
Reginald Owen
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.
Acting (126 movies)

Mary Poppins
1964

Woman of the Year
1942

Conquest
1937

The Thrill of It All
1963

Random Harvest
1942

Queen Christina
1934

Bedknobs and Broomsticks
1971

Platinum Blonde
1931

A Christmas Carol
1938

Above Suspicion
1943

Voice of the Hurricane
1964

A Woman's Face
1941

Mrs. Miniver
1942

Tarzan's Secret Treasure
1941

Reunion in France
1942

The Pirate
1948

Five Weeks in a Balloon
1962

The Great Ziegfeld
1936

Rosalie
1937

Everybody Sing
1938

Challenge to Lassie
1949

Cairo
1942

The Secret Garden
1949

Madame Curie
1943

The Valley of Decision
1945

Madame X
1937

Personal Property
1937

Love on the Run
1936

Rose Marie
1936

Of Human Bondage
1934

The Diary of a Chambermaid
1946

A Study in Scarlet
1933

A Tale of Two Cities
1935

Somewhere I'll Find You
1942

The Good Fairy
1935

Tammy and the Doctor
1963

Three Loves Has Nancy
1938

The Canterville Ghost
1944

Julia Misbehaves
1948

Anna Karenina
1935

Cluny Brown
1946

Fashions of 1934
1934

Bad Little Angel
1939

Music in the Air
1934

They Met in Bombay
1941

The Man in Possession
1931

Salute to the Marines
1943

White Cargo
1942

Kitty
1945

Kidnapped
1938

Green Dolphin Street
1947

The Ghost Comes Home
1940

The Bride Wore Red
1937

The Real Glory
1939

Nana
1934

Petticoat Fever
1936

The Earl of Chicago
1940

Downstairs
1932

If Winter Comes
1947

The Letter
1929

Call of the Wild
1935

The Great Diamond Robbery
1954

Sherlock Holmes
1932

Escapade
1935

Here Is My Heart
1934

Stingaree
1934

Lovers Courageous
1932

Blonde Inspiration
1941

Trouble for Two
1936

Enchanted April
1935

Double Harness
1933

Voltaire
1933

The Girl Downstairs
1938

Fast and Loose
1939

The Imperfect Lady
1946

We Were Dancing
1942

Rosie!
1967

Remember?
1939

Florian
1940

Assignment in Brittany
1943

Piccadilly Incident
1946

Paradise for Three
1938

The House of Rothschild
1934

Hotel Imperial
1939

The Narrow Corner
1933

Madame du Barry
1934

The Miniver Story
1950

She Went to the Races
1945

Mandalay
1934

Thunder in the Valley
1947

Vacation from Love
1938

Bridal Suite
1939

The Three Musketeers
1948

The Sailor Takes a Wife
1945

Grounds for Marriage
1951

Three Hearts for Julia
1943

Hills of Home
1948

Monsieur Beaucaire
1946

Yours for the Asking
1936

Dangerous Number
1937
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