Reginald Owen

Acting · 1.0 popularity

Age

139

Movies

128

Born: August 4, 1887 – November 5, 1972
From: Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Reginald Owen (5 August 1887 – 5 November 1972) was an English character actor. He was known for his many roles in British and American films and later in television programmes. 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. 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 one of only five 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). Howard Marion-Crawford played Holmes in a radio adaptation of "The Speckled Band" and later played Watson to Ronald Howard’s Holmes in the 1954-55 television series. 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. 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.

Works

128 films

Mary Poppins

19647.5

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

19717.0

The Three Musketeers

19486.8

Mrs. Miniver

19427.1

The Pirate

19486.5

Queen Christina

19346.9

A Christmas Carol

19387.0

Call of the Wild

19356.2

Anna Karenina

19356.6

Of Human Bondage

19346.5

That's Entertainment!

19747.4

The Great Ziegfeld

19366.3

A Tale of Two Cities

19356.8

The Secret Garden

19497.1

National Velvet

19457.2

A Woman's Face

19416.8

Random Harvest

19427.3

Tarzan's Secret Treasure

19415.9

Woman of the Year

19426.9

The Thrill of It All

19637.1

Madame Curie

19437.2

The House of Rothschild

19346.2

Captain Kidd

19456.3

The Valley of Decision

19457.2

The Good Fairy

19357.1

Cluny Brown

19467.2

The Real Glory

19396.3

Madame X

19376.1

Moochie of the Little League

19598.0

Five Weeks in a Balloon

19625.5

Stingaree

19346.1

Rosalie

19376.0

Grounds for Marriage

19515.0

Above Suspicion

19436.2

Florian

19404.5

The Diary of a Chambermaid

19466.2

Conquest

19376.6

Kim

19506.5

Green Dolphin Street

19476.3

Blonde Inspiration

19415.8

Platinum Blonde

19316.7

Reunion in France

19426.4

Vacation from Love

193810.0

Somewhere I'll Find You

19425.7

The Bride Wore Red

19376.8

The Great Diamond Robbery

195410.0

The Canterville Ghost

19446.9

Rose Marie

19366.2

The Girl Downstairs

19384.7

The Earl of Chicago

19406.3

I Married an Angel

19426.0

Everybody Sing

19385.0

Three Hearts for Julia

19436.5

Pierre of the Plains

19424.9

Three Loves Has Nancy

19384.2

Forever and a Day

19437.5

The Ghost Comes Home

19405.7

Lady Be Good

19415.5

Julia Misbehaves

19486.7

White Cargo

19426.2

Thunder in the Valley

19478.3

Kitty

19455.7

The Countess of Monte Cristo

19346.3

Yours for the Asking

19365.3

The Bishop Misbehaves

19356.0

Monsieur Beaucaire

19465.7

Bridal Suite

19395.4

The Imperfect Lady

1946

A Study in Scarlet

19335.6

Hotel Imperial

19397.0

Rosie!

196710.0

Hills of Home

19486.9

Where Sinners Meet

19344.4

Moochie of Pop Warner Football

19607.0

Phroso

19227.0

Dangerous Number

19374.9

Red Garters

19545.0

Fashions of 1934

19346.6

They Met in Bombay

19417.3

Downstairs

19326.6

The Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes

19858.5

Bad Little Angel

19395.5

Remember?

19396.0

If Winter Comes

19476.7

The Sailor Takes a Wife

19458.0

Tammy and the Doctor

19635.4

The Human Side

19349.0

Fast and Loose

19395.9

The Girl on the Front Page

19367.0

Mandalay

19345.8

Here Is My Heart

19347.3

Music in the Air

19345.6

Charley's Aunt

19416.3

Personal Property

19376.9

Kidnapped

19386.0

Love on the Run

19366.5

Voltaire

19336.2

Hullabaloo

19406.5

Free and Easy

19416.9

Cairo

19426.3

Enchanted April

19354.9

Adventure in Manhattan

19366.1

The Letter

19295.6

Double Harness

19336.5

Challenge to Lassie

19495.3

The Man Called Back

19326.0

Piccadilly Incident

19466.7

Salute to the Marines

19437.2

We Were Dancing

19424.3

She Went to the Races

19456.0

Madame du Barry

19344.6

Sherlock Holmes

19325.9

The Miniver Story

19506.3

The Narrow Corner

19335.8

The Man in Possession

19316.7

The Big Brain

19338.0

Assignment in Brittany

19437.1

Robbers' Roost

19326.0

Trouble for Two

19366.5

Voice of the Hurricane

196410.0

Lovers Courageous

19326.0

Nana

19346.0

Petticoat Fever

19366.1

Escapade

19358.0

Paradise for Three

19387.4

A Woman Commands

19329.0

The Grass Orphan

19227.0

A Fireside Chat with Lionel Barrymore

19387.0