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Reginald Owen

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For the British musician, see Reg Owen. For the bishop, see Reginald Owen (bishop). For the architect, see Reginald Wynn Owen.

Reginald Owen
Owen in the trailer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Born
John Reginald Owen

(1887-08-05)5 August 1887
Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, England
Died5 November 1972(1972-11-05) (aged 85)
Boise, Idaho, U.S.
Resting placeMorris Hill Cemetery, Boise
OccupationActor
Years active1911–1972
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1909; div. 1923)​
[1]
Billie Austin
​
​
(m. 1934; died 1956)​

Barbara Haveman
​
​
(m. 1956)​
Children2

John Reginald Owen (5 August 1887 – 5 November 1972) was a British actor. He was known for his many roles in British and American films and television programs.

Career

The son of Joseph and Frances Owen, Reginald Owen studied at Sir Herbert Tree's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his professional debut in 1905. In 1911, he starred in the original production of Where the Rainbow Ends as Saint George, which opened to very good reviews on 21 December 1911. A few years earlier, Reginald Owen met the author Mrs. Clifford Mills as a young actor, and it was he who, on hearing her idea of a Rainbow Story, persuaded her to turn it into a play, and thus Where the Rainbow Ends was born.[2] He co-authored the play with Mills using the pseudonym John Ramsey.

He went to the United States in 1920 and worked originally on Broadway in New York City, and later moved to Hollywood, where he began a lengthy film career. He was a familiar face in many Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer productions.

Owen is perhaps best known today for his performance as Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1938 film version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, a role he inherited from Lionel Barrymore, who had played the part of Scrooge on the radio every Christmas for years until Barrymore broke his hip in an accident.[3]

Owen was one of several actors to play both Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson, along with Jeremy Brett,[4] Carleton Hobbs,[5] Patrick Macnee,[6] Howard Marion-Crawford,[7] and Edward Woodward.[8][9]

Owen first played Watson in the film Sherlock Holmes (1932) starring Clive Brook as Holmes, and then Holmes in A Study in Scarlet (1933). Having played Ebenezer Scrooge, Sherlock Holmes, and Dr. Watson, Owen has the odd distinction of playing three classic characters of Victorian fiction only to live to see those characters be taken over and personified by other actors, namely Alastair Sim as Scrooge, Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson.

Later in his career, Owen appeared with James Garner in the television series Maverick in the episodes "The Belcastle Brand" (1957) and "Gun-Shy" (1958) and guest starred in episodes of the series One Step Beyond, Kentucky Jones, and Bewitched. He was featured in the Walt Disney films Mary Poppins (1964) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). He had a small role in the 1962 Irwin Allen production of the Jules Verne novel Five Weeks in a Balloon. In August 1964, his mansion in Bel Air was rented to the Beatles, who was performing at the Hollywood Bowl, when no hotel would book them.[10]

Death

Owen died from a heart attack at age 85 in Boise, Idaho, and eventually was buried at the Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise.

Filmography

Owen in Petticoat Fever (1936)
Owen The Miniver Story (1950)

References

  1. ^ FreeBMD.org.uk Marriage registered June Quarter 1909
  2. ^ Foreword by Italia Conti to the eighteenth edition (1942) of Where the Rainbow Ends
  3. ^ Landazuri, Margaret. Archives Spotlight: Young Dr. Kildare. Turner Classic Movies.com; accessed 7 December 2007
  4. ^ Alan Barnes (2002). Sherlock Holmes on Screen. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. p. 39. ISBN 1-903111-04-8.
  5. ^ Allen Eyles (1986). Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration. Harper & Row. pp. 86. ISBN 0-06-015620-1.
  6. ^ Alan Barnes (2002). Sherlock Holmes on Screen. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. p. 60. ISBN 1-903111-04-8.
  7. ^ "Howard Marion-Crawford - The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia". www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  8. ^ "Hands of a Murderer (1990)". BFI. British Film Institute. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  9. ^ "USH Volume 4, Section X K -- Actors, Performances, and Recordings: Plays (continued)". University of Minnesota Libraries. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  10. ^ Author: A.J.S. Rayl; Book: "Beatles '64"; New York, Doubleday, 1989; page 96

Further reading

  • Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Reginald Owen". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 204–207. ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5.
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