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