Billy Bevan


Billy Bevan was an Australian-born vaudevillian who became an American film actor. He appeared in more than 250 American films from 1916 to 1952. 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

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; 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. 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 and the ZaSu Pitts short She Whoops to Conquer, 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, and affable Englishmen. 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.

Filmography

Salome vs. Shenandoah Distilled Love Married Life - Hospital Staff / Janitor Love, Honor and Behave - A Fake LawyerA Small Town Idol - DirectorHome Talent - Minor Role On Patrol - star policeman then convictThe Crossroads of New York - Press AgentThe Extra Girl - ComedianThe White Sin - Travers DaleOne Spooky Night - Man in the Haunted HouseFlirty Four-Flushers - Jerry Connors / Archibald De ShysterEasy Pickings - The DetectiveThe Golf Nut - Billy DivottThe Girl from Everywhere - MessengerRiley the Cop - Paris Cabman High Voltage - Gus Weak But Willing - George DowningThe Trespasser - Reporter The Sky Hawk - Tom BerryPeacock Alley - Walter - Bell CaptainJourney's End - 2nd Lt. TrotterTemptation - SamFor the Defense - Drunk Monte Carlo - Train Conductor For the Love o' Lil - Edward O. WalkerBorn to Love - Departing British Soldier The Spy - Minor Role Chances Transatlantic - HodgkinsWaterloo Bridge - Soldier on the Make