[1] He grew up on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill and was one of four sons of Rocco Beban, a Dalmatian immigrant, and Johanna Dugan, from County Cork, Ireland.

Beban's stage credits include Parrot and Monkey Time (1896), a minstrel feature at Sam T. Jack's Theater;[3] A Modern Venus (1898), a burlesque playing at Sam T. Jack's Theater;[4] A Trip to Buffalo (1902); Nancy Brown (1903); Fantana (1905); Moonshine (1905–06), a production of the Marie Cahill company;[5] About Town (1906), a musical comedy by the Lew Fields All Star Company about life in Paris;[6] The Great Decide (1906); The Girl Behind the Counter (1907–1908); The American Idea (1908), a musical comedy by George M. Cohan;[7] Hokey-pokey (1912); and Anna Held's All Star Variete Jubilee (1913–1914).

[8] George M. Cohan wrote The American Idea for Beban to play the lead role of Pierre Souchet (and Trixie Friganza as the co-star).

Beban had previously played French characters in Marie Cahill's production Ben Bolt,[9] and in Lew Fields' About Town.

[2] The study paid off with Beban's release of a vaudeville sketch in which he played the part of an Italian laborer mourning the death of his child.

"[11] The reviewer said of Beban's performance: "Here he portrays very beautifully the simplicity, gentleness, sweetness, and, when occasion arises, the native ferocity of the ignorant but wellmeaning foreigner, who is conscious of the obstacles which he confronts on account of his poverty, and the contempt and suspicion under which he labors because of the crimes of evildoers of his own nationality.

... Just at present Beban's talents are finding abundant expression in 'The Sign of the Rose,' a remarkable Orpheum headliner, in which, as Pietro Massena, this character actor delineates the loves and sorrows of a poor Italian emigrant.

While touring with The Sign of the Rose, Beban spoke of the contributions of the Italian in civilization and noted: "The swarming port of Naples courses him out to us every day, its traffic lines beating like a great throbbing artery of life.

He loves intensely, he adopts children, he is fiery in his friendships and hates alike, and his experiences in getting Americanized furnish a far greater fund of comedy than the wearisome peanut-stand mirth to which the 'scene-in-one' artists have accustomed us.

In the film, Beban played the role of Pietro "Beppo" Donnetti, an Italian gondolier who comes to the United States to make his fortune but instead winds up working as a shoeshiner and experiencing tragedy while living with his wife and child in a tenement on New York's Lower East Side.

The upward glance when the heart was bitten again by the fangs of emotion, the hysterical joy of the Latin nature when in high spirits, all these phrases were delineated by this artist in a way that moved and thrilled.

In 2008, The New York Times praised Beban's "powerful lead performance" which it described as follows:"The audience is drawn to identify with Beppo, even though he remains in many respects an appalling ethnic caricature: dark, brooding, vengeful.

That Barker [the director] and Beban are able to create so much sympathy for Beppo, despite their own, occasionally quite obvious condescension to the character, is a mark of emerging maturity in the movie business; no longer are films dealing in one-dimensional 'types.

'"[16]A reviewer for the publication Bright Sights wrote: "Projecting overwhelming grief, Beban reveals some hefty acting chops.

"[17] A review in DVD Talk concluded that Beban's performance was able to overcome the film's melodramatic premise: "Beppo is a delightful character ... His rage after being robbed was another standout moment.

[26] Their son, George Beban Jr., was born in 1914 and performed as a child actor with his father in the films One in a Million (1921), Hearts of Men (1919), and The Alien (1915).

"[27]In 1928, Beban died from injuries sustained when he was thrown from a horse while on vacation at the June Lodge dude ranch in Big Pine, California.