Billy Bevan
Encyclopedia
Billy Bevan was an Australian 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, travelled to Sydney and spent eight years in Australian light opera. He sailed to America with the Pollard 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 Recondido, 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.
Talking pictures took their toll on the careers of many silent stars, including Billy Bevan. His Australian accent came across as British, but was sufficiently neutral that he could play nondescript character parts (like a hotel employee in the Mae Murray
talkie Peacock Alley
). His starring series came to an end, however, and Bevan began a second career as a character actor and bit player. For the next 20 years he often played rowdy Cockneys (as in Pack Up Your Troubles
with The Ritz Brothers), and affable Englishmen (as in Tin Pan Alley
and Terror by Night
).
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.)
Bevan was born in the country town of Orange, New South Wales
Orange, New South Wales
Orange is a city in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney, at an altitude of . Orange has an estimated population of 39,329 and the city is a major provincial centre....
, Australia. He went on the stage at an early age, travelled to Sydney and spent eight years in Australian light opera. He sailed to America with the Pollard 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
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
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 Recondido, California.
Usually filmed wearing a derby hat and a drooping mustache, Bevan may not have possessed an indelible screen character like Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
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
Curly Howard
Jerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz , better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and vaudevillian. He is best known as a member of the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, along with his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard, and actor Larry Fine...
, Lou Costello
Lou Costello
Louis Francis "Lou" Costello was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott...
, and Huntz Hall
Huntz Hall
Henry Richard "Huntz" Hall was an American radio, theatrical, and motion picture performer noted primarily for his roles in the "Dead End Kids" movies, such as Angels with Dirty Faces , which gave way to the "The Bowery Boys" movie franchise, a prolific and highly successful series of comedies in...
—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
Andy Clyde
Andy Clyde was a Scottish movie and TV actor whose career spanned more than four decades. He broke into silent films in 1925 as a Mack Sennett comic...
; Clyde soon graduated to his own starring series. The late 1920s found Bevan playing in wild marital farces for Sennett.
Talking pictures took their toll on the careers of many silent stars, including Billy Bevan. His Australian accent came across as British, but was sufficiently neutral that he could play nondescript character parts (like a hotel employee in the Mae Murray
Mae Murray
Mae Murray was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen"....
talkie Peacock Alley
Peacock Alley (1930 film)
Peacock Alley is a black-and-white talkie which originally had one color sequence, and is remake of the 1921 silent film of the same name. Like the 1921 version, Mae Murray starred in the leading female role, but little else other than the title was retained from the previous version...
). His starring series came to an end, however, and Bevan began a second career as a character actor and bit player. For the next 20 years he often played rowdy Cockneys (as in Pack Up Your Troubles
Pack Up Your Troubles
Pack Up Your Troubles is a 1932 Laurel and Hardy film directed by George Marshall and Raymond McCarey, named after the World War I song "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag, and smile, smile, smile." It is the team's second feature-length picture....
with The Ritz Brothers), and affable Englishmen (as in Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley (film)
Tin Pan Alley is a 1940 musical film starring Alice Faye and Betty Grable as vaudeville singers/sisters and John Payne and Jack Oakie as songwriters in the years before World War I.Alfred Newman received the 1940 Academy Award for his work on the film...
and Terror by Night
Terror by Night
Terror by Night is a 1946 Sherlock Holmes mystery film inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, loosely based on The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax and The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. It was directed by Roy William Neill, and stars Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson...
).
Bevan died in 1957 in Escondido, California
Escondido, California
Escondido is a city occupying a shallow valley ringed by rocky hills, just north of the city of San Diego, California. Founded in 1888, it is one of the oldest cities in San Diego County. The city had a population of 143,911 at the 2010 census. Its municipal government set itself an operating...
, just before new audiences discovered him in Robert Youngson
Robert Youngson
Robert Youngson was a film producer, director, and screenwriter.Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was responsible for reacquainting movie audiences with the work of the great silent comedians. His feature-film compilations The Golden Age of Comedy and When Comedy Was King were popular successes...
'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.)
Selected filmography
- Distilled LoveDistilled LoveDistilled Love is a 1920 silent comedy film featuring Oliver Hardy.-Cast:* Alice Howell - The Milkmaid* Richard Smith - The Color Blind Artist * Oliver Hardy - Mr. Peeble Ford * Billy Bevan* Fay Holderness...
(1920) - Gymnasium Jim (1922)
- The Extra GirlThe Extra GirlThe Extra Girl is a 1923 American silent comedy film starring Mabel Normand. Produced by Mack Sennett, The Extra Girl followed earlier films about the film industry and also paved the way for later films about Hollywood, such as King Vidor’s Show People...
(1923) - Riley the CopRiley the CopRiley the Cop is a 1928 comedy film directed by John Ford. It was a silent film with a synchronized music track.-Cast:* J. Farrell MacDonald - James 'Aloysius' Riley * Nancy Drexel - Mary Coronelli...
(1928) - High VoltageHigh Voltage (1929 film)High Voltage is an American film, released by Pathé and directed by Howard Higgin.The film stars William Boyd, Carol Lombard, Diane Ellis, Owen Moore, Phillips Smalley, and Billy Bevan....
(1929) - TransatlanticTransatlantic (film)Transatlantic is a 1931 comedy film directed by William K. Howard. It won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction by Gordon Wiles. -Cast:* Edmund Lowe - Monty Greer* Lois Moran - Judy Kramer* John Halliday - Henry D. Graham...
(1931) - Cavalcade (1933)
- The Lost PatrolThe Lost Patrol (1934 film)The Lost Patrol is a 1934 war film made by RKO. It was directed and produced by John Ford, with Merian C. Cooper as executive producer and Cliff Reid as associate producer. The screenplay was by Dudley Nichols, adapted by Garrett Fort from the novel Patrol by Philip MacDonald. The music score was...
(1934) - A Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two Cities (1935 film)A Tale of Two Cities is a 1935 film based upon Charles Dickens' 1859 historical novel, A Tale of Two Cities. The film stars Ronald Colman as Sydney Carton, Donald Woods and Elizabeth Allan. The supporting players include Basil Rathbone, Blanche Yurka, and Edna Mae Oliver. It was directed by Jack...
(1935) - Mr. Deeds Goes to TownMr. Deeds Goes to TownMr. Deeds Goes to Town is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Frank Capra, and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur in her first featured role...
(1936) - The Girl of the Golden WestThe Girl of the Golden West (1938 film)The Girl of the Golden West is a 1938 musical western film. It was adapted from the play of the same name by David Belasco, better known for providing the plot of the opera La fanciulla del West by Giacomo Puccini...
(1938) - Rebecca (1940)
- The Earl of ChicagoThe Earl of ChicagoThe Earl of Chicago is a 1940 American drama film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Robert Montgomery, Edward Arnold, Reginald Owen and Edmund Gwenn...
(1940) - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941 film)Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1941 horror film starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. Rather than being a new film version of the novel, it is a direct remake of the 1931 film of the same name, which differs greatly from the novel. The movie was based on Robert Louis Stevenson's...
(1941) - Shining VictoryShining VictoryShining Victory is a 1941 film based on the play, Jupiter Laughs, by A. J. Cronin. It stars James Stephenson, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp, and Barbara O'Neil, and it was the first film directed by Irving Rapper. Bette Davis makes a brief cameo appearance as a nurse in the film.-Plot...
(1941) - Mrs. MiniverMrs. Miniver (film)Mrs. Miniver is a 1942 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, and Teresa Wright. Based on the fictional English housewife created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns, the film won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture,...
(1942) - Counter-EspionageCounter-Espionage-Cast:* Warren William as Michael Lanyard* Eric Blore as Jamison* Hillary Brooke as Pamela Hart* Thurston Hall as Insp. Crane* Fred Kelsey as Detective Wesley Dickens* Forrest Tucker as Anton Schugg* Matthew Boulton as Inspector J...
(1942) - The Invisible Man's RevengeThe Invisible Man's RevengeThe Invisible Man's Revenge is a 1944 horror film directed by Ford Beebe and written by Bertram Millhauser. It stars John Carradine as a mad scientist who tests his experiment on Jon Hall....
(1944) - The Pearl of DeathThe Pearl of DeathThe Pearl of Death is a 1944 Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. The story is loosely based on Conan Doyle's short story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" but features some additions, such as Evelyn Ankers as an accomplice of the villain, played...
(1944) - The Picture of Dorian GrayThe Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)The Picture of Dorian Gray is an American horror-drama film based on Oscar Wilde's 1891 novel of the same name. Released in March 1945 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film is directed by Albert Lewin and stars George Sanders as Lord Henry Wotton and Hurd Hatfield as Dorian Gray...
(1945) - Terror by NightTerror by NightTerror by Night is a 1946 Sherlock Holmes mystery film inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, loosely based on The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax and The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. It was directed by Roy William Neill, and stars Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson...
(1946) - Rogues of Sherwood ForestRogues of Sherwood ForestRogues of Sherwood Forest is a 1950 Technicolor Columbia Pictures film directed by Gordon Douglas and featuring John Derek as Robin the Earl of Huntingdon, the son of Robin Hood, Diana Lynn as Lady Marianne, and the late Alan Hale, Sr...
(1950)