Billy Van

William Allan Van Evera was born on 11 August 1934 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He left Bloor Collegiate Institute in Grade 11 to pursue a career in entertainment, working under the stage name Billy Van as a comedian, actor, and singer. He died on 8 January 2003 at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto at the age of 68, survived by his wife Susan and two daughters, Tracy and Robin, from previous marriages.

Van began his performing career as part of a family singing act with his four brothers, touring North America under the name the Van Evera Brothers. After departing from the group and dropping "Evera" from his surname, he led two vocal ensembles, the Billy Van Four and the Billy Van Singers. The Billy Van Four released the single "I Miss You" / "The Last Sunrise" on the Rodeo International label, which reached number 29 on the CHUM Chart in Toronto in March 1961. His Broadway career included an appearance in 1949 in the play Diamond Lil.

Van made frequent appearances on Canadian variety television programs, including Fancy Free, before gaining national recognition in 1963 as a performer on CBC Television's late-night satire program Nightcap. In 1966, following the third season of the show, a salary dispute arose when the CBC declined his request for a raise from CA$400 to $500 per episode. A columnist in The Globe and Mail described him at that time as perhaps the most talented variety performer ever developed by the CBC. The CBC ultimately agreed to his terms, and Van remained with the program through its final season. In early 1967, he appeared in a six-part Nightcap spinoff series called Flemingdon Park, based on a recurring sketch from the program. Nightcap was cancelled in May 1967.

Beginning in 1971, Van produced The Hilarious House of Frightenstein for CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario, a series for which he became best known and which developed a cult following. Across 130 episodes, he portrayed nearly every lead character, including Count Frightenstein, Grizelda the Ghastly Gourmet, the Wolfman, the Librarian, Dr. Petvet, and the Oracle. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Van also appeared in numerous American television commercials for Colt 45 Malt Liquor, winning a Clio Award for one of those commercials in 1975. He was a regular member of the home team on the CHCH-TV charades series Party Game through the 1970s.

Van was a regular performer on several American television variety programs, among them The Ray Stevens Show, The Ken Berry "Wow" Show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, The Bobby Vinton Show, and the Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show, many of which were co-produced by Chris Bearde, a former writer-performer on Nightcap. In 1982, Van co-hosted TVOntario's Bits and Bytes, a program focused on early personal computers, a role he reprised in 1991 with Bits and Bytes 2. He also narrated the animated educational series Eureka!, which covered physics and chemistry for children, and made occasional appearances on the Canadian television series Bizarre, hosted by John Byner. His film work included providing a voice for a 1982 production of The Wizard of Oz, and he appeared in several television movies, including The Hearst and Davies Affair (1985), A Deadly Business (1986), Family Reunion (1988), The Trial of Red Riding Hood (1992), and Net Worth (1995).

The Billy Van Singers recorded the theme song for the 1967 animated series Spider-Man and released the LP Polydor Presents The Billy Van Singers on Polydor in 1968. Van wrote his autobiography, Second Banana, in 1997, which was published online on 11 August 2018. In December 2020, author Greg Oliver collaborated with Stacey Case and Van's daughters Robin Edwards Mills and Tracy Van Evera on the publication of a biography titled Who's The Man? Billy Van! Van supported the Canadian Comedy Awards through promotional appearances from the awards' inception in 2000. He underwent a triple heart bypass in 1998 and was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in December 2001, the illness from which he died. His brother Jack Van Evera also pursued an acting career, appearing in Canadian television series including The Forest Rangers and Adventures in Rainbow Country.