Background
Harry Cyril Delevanti was born in London to the Anglo-Italian music professor, Edward Prospero Richard Delevanti (1859-1911) and his wife, Mary Elizabeth (née Rowbotham).
Harry Cyril Delevanti was born in London to the Anglo-Italian music professor, Edward Prospero Richard Delevanti (1859-1911) and his wife, Mary Elizabeth (née Rowbotham).
Cyril married Eva Kitty Peel (1890-1975). They had three children: Kitty (born 1913), Cyril (1914-1975), and Harry (born 1915). His first film appearance was in Devotion (1931).
In 1938 he appeared in Red Barry for director Ford Beebe, who would later marry Delevanti"s daughter, Kitty, thus becoming the actor"s son-in-law.
From the 1940s, he appeared in many small roles, frequently uncredited, in such films as Phantom of the Opera (1943), Confidential Agent (1945), Deception (1946), Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Forever Amber (1947), David and Bathsheba (1951), Limelight (1952), Les Girls (1957), Bye Bye Birdie (1963), and Mary Poppins (1964). In 1958, Delevanti was cast as the printer Lucius Coin in all twenty-six episodes of the National Broadcasting Company western television series, Jefferson Drum, starring Jeff Richards.
He made two guest appearances on Perry Mason during the first and final (ninth) seasons of the series. In 1957 he played florist Mr.
Tulloch in "The Case of the Silent Partner".
In 1965, he played bookie Craig Jefferson in "The Case of the Silent Six". He died in Hollywood of lung cancer, and is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California.