Reginald Owen

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 Trees 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 MetroGoldwynMayer 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 MarionCrawford played Holmes in a radio adaptation of The Speckled Band and later played Watson to Ronald Howards Holmes in the 195455 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 GunShy 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 BelAir mansion was rented out to the Beatles who were performing at the Hollywood Bowl when no hotel would book them