Cast

Billy Bevan

Acting

Cast

Billy Bevan

Known for

Acting

Born

1887-09-29

From

Orange, New South Wales, Australia

Died

1957-11-26

Also known as William Bevan, Bill Bevans, Billy Bevin

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.)

Billy Bevan

Billy Bevan

Biography

Rebecca

Jane Eyre

Another Dawn

Peacock Alley

Mystery Woman

Suspicion

Married Life

Bringing Up Baby

Terror by Night

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Uncle Jake

Be Reasonable

Mrs. Miniver

Whispering Whiskers

The Secret Garden

The Invisible Man Returns

Vanity Fair

Stingaree

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

I Married a Witch

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Lost Patrol

Musclebound Music

Dracula's Daughter

National Velvet

The Long Voyage Home

The Pearl of Death

Fortunes of Captain Blood

Alice in Wonderland

Pink Pajamas

Waterloo Bridge

The Invisible Man's Revenge

Cavalcade

A Christmas Carol

Galloping Bungalows

Mysterious Mr. Moto

This Above All

The Girl from Everywhere

The Return of the Vampire

Penny Serenade

Giddap!

Hayfoot, Strawfoot?

Distilled Love

Hans Christian Andersen

Song and Dance Man

The Golf Nut

The Lodger

Devotion

She Whoops To Conquer

Blond Cheat

Cluny Brown

Nip and Tuck

Forever and a Day

Love, Honor and Behave

The Best Man

Me and My Gal

A Tale of Two Cities

The Girl of the Golden West

The Last Outpost

Fight Night

The Spot on the Rug

Luxury Liner

Lloyd's of London

It Had to Be You

Confirm or Deny

The Man Who Wouldn't Die

Love and Doughnuts

Counter-Espionage

A Study in Scarlet

Monte Carlo

Her Rustic Romeo

Slave Ship

The Beach Club

Tonight and Every Night

The Earl of Chicago

Don't Get Jealous

Arrest Bulldog Drummond