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Billy Bevan

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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

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.[citation needed] He died 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: "Bevan" rhyming with "seven".

Career

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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; he was the first to perform the familiar "oyster" routine—in which a bowl of "fresh oyster stew" shows alarming signs of life and battles the guy trying to eat it—in the Sennett comedy Wandering Willies (1926). The routine was later performed by Curly Howard, Lou Costello, and Huntz Hall.

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. Bevan lost his starring berth when Sennett canceled all contracts to retool his studio for the new talking pictures; Bevan had already completed several silent shorts, which were released gradually through 1929.

The advent of talkies took their toll on the careers of many silent stars, including Billy Bevan. Although he did co-star in a few talkie shorts, including the "Taxi Boys" comedy Thundering Taxis (1932) and the ZaSu Pitts short She Whoops to Conquer (1934), his starring roles had come to an end. He was still a resourceful actor, and in 1929 he began a second career as a character actor and bit player: a bus driver in High Voltage, a hotel employee in the Mae Murray film Peacock Alley, Second Lieutenant Trotter in Journey's End. 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.

Billy Bevan died in 1957 in Escondido, California.[1]

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "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. ^ a b "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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