Billy Bevan

Acting · 0.6 popularity

Age

138

Movies

201

Born: September 29, 1887 – November 26, 1957
From: Orange, New South Wales, Australia

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.)

Works

201 films

Jane Eyre

19436.9

Rebecca

19407.9

The Picture of Dorian Gray

19457.1

Suspicion

19417.1

Bringing Up Baby

19387.5

Terror by Night

19466.6

Mrs. Miniver

19427.1

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

19367.5

I Married a Witch

19426.9

Married Life

19209.0

A Christmas Carol

19387.0

Musclebound Music

19267.0

The Invisible Man Returns

19406.3

Alice in Wonderland

19336.1

Galloping Bungalows

19246.3

Peacock Alley

19305.0

Hans Christian Andersen

19526.2

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

19416.5

The Pearl of Death

19447.1

Vanity Fair

19324.7

A Tale of Two Cities

19356.8

Dracula's Daughter

19366.0

The Lodger

19446.5

The Lost Patrol

19346.5

The Invisible Man's Revenge

19445.6

The Long Voyage Home

19406.6

Penny Serenade

19416.6

The Secret Garden

19497.1

National Velvet

19457.2

Another Dawn

19376.4

Cavalcade

19335.5

Mystery Woman

19356.5

Cluny Brown

19467.2

The Return of the Vampire

19436.1

Mysterious Mr. Moto

19386.2

Whispering Whiskers

192610.0

Three Secrets

19506.5

Stingaree

19346.1

Moss Rose

19476.6

Waterloo Bridge

19316.9

Fortunes of Captain Blood

19507.3

The Golden Age of Comedy

19577.1

Private Number

19366.7

The Young in Heart

19386.6

Let Freedom Ring

19396.8

Be Reasonable

19217.4

Luxury Liner

19337.2

It Had to Be You

19477.8

The Best Man

19287.5

Slave Ship

19375.1

Lloyd's of London

19367.3

Blond Cheat

19387.3

The Girl of the Golden West

19385.3

Pink Pajamas

19299.0

Tell It to the Judge

19496.6

Devotion

19465.9

Around the Town: British Film Stars and Studios

1921

30 Years of Fun

19635.3

Distilled Love

19207.0

Peg o' My Heart

19335.0

Captain Fury

19395.6

Fight Night

19266.0

Forever and a Day

19437.5

Love, Honor and Behave

19208.0

Tonight and Every Night

19455.5

Too Much Harmony

19337.0

This Above All

19426.8

The Last Outpost

19356.2

Champagne Charlie

19365.4

Let's Live a Little

19487.0

Hayfoot, Strawfoot?

192610.0

We Are Not Alone

19396.9

Uncle Jake

193310.0

A Study in Scarlet

19335.6

Song and Dance Man

19367.0

Me and My Gal

19326.4

The Black Arrow

19485.5

Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back

19345.6

Nip and Tuck

19238.0

Off His Trolley

19249.0

One More River

19345.2

The Girl from Everywhere

19277.0

The White Sin

19246.3

Caravan

19346.5

Pack Up Your Troubles

19396.8

East of the Water Plug

19248.0

Giddap!

19258.0

The Extra Girl

19236.4

Shadows Over Shanghai

19385.3

God's Country and the Woman

19375.2

Vanessa: Her Love Story

19356.2

Easy Pickings

192710.0

The Beach Club

192810.0

Gold Digger of Weepah

19278.0

Rogues of Sherwood Forest

19505.3

Personal Property

19376.9

The Trespasser

19296.9

Transatlantic

19315.8

The Widow from Monte Carlo

19355.8

The Wrong Road

19374.8

Confirm or Deny

19414.8

Motorboat Mamas

19289.0

A Small Town Princess

19277.0

The Big Squeal

19337.0

The Girl from Nowhere

19289.0

Arrest Bulldog Drummond

19386.8

Black Sheep

19357.3

Monte Carlo

19306.5

The Earl of Chicago

19406.3

London Blackout Murders

19436.7

The Sheik Steps Out

19376.5

Riley the Cop

19285.7

Chances

19317.4

Don't Get Jealous

19299.0

Sky Devils

19325.0

One Cylinder Love

19237.0

High Voltage

19295.2

Shining Victory

19416.1

The Swordsman

19487.3

Piccadilly Jim

19366.8

The Sky Hawk

19297.0

Love and Doughnuts

19217.0

Inbad the Sailor

192310.0

Calling Hubby's Bluff

192910.0

She Whoops To Conquer

1933

The Golf Nut

19277.0

Born to Love

19315.3

Limehouse Blues

19344.4

The Man Who Wouldn't Die

19426.5

Journey's End

19306.4

The Hollywood Kid

19245.4

The Spot on the Rug

19329.0

Honeymoon Beach

19327.0

A Sea Dog's Tale

19267.0

The Way to Love

19338.0

Hubby's Weekend Trip

19289.0

Happy Times and Jolly Moments

19437.5

Pop's Pal

19337.0

Pirates of the Air

19169.0

Over Thereabouts

19258.0

Bombs and Bandits

1917

Tin Pan Alley

19405.4

The Slappiest Days of Our Lives

1951

Her Rustic Romeo

1918

Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies

19258.0

Gertie's Gasoline Glide

19166.5

The Quack Doctor

19209.0

The Secret Of St. Ives

19496.0

The Lion's Whiskers

192510.0

Hoboken to Hollywood

192610.0

Bright Eyes

19216.5

Lizzies of the Field

19246.7

Wandering Willies

19269.0

Payment Deferred

19325.7

Looking Forward

19336.6

Somebody's Widow

1918

His Unlucky Night

192810.0

Counter-Espionage

19426.7

Three Foolish Weeks

192410.0

The Bicycle Flirt

192810.0

The Silent Witness

19327.0

Butter Fingers

19256.6

Pitfalls of a Big City

19238.0

The Iron Nag

19258.0

Should Husbands Marry?

19268.0

On Patrol

19225.3

One Spooky Night

19247.0

Sneezing Beezers

19259.0

For the Love o' Lil

193010.0

Weak But Willing

19299.0

Ice Cold Cocos

19269.0

Shock

19347.3

Flirty Four-Flushers

19266.5

The Duck Hunter

19229.0

Scotch

19308.0

The Bull Fighter

192710.0

Who's Who in the Zoo

1931

Masked Mamas

19268.0

Wandering Waistlines

19249.0

A Small Town Idol

19216.8

Wall Street Blues

19248.0

The Crossroads of New York

19227.0

Hubby’s Quiet Little Game

19269.0

Astray from the Steerage

192110.0

Honeymoon Hardships

19258.0

When Summer Comes

192210.0

Peaches and Plumbers

19279.0

Circus Today

19269.0

Gymnasium Jim

19226.0

Cupid In Quarantine

19187.0

His New Stenographer

1928

Thundering Taxis

19337.0

Cured in the Excitement

19277.0

Temptation

193010.0

Little Robinson Corkscrew

192410.0

Trimmed in Gold

19269.0

The Cannon Ball Express

19249.0

From Rags to Britches

19259.0

Techno-Crazy

19338.0

Should Sleepwalkers Marry?

19277.0

Are Married Policemen Safe?

1918