Alun Owen

Alun Davies Owen (24 November 1925 – 6 December 1994) was a Welsh playwright, screenwriter and actor, predominantly in television. However, he is best remembered by a wider audience for writing the screenplay of The Beatles' debut feature film A Hard Day's Night (1964), which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Career Owen was born in Menai Bridge and his family moved to Liverpool when he was 8. His father, Sidney Owen, was a Welshman from Dolgellau, North Wales, and his mother, Ruth, was from Holyhead, but of Irish descent. Alun Owen attended St Michael in the Hamlet Anglican Primary School and Oulton High School. For two years during the Second World War, he worked in a coal mine as a "Bevin Boy", before moving into repertory theatre as an assistant stage manager. From there he moved into acting, first with the Birmingham Repertory Company and then various other companies, appearing in small roles in films and to a greater degree in the newer medium of television during the 1950s. By the late 1950s, however, Owen was beginning to realise that his real ambitions lay in writing rather than performing, and he began to submit scripts to BBC Radio. His first full-length play, Progress to the Park, was produced by the Theatre Royal, Stratford East following its radio debut, and later in the West End.