Reginald Owen

For the English musician, see Reg Owen. For the bishop, see Reginald Owen (bishop).

Reginald Owen
from the trailer for The Miniver Story (1950)
Born	John Reginald Owen (1887-08-05)5 August 1887 Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Died	Boise, Idaho, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart attack
Resting place	Morris Hill Cemetery, Boise
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1911–1972
Spouse(s)	Lydia Bilbrook (1909–1923; divorced) Mrs. Harold Austin (stage actress) (19??–56) 2 children Barbara Haveman (1956–1972; his death)

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

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. Reginald Owen had a few years earlier 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.

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

in Petticoat Fever (1936)

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.

Owen was the first of only four actors to play both Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr Watson (Jeremy Brett played Watson on stage in the United States prior to adopting the mantle of Holmes on British television, Carleton Hobbs played both roles in British radio adaptations while Patrick Macnee played both roles in US television films).

Owen first played Watson in the film Sherlock Holmes (1932), and then Holmes himself 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.

File:OwenAsHolmes.jpg

as Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet (1933)

Later in his career, Owen appeared opposite James Garner in the television series Maverick in the episodes "The Belcastle Brand" (1957) and "Gun-Shy" (1958) and also guest starred in episodes of the series One Step Beyond 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 Bel-Air mansion was rented out to the Beatles, who were performing at the Hollywood Bowl, when no hotel would book them.

Death

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

Partial filmography

• Henry VIII (1911)
• The Grass Orphan (1922)
• The Letter (1929)
• The Man in Possession (1931)
• Platinum Blonde (1931)
• Downstairs (1932)
• Sherlock Holmes (1932) – as Dr. Watson
• The Man Called Back (1932)
• A Study in Scarlet (1933) – as Sherlock Holmes
• Double Harness (1933)
• Voltaire (1933)
• Queen Christina (1933)
• The House of Rothschild (1934)
• Stingaree (1934)
• Of Human Bondage (1934)
• Madame Du Barry (1934)
• Music in the Air (1934)
• The Countess of Monte Cristo (1934)
• Escapade (1935)
• The Call of the Wild (1935) – as Mr. Smith
• Anna Karenina (1935)
• A Tale of Two Cities (1935) – as Stryver
• The Good Fairy (1935)
• The Bishop Misbehaves (1935)
• Enchanted April (1935)
• Rose Marie (1936)
• The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
• Trouble for Two (1936)
• Yours for the Asking (1936)
• Love on the Run (1936) – as Baron Otto Spanderman
• Personal Property (1937)
• Madame X (1937)
• Conquest (1937)
• Everybody Sing (1938)
• Paradise for Three (1938)
• Kidnapped (1938)
• Three Loves Has Nancy (1938)
• A Christmas Carol (1938)
• The Real Glory (1939)
• Remember? (1939)
• Hotel Imperial (1939)
• Fast and Loose (1939)
• Hullabaloo (1940)
• They Met in Bombay (1941) – as General Allen
• Woman of the Year (1942)
• Mrs. Miniver (1942) - as Foley
• White Cargo (1942)
• Random Harvest (1942)
• Reunion in France (1942)
• Above Suspicion (1943)
• Salute to the Marines (1943)
• Madame Curie (1943)
• The Canterville Ghost (1944) – as Lord Canterville
• National Velvet (1944) – as Farmer Ede
• Kitty (1945)
• The Valley of Decision (1945)
• Captain Kidd (1945) – as Cary Shadwell
• The Sailor Takes a Wife (1945)
• The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946)
• Cluny Brown (1946)
• Monsieur Beaucaire (1946)
• Green Dolphin Street (1947)
• The Imperfect Lady (1947)
• The Pirate (1948)
• Julia Misbehaves (1948) – as Benjamin Hawkins
• Hills of Home (1948)
• The Three Musketeers (1948) – as Treville
• The Secret Garden (1949)
• Challenge to Lassie (1949)
• The Miniver Story (1950)
• Kim (1950)
• Darby's Rangers (1958)
• Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962)
• Tammy and the Doctor (1963)
• The Thrill of It All (1963)
• Mary Poppins (1964) – as Admiral Boom
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) – as Major General Sir Brian Teagler

External links

• Reginald Owen at the Internet Broadway Database
• Reginald Owen at the Internet Movie Database