
Pack Up Your Troubles
1939
6.20
The Hollywood Kid
1924
4.25
Who's Who in the Zoo
1931
0.00
Scotch
1930
0.00
Shining Victory
1941
5.90
Peacock Alley
1930
4.30
Too Much Harmony
1933
5.00
Shadows Over Shanghai
1938
4.80
Galloping Bungalows
1924
5.00
Circus Today
1926
0.00
Looking Forward
1933
6.20
Hans Christian Andersen
1952
6.18
A Sea Dog's Tale
1926
0.00
Ice Cold Cocos
1926
0.00
Black Sheep
1935
7.00
Private Number
1936
6.50
Moss Rose
1947
6.35
Gymnasium Jim
1922
4.50
The Extra Girl
1923
5.90
Love and Doughnuts
1921
0.00
Bright Eyes
1921
0.00
Easy Pickings
1927
0.00
Penny Serenade
1941
6.60
Alice in Wonderland
1933
6.10
Gertie's Gasoline Glide
1916
5.00
Somebody's Widow
1918
0.00
Blond Cheat
1938
6.00
Champagne Charlie
1936
4.80
Arrest Bulldog Drummond
1938
6.60
Born to Love
1931
5.00
Caravan
1934
5.00
Let Freedom Ring
1939
6.00
We Are Not Alone
1939
6.10
The Big Squeal
1933
0.00
The Swordsman
1948
0.00
When Summer Comes
1922
0.00
On Patrol
1922
3.00
Wall Street Blues
1924
0.00
One Cylinder Love
1923
0.00
The Duck Hunter
1922
0.00
Her Rustic Romeo
1918
0.00
Jane Eyre
1943
6.92
Three Foolish Weeks
1924
0.00
It Had to Be You
1947
7.00
The Sheik Steps Out
1937
4.00
Transatlantic
1931
5.50
Confirm or Deny
1941
3.80
Riley the Cop
1928
5.60
Another Dawn
1937
6.20
Shock
1934
6.00
The Earl of Chicago
1940
6.17
The Lodger
1944
6.40
London Blackout Murders
1943
5.00
The Golf Nut
1927
0.00
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1941
6.50
The Black Arrow
1948
5.20
Rogues of Sherwood Forest
1950
4.80
Peg o' My Heart
1933
4.40
Thundering Taxis
1933
0.00
Vanessa: Her Love Story
1935
6.20
The Silent Witness
1932
5.50
Tin Pan Alley
1940
5.10
The Long Voyage Home
1940
6.60
She Whoops To Conquer
1933
0.00
The Last Outpost
1935
6.13
Nip and Tuck
1923
0.00
Temptation
1930
0.00
Forever and a Day
1943
7.40
Me and My Gal
1932
6.30
Personal Property
1937
6.90
Captain Fury
1939
4.90
I Married a Witch
1942
6.80
Monte Carlo
1930
6.53
Uncle Jake
1933
0.00
The Trespasser
1929
6.60
Giddap!
1925
0.00
The Young in Heart
1938
6.50
National Velvet
1945
7.20
A Christmas Carol
1938
6.99
Honeymoon Beach
1932
0.00
Song and Dance Man
1936
0.00
The White Sin
1924
6.00
The Picture of Dorian Gray
1945
7.10
A Small Town Idol
1921
6.00
The Quack Doctor
1920
0.00
The Return of the Vampire
1943
6.10
Cupid In Quarantine
1918
5.00
The Iron Nag
1925
0.00
The Lion's Whiskers
1925
0.00
Honeymoon Hardships
1925
0.00
His Unlucky Night
1928
0.00
Happy Times and Jolly Moments
1943
0.00
Fight Night
1926
5.00
A Small Town Princess
1927
0.00
Chances
1931
7.00
Let's Live a Little
1948
6.30
The Widow from Monte Carlo
1935
5.00
Lloyd's of London
1936
7.22
Three Secrets
1950
6.40
The Golden Age of Comedy
1957
6.90
Waterloo Bridge
1931
6.90
One More River
1934
4.71
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
1934
5.32
The Secret Garden
1949
7.10
This Above All
1942
6.70
Devotion
1946
6.00
The Way to Love
1933
0.00
For the Love o' Lil
1930
0.00
Tell It to the Judge
1949
6.30
A Study in Scarlet
1933
5.50
30 Years of Fun
1963
3.00
Techno-Crazy
1933
0.00
Cluny Brown
1946
7.14
Distilled Love
1920
5.00
Are Married Policemen Safe?
1918
0.00
Love, Honor and Behave
1920
0.00
Married Life
1920
0.00