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.)
201 movies · 1 shows
30 Years of Fun
1963·5.3
The Golden Age of Comedy
1957·7.1
Hans Christian Andersen
1952·6.2
The Slappiest Days of Our Lives
1951·0.0
Three Secrets
1950·6.5
Rogues of Sherwood Forest
1950·5.3
Fortunes of Captain Blood
1950·7.3
Tell It to the Judge
1949·6.6
The Secret Of St. Ives
1949·6.0
The Secret Garden
1949·7.1
Let's Live a Little
1948·7.0
The Black Arrow
1948·5.5
The Swordsman
1948·7.3
It Had to Be You
1947·7.8
Moss Rose
1947·6.6
Cluny Brown
1946·7.2
Devotion
1946·5.9
Terror by Night
1946·6.6
The Picture of Dorian Gray
1945·7.1
National Velvet
1945·7.2
Tonight and Every Night
1945·5.5
The Pearl of Death
1944·7.1
The Invisible Man's Revenge
1944·5.6
The Lodger
1944·6.5
Jane Eyre
1943·6.9
The Return of the Vampire
1943·6.1
Forever and a Day
1943·7.5
London Blackout Murders
1943·6.7
Happy Times and Jolly Moments
1943·7.5
I Married a Witch
1942·6.9
Counter-Espionage
1942·6.7
Mrs. Miniver
1942·7.1
This Above All
1942·6.8
The Man Who Wouldn't Die
1942·6.5
Confirm or Deny
1941·4.8
Suspicion
1941·7.1
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1941·6.5
Shining Victory
1941·6.1
Penny Serenade
1941·6.6
Tin Pan Alley
1940·5.4
The Long Voyage Home
1940·6.6
Rebecca
1940·7.9
The Invisible Man Returns
1940·6.3
The Earl of Chicago
1940·6.3
We Are Not Alone
1939·6.9
Pack Up Your Troubles
1939·6.8
Captain Fury
1939·5.6
Let Freedom Ring
1939·6.8
A Christmas Carol
1938·7.0
Arrest Bulldog Drummond
1938·6.8
Shadows Over Shanghai
1938·5.3
Mysterious Mr. Moto
1938·6.2
The Young in Heart
1938·6.6
Blond Cheat
1938·7.3
The Girl of the Golden West
1938·5.3
Bringing Up Baby
1938·7.5
The Wrong Road
1937·4.8
The Sheik Steps Out
1937·6.5
Another Dawn
1937·6.4
Slave Ship
1937·5.1
Personal Property
1937·6.9
God's Country and the Woman
1937·5.2
Lloyd's of London
1936·7.3
Piccadilly Jim
1936·6.8
Private Number
1936·6.7
Dracula's Daughter
1936·6.0
Champagne Charlie
1936·5.4
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1936·7.5
Song and Dance Man
1936·7.0
A Tale of Two Cities
1935·6.9
The Widow from Monte Carlo
1935·5.8
The Last Outpost
1935·6.2
Black Sheep
1935·7.3
Vanessa: Her Love Story
1935·6.2
Mystery Woman
1935·6.5
Caravan
1934·6.5
Limehouse Blues
1934·4.4
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
1934·5.6
One More River
1934·5.2
Shock
1934·7.3
Stingaree
1934·6.1
The Lost Patrol
1934·6.5
Pop's Pal
1933·7.0
Alice in Wonderland
1933·6.1
The Way to Love
1933·8.0
Too Much Harmony
1933·7.0
The Big Squeal
1933·7.0
Thundering Taxis
1933·7.0
Peg o' My Heart
1933·5.0
A Study in Scarlet
1933·5.6
Uncle Jake
1933·10.0
Looking Forward
1933·6.6
Techno-Crazy
1933·8.0
Cavalcade
1933·5.5
Luxury Liner
1933·7.2
She Whoops To Conquer
1933·0.0
Me and My Gal
1932·6.4
Payment Deferred
1932·5.7
Honeymoon Beach
1932·7.0
The Spot on the Rug
1932·9.0
Vanity Fair
1932·4.7
Sky Devils
1932·5.0
The Silent Witness
1932·7.0
Who's Who in the Zoo
1931·0.0
Waterloo Bridge
1931·6.9
Transatlantic
1931·5.8
Chances
1931·7.4
Born to Love
1931·5.3
For the Love o' Lil
1930·10.0
Monte Carlo
1930·6.5
Temptation
1930·10.0
Journey's End
1930·6.4
Scotch
1930·8.0
Peacock Alley
1930·5.0
Weak But Willing
1929·9.0
The Trespasser
1929·6.9
High Voltage
1929·5.2
Don't Get Jealous
1929·9.0
Pink Pajamas
1929·9.0
Calling Hubby's Bluff
1929·10.0
The Sky Hawk
1929·7.0
His New Stenographer
1928·0.0
Riley the Cop
1928·5.7
Hubby's Weekend Trip
1928·9.0
Motorboat Mamas
1928·9.0
His Unlucky Night
1928·10.0
The Girl from Nowhere
1928·9.0
The Bicycle Flirt
1928·10.0
The Best Man
1928·7.5
The Beach Club
1928·10.0
The Girl from Everywhere
1927·7.0
The Bull Fighter
1927·10.0
Gold Digger of Weepah
1927·8.0
The Golf Nut
1927·7.0
Cured in the Excitement
1927·7.0
A Small Town Princess
1927·7.0
Peaches and Plumbers
1927·9.0
Easy Pickings
1927·10.0
Should Sleepwalkers Marry?
1927·7.0
Flirty Four-Flushers
1926·6.5
Masked Mamas
1926·8.0
Should Husbands Marry?
1926·8.0
Hoboken to Hollywood
1926·10.0
Hubby’s Quiet Little Game
1926·9.0
A Sea Dog's Tale
1926·7.0
Ice Cold Cocos
1926·9.0
Musclebound Music
1926·7.0
Fight Night
1926·6.0
Hayfoot, Strawfoot?
1926·10.0
Wandering Willies
1926·9.0
Circus Today
1926·9.0
Trimmed in Gold
1926·9.0
Whispering Whiskers
1926·10.0
From Rags to Britches
1925·9.0
Over Thereabouts
1925·8.0
Butter Fingers
1925·6.6
The Iron Nag
1925·8.0
Sneezing Beezers
1925·9.0
Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies
1925·8.0
The Lion's Whiskers
1925·10.0
Giddap!
1925·8.0
Honeymoon Hardships
1925·8.0
Off His Trolley
1924·9.0
The Cannon Ball Express
1924·9.0
Galloping Bungalows
1924·6.3
Wandering Waistlines
1924·9.0
Little Robinson Corkscrew
1924·10.0
Three Foolish Weeks
1924·10.0
Lizzies of the Field
1924·6.7
East of the Water Plug
1924·8.0
Wall Street Blues
1924·8.0
The Hollywood Kid
1924·5.4
The White Sin
1924·6.3
One Spooky Night
1924·7.0
Inbad the Sailor
1923·10.0
One Cylinder Love
1923·7.0
The Extra Girl
1923·6.4
Pitfalls of a Big City
1923·8.0
Nip and Tuck
1923·8.0
When Summer Comes
1922·10.0
The Crossroads of New York
1922·7.0
Gymnasium Jim
1922·6.0
On Patrol
1922·5.3
The Duck Hunter
1922·9.0
Around the Town: British Film Stars and Studios
1921·0.0
Bright Eyes
1921·6.5
Be Reasonable
1921·7.4
Love and Doughnuts
1921·7.0
Astray from the Steerage
1921·10.0
A Small Town Idol
1921·6.8
Love, Honor and Behave
1920·8.0
The Quack Doctor
1920·9.0
Married Life
1920·9.0
Distilled Love
1920·7.0
Cupid In Quarantine
1918·7.0
Her Rustic Romeo
1918·0.0
Are Married Policemen Safe?
1918·0.0
Somebody's Widow
1918·0.0
Bombs and Bandits
1917·0.0
Pirates of the Air
1916·9.0
Gertie's Gasoline Glide
1916·6.5