Billy Bevan

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 more than 250 American films from 1916 to 1952.

Not to be confused with Billy B. Van.

Billy Bevan
Bevan, 1920s
Born
William Bevan Harris

(1887-09-29)29 September 1887
Orange, New South Wales, Australia
Died26 November 1957(1957-11-26) (aged 70)
Escondido, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Actor
  • comedian
Years active1916–1952
SpousesLeah Leona Roberts (1918–52), Betsy Rees (1954–his death)
Children2 daughters

Career

Bevan was born in the country town of Orange, New South Wales, Australia.[1][2][3] He went on the stage at an early age, traveled to Sydney and spent eight years in Australian light opera, performing as Willie Bevan.[4] He sailed to America with the Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company in 1912,[1][5] and later toured Canada.[5] 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.[6]

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).[7] 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,[1] just before new audiences discovered him in Robert Youngson's silent-comedy compilations. The Youngson films mispronounce his name as "Be-VAN"; Bevan offered the proper pronunciation in a Voice of Hollywood reel in 1930.

Filmography

References
  1. "Billy Bevan, Retired Movie Actor and Rancher, Dies". Times-Advocate. Escondido, California. 29 November 1957. p. 1.
  2. "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZVN-XR2 : 24 August 2019), William Bevan, 1917-1918.
  3. "United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V48R-RCB : 8 November 2017), William Bevan, 1942; citing NARA microfilm publication M1936, M1937, M1939, M1951, M1962, M1964, M1986, M2090, and M2097 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
  4. "Christmas Entertainments". Healesville And Yarra Glen Guardian. Victoria, Australia. 29 December 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 22 December 2016 – via Trove.
  5. "Theatrical Gazette". The Referee. New South Wales, Australia. 8 January 1913. p. 15. Retrieved 22 December 2016 – via Trove.
  6. "Billy Bevan Has New Wind Machine For Use On His Local Citrus Grove". Times-Advocate. Escondido, California. 12 November 1937. p. 14.
  7. Anthony Slide (2012), Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins P.162, University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1617034749. Slide also notes this of Clyde Cook
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