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

Career

John Reginald Owen was born on 5 August 1887 in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, England, to Joseph and Frances Owen. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his professional debut in 1905.

Sometime prior to 1911 Owen met the author Mrs. Clifford Mills. On hearing her idea of a rainbow story, persuaded her to turn it into a play, which became Where the Rainbow Ends. He co-authored the work with Mills using the pseudonym John Ramsey.

He went to the United States in 1920 and performed on Broadway. He later moved to Hollywood, where he began a lengthy film career, becoming 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 on the radio for years.

Owen in Petticoat Fever (1936)

Owen was one of a very few number of actors to play both Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson, assaying Watson in the film Sherlock Holmes (1932) starring Clive Brook as Holmes, and then Holmes in A Study in Scarlet (1933) having co-written the screenplay.

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 were performing at the Hollywood Bowl, when no hotel would book them.

Death

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

Filmography

Owen The Miniver Story (1950)

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.

External links