Glyn Owen

Glyn Griffith Owen (6 March 1928 – 10 September 2004) was an Anglo-Welsh actor who worked across film, stage, and television over a career spanning several decades. Born in Bolton, Lancashire, to a Welsh railway guard father and an English mother, Owen left school at fourteen and took a job in a telegraph office. Following national service from 1946 to 1948, during which he participated in the War Office's amateur dramatic company, he spent approximately five years as a police officer in London's Paddington district. While serving as a traffic officer, he informally escorted actor and director Richard Attenborough to a BBC recording under blue lights. He continued pursuing amateur dramatics during this period and received formal acting training at the Actors' Studio in St John's Wood, where agent Lew Grade took him on as a client.

By 1955, Owen was performing with the George Mitchell Singers in Blackpool. His television debut came in 1956 in The Trollenberg Terror, and he subsequently built a substantial presence on British television. He became widely recognized by British audiences through three recurring roles: Dr Patrick O'Meara in the ITV series Emergency Ward 10 from 1957 to 1961, Edward Hammond in the BBC series The Brothers in 1972, and Jack Rolfe in the BBC series Howards' Way from 1985 to 1990. His many other television appearances included Coronation Street, Doomwatch, The Adventures of William Tell, The Rat Catchers, Doctor Who, All Creatures Great and Small, Take the High Road, Oil Strike North, Survivors, and Blake's 7. In a 1964 episode of Danger Man titled Colony Three, he played Randall, the assigned roommate of John Drake at a Soviet spy-training facility. He appeared in the 1978 episode of The Professionals titled Rogue as a corrupt CI5 agent, and his earlier experience as a police officer informed his portrayal of Wally, an alcoholic ex-policeman, in the Sweeney episode Money, Money, Money. In 2003, he appeared alongside former Howards' Way co-star Ivor Danvers in the Doctor Who tie-in audio production Nekromanteia.

Owen's film work included feature roles in Inn for Trouble (1960), Attack on the Iron Coast (1968), One More Time (1970), the crime thriller The Capone Investment (1974), and the Children's Film Foundation production The Firefighters (1975).

On stage, Owen was active in the West End, fringe theatre, and pantomime. He appeared at Edinburgh alongside Tom Courtenay in Hamlet and made numerous appearances at Hampstead Theatre between the late 1960s and the 1980s. His stage work included The Four Musketeers with Harry Secombe at Drury Lane and Dick Whittington with Ken Dodd at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. He also appeared in Roll on Four O'Clock, written by Colin Welland, which originated at Wythenshawe before transferring to the Palace Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. Owen joined the National Theatre Company to play the father in Equus and received an award for his portrayal of the father in Spring and Port Wine for Middle Ground Theatre Company.

Owen's Broadway career ran from 1963 to 1974 and included appearances in Luther and London Assurance. The latter production came about through a North American tour with the Royal Shakespeare Company that concluded at the Palace Theatre in New York City.

Owen was married twice. His first marriage, in 1965 to actress Patricia Mort (1933–1999), produced two children, both of whom became actors: Lloyd Owen, born in 1966, and Cathy Owen, born in 1968. That marriage was later dissolved. His second marriage, in 2001, was to former dancer Carrie Clifton. Owen died on 10 September 2004.