Bebe Daniels

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Bebe Daniels (January 14, 1901 - March 16, 1971) was a United States actress. She 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.

Career

Publicity Photo of Bebe Daniels as she appeared in the Technicolor finale of Rio Rita (1929).

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 thirteen she starred opposite Harold Lloyd in a series of Lonesome Luke two reel comedies. The two were linked romantically for a time. Soon she was placed under contract by Cecil B. Demille and appeared in secondary roles in such films as Male and Female, Why Change Your Wife, and The Affairs of Anatol.

Miss Daniels is the first 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 they believed that only trained actors from the stage would be successful in the talkies. Bebe Daniels showed them 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. 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. 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 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. Bebe wrote most of the dialogue for the Hi Gang radio show. The couple remained through the intolerable days of the blitz.

Following the war Miss Daniels was awarded the Medal of Freedom from the American Government 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. The Lyons 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 is interred with her husband, Ben Lyon, in the Chapel columbarium at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. Bebe was survived by two children, Barbara and Richard.

Reference

The Times of London, ''Bebe Daniels American star who made a hit on British radio, March 17, 1971, Page 18.

External links

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