A Bevy of Billies

An amazing number of silent comics used the given name Billy. Some may have been actually born "William". To name just a few:

Broncho Billy Anderson, Billy Armstrong, Billy Barty, Billy Bevan, Billy Bletcher, Billy Dooley, Billy Engle, Billy Fay, Billy Franey, Billy Gilbert, Billy Hauber, Little Billy Jacobs, Smiling Bill Jones, Smiling Billy Mason, Smiling Billy Parsons (those Billys were happy fellas), Billy Quirk, Billy Reeves, Billie Rhodes, Billie Ritchie, Billy Rogers (OK, that one's a stretch), Billy Ruge, Billy B. Van (whose film debut predated Billy Bevan's), Billie Walsh, Billy West...

...and when Dick Van Dyke played a fictional silent film comedian in 1969's The Comic, what was his character's name? Billy Bright, of course.

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