Born: January 14, 1901
Died: March 16, 1971 (at age 70)
Birthplace: Dallas, Texas, U.S.
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.
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. 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."
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).
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.
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.
Daniels married actor Ben Lyon in June 1930. They had two children: daughter Barbara in 1932 and a son Richard whom they adopted.
Daniels suffered a severe stroke in 1963 and withdrew from public life. She suffered a second stroke in late 1970. On March 16, 1971, Daniels died of a cerebral hemorrhage in London at the age of 70. 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. Upon his death in 1979, Ben Lyon's remains were interred next to Daniels'.
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 |
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 |
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 |