Biography
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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.)
Filmography
all 199
Movies 198
self 3
Director 2
TV Shows 1
Vincent Price's Dracula (1986)
30 Years of Fun (1963)
The Golden Age of Comedy (1957)
Hans Christian Andersen (1952)
The Slappiest Days of Our Lives (1951)
Animal Antics (1950)
Three Secrets (1950)
Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950)
Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950)
Tell It to the Judge (1949)
The Secret Of St. Ives (1949)
The Secret Garden (1949)
Let's Live a Little (1948)
The Ed Sullivan Show (1948)
The Black Arrow (1948)
The Swordsman (1948)
It Had to Be You (1947)
Moss Rose (1947)
Cluny Brown (1946)
Devotion (1946)
Terror by Night (1946)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
National Velvet (1945)
Tonight and Every Night (1945)
Once Over Lightly (1944)
The Pearl of Death (1944)
The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944)
Jane Eyre (1943)
The Return of the Vampire (1943)
Forever and a Day (1943)
London Blackout Murders (1943)
Happy Times and Jolly Moments (1943)
I Married a Witch (1942)
Counter-Espionage (1942)
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
This Above All (1942)
The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1942)
Confirm or Deny (1941)
Suspicion (1941)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
Shining Victory (1941)
Penny Serenade (1941)
Tin Pan Alley (1940)
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
Rebecca (1940)
The Invisible Man Returns (1940)
The Earl of Chicago (1940)
We Are Not Alone (1939)
Pack Up Your Troubles (1939)
Captain Fury (1939)
Let Freedom Ring (1939)
A Christmas Carol (1938)
Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1938)
Shadows Over Shanghai (1938)
Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938)
The Young in Heart (1938)
Blond Cheat (1938)
The Girl of the Golden West (1938)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
The Wrong Road (1937)
The Sheik Steps Out (1937)
Another Dawn (1937)
Slave Ship (1937)
Personal Property (1937)
God's Country and the Woman (1937)
Lloyd's of London (1936)
Piccadilly Jim (1936)
Private Number (1936)
Dracula's Daughter (1936)
Champagne Charlie (1936)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Song and Dance Man (1936)
A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
The Widow from Monte Carlo (1935)
The Last Outpost (1935)
Black Sheep (1935)
Vanessa: Her Love Story (1935)
Mystery Woman (1935)
Caravan (1934)
Limehouse Blues (1934)
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934)
One More River (1934)
Shock (1934)
Stingaree (1934)
The Lost Patrol (1934)
Pop's Pal (1933)
Alice in Wonderland (1933)
The Way to Love (1933)
Too Much Harmony (1933)
The Big Squeal (1933)
Thundering Taxis (1933)
Peg o' My Heart (1933)
A Study in Scarlet (1933)
Uncle Jake (1933)
Looking Forward (1933)
Techno-Crazy (1933)
Cavalcade (1933)
Luxury Liner (1933)
She Whoops To Conquer (1933)
Me and My Gal (1932)
Payment Deferred (1932)
Honeymoon Beach (1932)
Vanity Fair (1932)
Sky Devils (1932)
The Silent Witness (1932)
Who's Who in the Zoo (1931)
Waterloo Bridge (1931)
Transatlantic (1931)
Chances (1931)
Born to Love (1931)
For the Love o' Lil (1930)
Monte Carlo (1930)
Journey's End (1930)
Scotch (1930)
Peacock Alley (1930)
Weak But Willing (1929)
The Trespasser (1929)
High Voltage (1929)
Don't Get Jealous (1929)
Pink Pajamas (1929)
Calling Hubby's Bluff (1929)
The Sky Hawk (1929)
His New Stenographer (1928)
Riley the Cop (1928)
Hubby's Weekend Trip (1928)
Motorboat Mamas (1928)
His Unlucky Night (1928)
The Girl from Nowhere (1928)
The Bicycle Flirt (1928)
The Best Man (1928)
The Beach Club (1928)
The Girl from Everywhere (1927)
The Bull Fighter (1927)
Gold Digger of Weepah (1927)
The Golf Nut (1927)
Cured in the Excitement (1927)
A Small Town Princess (1927)
Peaches and Plumbers (1927)
Easy Pickings (1927)
Should Sleepwalkers Marry? (1927)
Flirty Four-Flushers (1926)
Masked Mamas (1926)
Should Husbands Marry? (1926)
Hoboken to Hollywood (1926)
Hubby’s Quiet Little Game (1926)
A Sea Dog's Tale (1926)
Ice Cold Cocos (1926)
Musclebound Music (1926)
Fight Night (1926)
Hayfoot, Strawfoot? (1926)
Wandering Willies (1926)
Circus Today (1926)
Trimmed in Gold (1926)
Whispering Whiskers (1926)
From Rags to Britches (1925)
Over Thereabouts (1925)
Butter Fingers (1925)
The Iron Nag (1925)
Sneezing Beezers (1925)
Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies (1925)
The Lion's Whiskers (1925)
Giddap! (1925)
Honeymoon Hardships (1925)
Off His Trolley (1924)
The Cannon Ball Express (1924)
Galloping Bungalows (1924)
Wandering Waistlines (1924)
Little Robinson Corkscrew (1924)
Three Foolish Weeks (1924)
Lizzies of the Field (1924)
East of the Water Plug (1924)
Wall Street Blues (1924)
The Hollywood Kid (1924)
The White Sin (1924)
One Spooky Night (1924)
Inbad the Sailor (1923)
The Extra Girl (1923)
Pitfalls of a Big City (1923)
Nip and Tuck (1923)
When Summer Comes (1922)
The Crossroads of New York (1922)
Gymnasium Jim (1922)
On Patrol (1922)
The Duck Hunter (1922)
Around the Town: British Film Stars and Studios (1921)
Bright Eyes (1921)
Be Reasonable (1921)
Love and Doughnuts (1921)
Astray from the Steerage (1921)
A Small Town Idol (1921)
The Quack Doctor (1920)
Distilled Love (1920)
Cupid In Quarantine (1918)
Her Rustic Romeo (1918)
Somebody's Widow (1918)
Bombs and Bandits (1917)
Pirates of the Air (1916)
Gertie's Gasoline Glide (1916)
One Cylinder Love
Ratings
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Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1887-09-29
Deathday1957-11-26 (70 years old)
Birth PlaceOrange, Australia
CitizenshipsAustralia
Also Known AsWilliam Bevan, Bill Bevans, Billy Bevin, Bill Bivin
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