Reginald Owen
Acting
Born: August 4, 1887 · Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Died: November 5, 1972 (aged 85)
Highest Rated
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.
Known for
Mary Poppins
1964
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
1971
Bewitched
1964
Mrs. Miniver
1942
Woman of the Year
1942
The Three Musketeers
1948
A Christmas Carol
1938
The Great Ziegfeld
1936
Queen Christina
1934
Of Human Bondage
1934
National Velvet
1945
Random Harvest
1942
Photos (3)
Movies (126)
Mary Poppins
Admiral Boom
Of Human Bondage
Thorpe Athelny
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Gen. Teagler
The Three Musketeers
Treville
Mrs. Miniver
Foley
The Pirate
The Advocate
Woman of the Year
Clayton
Anna Karenina
Stiva
National Velvet
Farmer Ede
Queen Christina
Charles
That's Entertainment!
(archive footage) (uncredited)
The Secret Garden
Ben Weatherstaff
Call of the Wild
Mr. Smith
A Woman's Face
Bernard Dalvik
Random Harvest
"Biffer"
The Great Ziegfeld
Sampston
Tarzan's Secret Treasure
Professor Elliott
The Valley of Decision
McCready
The Real Glory
Capt. Hartley
Madame Curie
Dr. Becquerel
A Christmas Carol
Ebenezer Scrooge
Captain Kidd
Cary Shadwell
The Thrill of It All
Tom Fraleigh
Stingaree
The Governor-General
Five Weeks in a Balloon
Consul
Above Suspicion
Dr. Mespelbrunn
Reunion in France
Schultz, Gestapo agent
Conquest
Tallyrand
The House of Rothschild
Herries
The Canterville Ghost
Lord Canterville
A Tale of Two Cities
Stryver
Forever and a Day
Simpson
Cluny Brown
Henry Carmel
Somewhere I'll Find You
Willie Manning
Rose Marie
Myerson
Platinum Blonde
Dexter Grayson
Blonde Inspiration
Reginald Mason
Lady Be Good
Max Milton
Rosalie
Chancellor
Hills of Home
Hopps
Double Harness
Freeman
Cairo
Philo Cobson
The Diary of a Chambermaid
Captain Lanlaire
Hotel Imperial
General Videnko
Kim
Father Victor
Personal Property
Claude Dabney
Madame X
Maurice Dourel
Adventure in Manhattan
Blackton Gregory
The Bishop Misbehaves
Guy Waller
Yours for the Asking
Dictionary McKinney
Madame du Barry
King Louis XV
The Good Fairy
The Waiter
Charley's Aunt
Mr. Redcliffe
Challenge to Lassie
Sergeant Davie
Green Dolphin Street
Captain O'Hara
Thunder in the Valley
James Moore
The Earl of Chicago
Gervase Gonwell
Tammy and the Doctor
Jason Tripp
Fast and Loose
Vincent Charlton
Three Hearts for Julia
John Girard
Everybody Sing
Hillary Bellaire
Music in the Air
Ernst Weber
Fashions of 1934
Oscar Baroque
Kidnapped
Capt. Hoseason
Rosie!
Patrick
Moochie of the Little League
J. Cecil Bennett
Julia Misbehaves
Benjy Hawkins
They Met in Bombay
General Allen
The Imperfect Lady
Mr. Hopkins
Hullabaloo
'Buzz' Foster
The Narrow Corner
Mr. Frith
Florian
Emperor Franz Josef
The Bride Wore Red
Admiral Monti
Bridal Suite
Sir Horace Bragdon
Red Garters
Judge Wallace Winthrop
Mandalay
Police Commissioner Col. Thomas Dawson
The Miniver Story
Mr. Foley
The Girl Downstairs
Charlie Grump
Sherlock Holmes
Dr. Watson
A Study in Scarlet
Sherlock Holmes
Dangerous Number
William
The Sailor Takes a Wife
Mr. Amboy
The Great Diamond Robbery
Bainbridge Gibbons
Monsieur Beaucaire
King Louis XV
Kitty
Duke of Malmunster
The Ghost Comes Home
Hemingway
If Winter Comes
Mr. Fortune
Three Loves Has Nancy
William, the Butler
The Big Brain
Lord Darlington
Here Is My Heart
Vova
Vacation from Love
John Hodge Lawson
Pierre of the Plains
Noah Glenkins
The Human Side
James Dalton
Paradise for Three
Johann Kesselhut
The Girl on the Front Page
Archie Biddle
Assignment in Brittany
Col. Trane
The Letter
Robert Crosbie
I Married an Angel
'Whiskers'
Trouble for Two
President of Club
Voice of the Hurricane
1964
Enchanted April
Henry Arbuthnot
White Cargo
Skipper of the Congo Queen
Phroso
Lord Wheatley
Salute to the Marines
Mr. Henry Casper
Free and Easy
Sir George Kelvin
She Went to the Races
Dr. Pembroke
Piccadilly Incident
Judge
Grounds for Marriage
Dely Delacorte
Love on the Run
Baron Otto Spandermann
Moochie of Pop Warner Football
Mr. Bennett
Downstairs
Baron 'Nicky' von Burgen
A Woman Commands
The Prime Minister
Nana
Bordenave
Lovers Courageous
Lord Jimmy
We Were Dancing
Maj. Tyler-Blane
Escapade
Paul
Where Sinners Meet
Leonard
The Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes (archive footage)
Bad Little Angel
Edwards, Marvin's Valet
Petticoat Fever
Sir James Felton
Remember?
Mr. Bronson
The Man in Possession
Claude Dabney
Voltaire
King Louis XV
The Countess of Monte Cristo
The Baron
Robbers' Roost
Cecil Herrick
The Man Called Back
Dr. Herbert Atkins
TV Shows (10)
Bewitched
2 eps
Maverick
1 eps
Maverick
Marquis Norbert Belcastle · 1 eps
Maverick
Freddie Hawkins · 1 eps
Climax!
Doctor · 1 eps
Thriller
The Hussar ('A Terribly Strange Bed') · 1 eps
Run for Your Life
Sir Hillary Cooper · 1 eps
One Step Beyond
Herbert Blakely · 1 eps
Adventures in Paradise
Ambrose Feather · 1 eps
McCloud
1 eps
