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