Beverly Marsh

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Lore & Background

Beverly Marsh was born in 1947 (1976 in the 2017 version). She is the daughter of Alvin Marsh and Elinor Marsh. Her mother's presence in her life differs among the three continuities. Beverly is a classmate of Ben Hanscom, who harbors a secret crush on her. Ben writes her an anonymous love poem which states, "Your hair is winter fire, January embers, my heart burns there, too." Beverly is led to believe that the poem was written by Bill Denbrough, who grows up to be a horror novelist. Beverly eventually joins "The Losers Club" and befriends Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier, Mike Hanlon and Stanley Uris. Beverly has her first encounter with Pennywise in her bathroom when she hears voices coming from her sink; later, in the sewer, Pennywise speaks the phrase "We All Float Down Here". A balloon-like construct begins growing from her sink and bursts, covering her bathroom with blood. Beverly's screams attract the attention of her father, who sees the blood but dismisses it. She confides in The Losers Club, who can all see the blood and help her clean the bathroom. The Losers Club eventually go into the sewers to find Beverly after she is taken. After the group finds and finishes off the clown, they escape through a tunnel to the Barrens. After they escape the sewers, the Losers make a blood oath that if Pennywise hasn't been defeated, they will all return if it returns.

In Their Own Story

In her adulthood, due to the power of Pennywise and the town of Derry, Beverly forgets about The Losers Club and her childhood. She becomes a fashion designer and enters an abusive relationship with her husband, Tom Rogan. After she gets a call from Mike asking her to return to Derry, she stands up to Tom and finally leaves the relationship. She returns to Derry and reunites with The Losers Club. Beverly returns to her old home, now inhabited by an old woman named Mrs. Kersh, who informs her that her father has been deceased for five years. She apologises and begins to leave, only to be invited in by Mrs. Kersh for tea. However, Mrs. Kersh is revealed to be a form of Pennywise and Beverly escapes. She reunites with Ben, and shares a romantic encounter with him, but Ben realises that Beverly is another form of Pennywise. The Losers Club return to the sewers to face Pennywise for the final time. Unfortunately, the confrontation results in Eddie's death, but the Losers are able to overcome and kill Pennywise. After the confrontation, Ben is finally able to confess his feelings for Beverly, and they begin a relationship.

Reader's Guide

Beverly is portrayed in the 1990 TV miniseries by Emily Perkins as a child and Annette O'Toole as an adult. This interpretation remains fairly faithful to the novel. Perkins' portrayal of Beverly was met with a relatively positive reception, but O'Toole's portrayal was met with a more negative one. The portrayal of Beverly in the 2017 film and its 2019 sequel by Sophia Lillis as a child and Jessica Chastain as an adult were much more positively received. This interpretation shows Beverly as being the moral compass of The Losers Club and playing a key role in defeating Pennywise in both films. In the novel, Beverly was born in 1947. However, in the TV mini-series she was born in 1948 and in 1976 in the film adaptions. Her mother Elfrida is present in the novel, but she is mostly too preoccupied with her job to be much of a parent to Beverly; however, she does have concerns about her husband Alvin abusing her daughter, and even asked Beverly one time if her father has ever "touched" her. A flashback in the 2019 film reveals that her mother has died when Beverly was young; her death is implied to have been suicide due to mental illness, possibly postpartum depression. Alvin blames Beverly for her mother's death, and abuses her physically and sexually throughout her childhood. In *It: Welcome to Derry*, Beverly's mother commits suicide in October 1988 at the Juniper Hills Asylum. Ingrid Kersh, also a patient at the asylum, tells the grieving Beverly, played once again by Sophia Lillis, that no one really dies in Derry. During production of the 2017 film, actress Chloë Grace Moretz was a frontrunner for the role of Beverly. However as the project remained in development hell, the actress eventually became too old to play the role of a child. Eventually, Moretz became attached to a different Stephen King adaptation in the role of Carrie White for the 2013 remake of *Carrie*.

Did You Know?

• Beverly was born in 1947 in the novel and 1976 in the film adaptations; the TV miniseries does not specify a birth year.
• In the novel, it is Beverly's father who asks her about her relationship with boys, not her mother.
• In the 2019 film *It Chapter Two*, a flashback shows Beverly's father, not her mother; there is no implication that her mother died by suicide.
• Actress Chloë Grace Moretz was a frontrunner for the role of Beverly in the 2017 film but became too old during development hell; she later played Carrie White in the 2013 remake of *Carrie*.