Billy Bevan — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸
Billy Bevan’s real name is William Bevan Harris, and he is a native of Australia, having been born in a small town of New South Wales about two hundred miles from Sydney. At an early age he evinced his stage tendencies and, like many other aspiring Australian youngsters, sought entrance to the Pollard organization.
With no great difficulty young Bevan made the desired connections and became a youthful Pollard, playing a wide variety of roles and laying the foundation for the technical skill which he now enjoys.
In 1912 the parent Pollard organization was split in two, one company (in which Daphne Pollard was a star) going to India and the Orient and the other company (which included Billy Bevan) coming to this country, up and down the coast into Canada and then to Alaska. This brave little band of troupers traveled; Billy playing Blinky Bill in The Belle of New York, Koko in the Mikado and leading roles also in The Geisha, Florodora, Santoy and other comic-opera creations of a decade ago.
On their return from Alaska and while in Vancouver, B. C., Billy resigned to join the Isobelle Fletcher stock company, a move that was more fortunate than it appeared to be at the time, for those were lean years in the theatrical profession and the little stock organization had an adventurous career. Billy’s good fortune arose out of the fact that in a depleted company he was called upon to play every variety of role that the drama presents. Out of this grueling experience and hard schooling the youthful actor emerged with his art developed to an unusual degree of perfection.
Mr. Sennett, with an eye open for promising talent, saw Billy Bevan in a current touring play, A Knight for a Day, and made the young actor a flattering offer. Mr. Bevan abandoned the footlights for the camera and is now under the terms of a long-time contract with Mr. Sennett, whose uses for his genius are being extended into new fields, where the comedy producer promises to become as prominent a dramatic producer as he has hitherto been a maker of comedy.
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Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)