Bebe Daniels

Bebe Daniels
Daniels in 1925
Born	Phyllis Virginia Daniels January 14, 1901 Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Died	March 16, 1971 (aged 70) London, England, UK
Cause of death	Cerebral hemorrhage
Resting place	Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Other names	Bebe Lyon
Occupation	Actress, dancer, singer, producer, writer
Years active	1910–1960
Spouse(s)	Ben Lyon (m. 1930–71)
Children	Barbara Lyon Richard Lyon

Phyllis Virginia Daniels, known professionally as Bebe Daniels (January 14, 1901 – March 16, 1971) was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer.

She began her career in Hollywood during the silent film era as a child actress, became a star in musicals such as 42nd Street, and later gained further fame on radio and television in Britain. In a long career, Bebe Daniels appeared in 230 films.

Early life and career

Daniels was born Phyllis Virginia Daniels (Bebe was a childhood nickname) in Dallas, Texas. Her father was a theater manager and her mother a stage actress.^[1] The family moved to Los Angeles, California in her childhood and she began her acting career at the age of four in the first version of The Squaw Man. That same year she also went on tour in a stage production of Shakespeare's Richard III. The following year she participated in productions by Oliver Morosco and David Belasco.

By the age of seven Daniels had her first starring role in film as the young heroine in A Common Enemy. At the age of nine she starred as Dorothy Gale in the 1910 short film The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. At the age of fourteen she starred opposite film comedian Harold Lloyd in a series of two-reel comedies starting with the 1915 film Giving Them Fits. The two eventually developed a publicized romantic relationship and were known in Hollywood as "The Boy" and "The Girl."^[2]

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 (1919), Why Change Your Wife? (1920), and The Affairs of Anatol (1921).

Later life and career

This 1921 Vanity Fair caricature by Ralph Barton^[1] shows the famous people who, he imagined, left work each day in Hollywood; use cursor to identify individual figures.

1. ^ Vanity Fair magazine September 1921, accessed 2009

In the 1920s, Daniels was under contract with Paramount Pictures. She made the transition from child star to adult in Hollywood 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. Daniels was hired by Radio Pictures (later known as RKO) to star in one of their biggest productions of the year. She also starred in the 1929 talkie Rio Rita. It proved to be one of the most successful films of that year, and Bebe Daniels found herself a star and RCA Victor 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). Toward the end of 1930, Bebe Daniels appeared in the musical comedy Reaching for the Moon. However, by this time musicals had gone out of fashion so that most of the musical numbers from the film had to be removed before it could be released. Daniels had become associated with musicals and so Radio Pictures did not renew her contract. Warner Bros. realized what a box office draw she was and offered her a contract which she accepted. During her years at Warner Bros. she starred in such pictures as My Past (1931), Honor of the Family (1931) and the 1931 pre-code version of The Maltese Falcon, which was eventually eclipsed by John Huston's legendary 1941 version with Humphrey Bogart. In 1932, she appeared in Silver Dollar (1932) and the successful Busby Berkeley choreographed musical comedy 42nd Street (1933) in which she sang once again. That same year she played opposite John Barrymore in Counsellor at Law. Her last film for Warner Bros. was Registered Nurse (1934).

She retired from Hollywood in 1935. With her husband, film actor Ben Lyon, whom she married in 1930, she moved to London. 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 radio 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 days of The Blitz.

Publicity photo, circa 1924

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 Films. She returned to the UK in 1948 and lived there for the remainder of her life. Daniels, her husband, her son Richard and her daughter Barbara all starred in the radio sitcom Life With The Lyons (1951 to 1961), which later made the transition to television.

Personal life

Daniels married actor Ben Lyon in June 1930.^[3] They had two children: daughter Barbara in 1932 and a son Richard whom they adopted.^[4]

Later years and death

Daniels suffered a severe stroke in 1963 and withdrew from public life. She suffered a second stroke in late 1970.^[4] On March 16, 1971, Daniels died of a cerebral hemorrhage in London at the age of 70.^[5] Her remains were cremated at London's Golders Green Crematorium and the ashes returned to the United States; she was interred at the Chapel Columbarium at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.^[6] Upon his death in 1979, Ben Lyon's remains were interred next to Daniels'.^[7]

Selected filmography

Short subjects

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1910	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz	Dorothy Gale
1910	Justinian and Theodora
1911	A Counterfeit Santa Claus
1913	The Savage	Bit part
1914	Anne of the Golden Heart
1915	Bughouse Bellhops
1915	Ruses, Rhymes and Roughnecks
1916	Lonesome Luke Leans to the Literary
1916	Luke, the Candy Cut-Up
1917	Bliss	The Girl
1917	All Aboard	The Girl
1918	The Non-Stop Kid	Miss Wiggle
1918	Hey There!
1918	Two-Gun Gussie	The Girl
1918	Take a Chance	The Hired Girl
1919	Going! Going! Gone!	Miss Goulash
1919	Don't Shove	Bebe

Silent features

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1919	Male and Female	The King's Favourite
1919	Everywoman	Vice	Lost film
1920	Why Change Your Wife?	Sally Clark
1920	The Dancin' Fool	Junie Budd
1920	Sick Abed	Nurse Durant
1920	You Never Can Tell	Rowena Patricia Jones
1920	The Fourteenth Man	Marjory Seaton	Lost film
1920	Oh, Lady, Lady	Mary Barber	Lost film
1920	She Couldn't Help It	Young Nance	Lost film
1921	Ducks and Drakes	Teddy Simpson
1921	Two Weeks with Pay	Pansy O'Donnell/Marie La Tour	Alternative title: Two Weeks Pay Lost film
1921	The March Hare	Lisbeth Ann Palmer	Lost film
1921	One Wild Week	Pauline Hathaway	Lost film
1921	The Affairs of Anatol	Satan Synne
1921	The Speed Girl	Betty Lee	Lost film
1922	Nancy from Nowhere	Nancy	Lost film
1922	A Game Chicken	Inez Hastings	Lost film
1922	North of the Rio Grande	Val Hannon	Lost film
1922	Nice People	Theodora Gloucester	Lost film
1922	Pink Gods	Lorraine Temple	Lost film
1922	Singed Wings	Bonita della Guerda	Lost film
1923	The World's Applause	Corinne d'Alys	Lost film
1923	The Glimpses of the Moon	Susan Branch	Lost film
1923	The Exciters	Ronnie Rand	Lost film
1923	Hollywood	Herself (cameo)	Lost film
1923	His Children's Children	Diane	Lost film
1924	Heritage of the Desert	Mescal
1924	Daring Youth	Alita Allen	Lost film
1924	Unguarded Women	Breta Banning	Lost film
1924	Monsieur Beaucaire	Princess Henriette
1924	Sinners In Heaven	Barbara Stockley	Lost film
1924	Dangerous Money	Adele Clark	Lost film
1924	Argentine Love	Consuelo Garcia	Lost film
1925	Miss Bluebeard	Colette Girard
1925	The Crowded Hour	Peggy Laurence	Lost film
1925	The Manicure Girl	Maria Maretti	Lost film
1925	Wild, Wild Susan	Susan Van Dusen	Lost film
1925	Lovers in Quarantine	Diana
1925	The Splendid Crime	Jenny	Lost film
1926	Miss Brewster's Millions	Polly Brewster	Lost film
1926	The Palm Beach Girl	Emily Bennett	Lost film
1926	Volcano!	Zabette de Chavalons
1926	The Campus Flirt	Patricia Mansfield	Lost film
1926	Stranded in Paris	Julie McFadden	Lost film
1927	A Kiss In A Taxi	Ginette	Lost film
1927	Señorita	Señorita Francesca Hernandez
1927	Swim Girl, Swim	Alice Smith	Lost film
1927	She's a Sheik	Zaida	Lost film
1928	Feel My Pulse	Barbara Manning
1928	The Fifty-Fifty Girl	Kathleen O'Hara	Lost film
1928	Hot News	Pat Clancy	Lost film
1928	Take Me Home	Peggy Lane	Lost film
1928	What a Night!	Dorothy Winston	Lost film[8]

Sound films and television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1929	Rio Rita	Rita Ferguson
1930	Love Comes Along	Peggy
1930	Alias French Gertie	Gertie Jones/aka Marie
1930	Dixiana	Dixiana Caldwell
1930	Lawful Larceny	Marion Dorsey
1930	Reaching for the Moon	Vivien Benton
1931	My Past	Miss Doree Macy
1931	The Maltese Falcon	Ruth Wonderly
1931	Honor of the Family	Laura	Lost film
1932	Silver Dollar	Lily Owens Martin
1933	42nd Street	Dorothy Brock
1933	Cocktail Hour	Cynthia Warren
1933	Counsellor at Law	Regina "Rexy" Gordon
1933	The Song You Gave Me	Mitzi Hansen
1933	A Southern Maid	Juanita/Dolores
1934	Registered Nurse	Sylvia 'Ben' Benton
1935	Music Is Magic	Diane De Valle
1936	Treachery on the High Seas	May Hardy	Alternative title: Not Wanted on Voyage
1938	The Return of Carol Deane	Carol Deane
1941	Hi Gang!	The Liberty Girl
1947	The Fabulous Joe	-	Producer
1954	Life with the Lyons	Bebe Lyon	Alternative title: Family Affair
1955	The Lyons in Paris	Bebe	Alternative titles: Mr. and Mrs. in Paree The Lyons Abroad
1955–1960	Life with the Lyons	Bebe Lyon	Unknown episodes producer, writer

Footnotes

1. Golden, Eve (2001). Golden Images: 41 Essays on Silent Film Stars. McFarland. p. 18. ISBN 0-7864-0834-0.
2. The Girl and The Boy, "Bebe and Harold Were A Perfect Match On and Off The Screen" by Tim Lussier
3. Donnelley 2003 p.191
4. Golden, Eve (2000). Golden Images: 41 Essays on Silent Film Stars. McFarland. p. 21. ISBN 0-786-48354-7.
5. Donnelley, Paul (November 1, 2005). Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries. Omnibus Press. p. 301. ISBN 1-84449-430-6.
6. Bebe Virginia Daniels at Find a Grave
7. D'Agostino, Annette M. (2004). The Harold Lloyd Encyclopedia. McFarland. p. 75. ISBN 0-786-41514-2.
8. "What a Night (1928)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved May 5, 2012.

External links

• Bebe Daniels at the Internet Movie Database
• Bebe Daniels at the TCM Movie Database
• Bebe Daniels at AllMovie
• Good Little Bad Girl: Bebe Daniels
• Photographs and bibliography