Cecil Bevan

Bevan was born in London,^[1] the son of a clergyman, Reverend Cecil Bevan.^[4] He worked as an accountant and partnership agent,^[5] and acted as an amateur with groups including the Romany Amateur Dramatic Club at St. George's Hall, London in 1900,^[6] and the Phoenix Amateur Dramatic Club at the Bijou Theatre, London, in 1901.^[7]

By 1907, Bevan had begun acting professionally with George Alexander's company^[1] in Alfred Sutro's new play, John Glayde's Honour.^[8][9][10] He also appeared with the Herbert Sleath Company^[11] and the London Repertory Theatre under its director J. T. Grein.^[12][13]

In 1912, he played the governor of HM Prison Holloway in a satirical play by Lillie Langtry titled Helping the Cause, in which Langtry played a militant suffragist. The play, with the cast including Langtry, Bevan, Leonora Braham and Alfred Mansfield, toured the United Kingdom and the United States.^{[14][15][16][17][18]}

In the 1910s and 1930s-40s, Bevan appeared in West End theatres in supporting roles in plays by dramatists such as Harley Granville-Barker, Elmer Rice, Jerome K. Jerome, and Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein.^[12][19] He received praise for his performances, in particular for his role as Christopher Branley in John Glayde's Honour by Alfred Sutro (1907-1908),^[8][9] Captain Montgomerie in W. Somerset Maugham's Lady Frederick (1908),^[20] and Dr. O'Shea in Roland Pertwee's Pink String and Sealing Wax (1943).^[21][22][23]

Bevan also appeared on screen from 1921 to 1952. His performance as Sampson Brass in The Old Curiosity Shop (1921) was described as "excellent".^[24] His last appearance on screen was as Reverend Mayne in Autumn Crocus (1952).^[1]

He married twice, firstly to Violet Gordon Robbins in 1900,^[4] and later to Frieda Haesler.^[25] He was a member of the Green Room Club^[26] and the Conservative Association.^[1] He died in 1953 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where he had lived for over thirty years.^[1]