Bebe Daniels
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bebe Daniels (January 14, 1901 - March 16, 1971) was an American actress who started out in Hollywood in the silent movie era and later starred on radio and television in England.
She was born as Phyllis Daniels in Dallas, Texas. Her father was a theater manager and her mother a stage actress. The family moved to Los Angeles, California in her childhood. Bebe began her acting career at the age of four. She toured as the Duke of York in Shakespeare's Richard III. The following year she participated in productions by Morosooa and Belasco.
[edit] Career
She entered films in the first version of The Squaw Man in 1906. By the age of seven Bebe had her first starring role in film, as the young heroine in A Common Enemy. At the age of fourteen she starred opposite famous film comedian Harold Lloyd in a series of Lonesome Luke two-reel comedies. The two eventually developed a publicized romantic relationship and were known in Hollywood as "The Boy" and "The Girl". [1] In 1919, she decided to move to greater dramatic roles and accepted a contract offering from Cecil B. Demille, who gave her secondary roles in such films as Male and Female, Why Change Your Wife, and The Affairs of Anatol.
Daniels is believed to be the second actress to appear onscreen as the character of Dorothy Gale, in the 1910 film short The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by author L. Frank Baum. For a time she went by the name Virginia Daniels. She was hired by Hal Roach studio in 1915. Her early roles varied from slapstick comedy to "bathing beauty" appearances. In the 1920s, she was under contract with Paramount Pictures. Daniels became an adult star by 1922 and by 1924 was playing opposite Rudolph Valentino in Monsieur Beaucaire. Following this she was cast in a number of light popular films, namely Miss Bluebeard, The Manicure Girl, and Wild Wild Susan.
Paramount dropped her contract with the advent of talking pictures, because it believed that only trained actors from the stage would be successful in the talkies. Bebe Daniels showed her doubters how wrong they were. She was hired by Radio Pictures (later known as RKO) to star in one of their biggest productions of the year. She actly superbly in her talkie and made a huge hit in the 1929 talkie Rio Rita, in which she dumbstruck audiences by singing so well. It proved to be one of the most successful films of that year, and Bebe Daniels found herself a star all over again. Her talented singing voice and early stage training were assets to Bebe in the new sound medium. RCA Victor even hired her to record several records for their catalog.
Radio pictures starred her in a number of musicals including Dixiana (1930) and Love Comes Along (1930). In this same year she married Ben Lyon. Towards the end of 1930, Bebe Daniels appeared in the musical comedy Reaching for the Moon. However, by this time audiences had grown so tired of musicals, which had virtually saturated the market, that most of the musical numbers from the film had to be removed before the film could be released. Unforunately, Bebe Daniels had become associated with musicals and so Radio Pictures did not renew her contract. On the other hand, the Warner Brothers realized what a box office draw she was and offered her a contract which she accepted. During her years at Warner Brothers she starred in such pictures as My Past (1931), Honor of the Family 1931 and the extremely successful 1931 pre-code version of the Maltese Falcon in 1931 which opened to rave reviews. In 1932, she appeared in Silver Dollar (1932) and the successful Busby Berkeley choreographed musical comedy 42nd Street (1932) in which she sang once again. Her last film for the Warner Brothers was Registered Nurse (1934).
She retired from Hollywood in 1935.
With her husband, film actor Ben Lyon, she moved to London in 1935. A few years later, Daniels starred in the London production of Panama Hattie in the title role originated by Ethel Merman. The Lyons then did radio shows for the BBC. Most notably, they starred in the series Hi Gang, continuing for decades and enjoying considerable popularity during World War II. Daniels wrote most of the dialogue for the Hi Gang radio show. The couple remained through the intolerable days of the blitz.
Following the war Daniels was awarded the Medal of Freedom by Harry S. Truman for war service. In 1945 she returned to Hollywood for a short time to work as a film producer for Hal Roach and Eagle Lion. She returned to England in 1948 and lived there for the remainder of her life. Daniels, her husband, her son Richard and her daughter all starred in the radio sitcom Life With The Lyons (1951 to 1961), which later made the transition to television.
Bebe Daniels died of a stroke in London at the age of 70. Her remains were cremated at London's Golders Green Crematorium and the ashes brought home where she was interred with her husband, Ben Lyon, in the Chapel columbarium at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. Bebe was survived by her two children.
[edit] Reference
The Times of London, Bebe Daniels American star who made a hit on British radio, March 17, 1971, Page 18.
