Reginald Owen

John Reginald Owen (5 August 1887 – 5 November 1972) was a British actor. He was known for his many roles in British and American films and television programs. Career 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. A few years earlier, Reginald Owen 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 co-authored the play with Mills using the pseudonym John Ramsey. He went to the United States in 1920 and worked originally on Broadway in New York City, and later moved to Hollywood, where he began a lengthy film career. He was 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.