Owen Nares
Encyclopedia
Owen Ramsay Nares had a long stage and film career and, for most of the 1920s, was Britain's favourite matinée idol and silent film
star. Besides his acting career, he was the author of Myself, and Some Others, a book published in 1925.
, including the St. James’s Theatre
and the Pinero’s Mid Channel. Over the next few years, as his reputation grew, he performed with many of the outstanding actors of the era including Beerbohm Tree, Constance Collier
and Marion Terry
.
, Fay Compton
, Madge Titheradge
and Ruby Miller
. His stage career also continued to flourish. In 1915, he played Thomas Armstrong in Edward Sheldon
's Romance at the Lyric Theatre
, and in 1917, he starred with Lily Elsie
at the Palace Theatre
in the musical comedy Pamela. He appeared opposite his lover Meggie Albaseni in the 1919 play The First and the Last
for a long-run during the 1920s. Nares continued to star in popular West End shows, almost without pause, until 1926, when he then took a break and set off with his own company for a tour of South Africa
.
In 1942, he appeared in a revival of Robert E. Sherwood
’s The Petrified Forrest, and afterwards he went on tour with the play to the North of England and Wales.
.
he visited Brecon
, and The Shoulder of Mutton (now The Sarah Siddons public house), the birthplace of actress Sarah Siddons
. While he was in the very room where Siddons had been born, Nares had a heart-attack and died half an hour later, at the age of fifty-four.
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
star. Besides his acting career, he was the author of Myself, and Some Others, a book published in 1925.
Early life
Educated at Reading School, Nares was encouraged by his mother to become an actor, and in 1908 he received his training from actress, Rosina Filippi. The following year, he was playing bit parts in West End productionsWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
, including the St. James’s Theatre
St James's Theatre
The St James's Theatre was a 1,200-seat theatre located in King Street, at Duke Street, St James's, London. The elaborate theatre was designed with a neo-classical exterior and a Louis XIV style interior by Samuel Beazley and built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell for the tenor and theatre...
and the Pinero’s Mid Channel. Over the next few years, as his reputation grew, he performed with many of the outstanding actors of the era including Beerbohm Tree, Constance Collier
Constance Collier
Constance Collier was an English film actress and acting coach.-Life and career:Born Laura Constance Hardie, in Windsor, Berkshire, Collier made her stage debut at the age of 3, when she played Fairy Peasblossom in A Midsummer's Night Dream...
and Marion Terry
Marion Terry
Marion Bessie Terry was an English actress. In a career spanning half a century, she played leading roles in more than 125 plays. Always in the shadow of her more famous sister Ellen, Terry nevertheless achieved considerable success in the plays of W. S...
.
Career
In 1914, Nares appeared in Dandy Donovan, the first of the twenty-five silent films he was to make, and the early 1920s was his golden period. He was the male lead, playing opposite such luminaries as Gladys CooperGladys Cooper
Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, DBE was an English actress whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television....
, Fay Compton
Fay Compton
Fay Compton was an English actress from a notable acting lineage; her father was actor/manager Edward Compton; her mother, Virginia Bateman, was a distinguished member of the profession, as were her sister, the actress Viola Compton, and her uncles and aunts. Her grandfather was the 19th-century...
, Madge Titheradge
Madge Titheradge
Madge Titheradge was an actress, born into a theatrical family in Melbourne, Australia.-Biography:Her father was the English-born actor George Sutton Titheradge, and the eleven-year-old Madge had already done stage work with Australia's Brough-Boucicault and Bland Holt companies when the family...
and Ruby Miller
Ruby Miller
Ruby Miller is a Welsh racing cyclist from Llantwit Major.She began competing as a triathlete at the age of 10 as her mother was a coach with the Maindy Triathlon club in Cardiff...
. His stage career also continued to flourish. In 1915, he played Thomas Armstrong in Edward Sheldon
Edward Sheldon
Edward Brewster Sheldon was an American dramatist. His plays include Salvation Nell and Romance , which was made into a motion picture with Greta Garbo....
's Romance at the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
, and in 1917, he starred with Lily Elsie
Lily Elsie
Lily Elsie was a popular English actress and singer during the Edwardian era, best known for her starring role in the hit London premiere of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow....
at the Palace Theatre
Palace Theatre, London
The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. It is an imposing red-brick building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus and is located near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road...
in the musical comedy Pamela. He appeared opposite his lover Meggie Albaseni in the 1919 play The First and the Last
The First and the Last (play)
The First and the Last is a 1919 play by the British writer John Galsworthy. It was baed on a short story published in 1917. It was staged successfully in the early 1920s by Basil Dean featuring the actors Owen Nares and Meggie Albanesi. In 1940 it was adapted by Dean for the film 21 Days starring...
for a long-run during the 1920s. Nares continued to star in popular West End shows, almost without pause, until 1926, when he then took a break and set off with his own company for a tour of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
Later years
With the advent of talkies, his considerable stage experience meant that, in the early days, he was still much in demand and starred in four films. He was, however, too mature to be the handsome star he had been a decade earlier. In the last six films he made, he played supporting roles.In 1942, he appeared in a revival of Robert E. Sherwood
Robert E. Sherwood
Robert Emmet Sherwood was an American playwright, editor, and screenwriter.-Biography:Born in New Rochelle, New York, he was a son of Arthur Murray Sherwood, a rich stockbroker, and his wife, the former Rosina Emmet, a well-known illustrator and portrait painter known as Rosina E. Sherwood...
’s The Petrified Forrest, and afterwards he went on tour with the play to the North of England and Wales.
Family
Nares married actress, Marie Pollini in the spring of 1910, and had two sons, David and Geoffrey NaresGeoffrey Nares
Geoffrey Owen Nares was a British stage actor, a designer, and the younger son of actor Owen Ramsay Nares and his wife, actress Marie Pollini.-Life and career:...
.
Death
During tour through WalesWales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
he visited Brecon
Brecon
Brecon is a long-established market town and community in southern Powys, Mid Wales, with a population of 7,901. It was the county town of the historic county of Brecknockshire; although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of Powys, it remains an important local centre...
, and The Shoulder of Mutton (now The Sarah Siddons public house), the birthplace of actress Sarah Siddons
Sarah Siddons
Sarah Siddons was a Welsh actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. She was the elder sister of John Philip Kemble, Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton and Elizabeth Whitlock, and the aunt of Fanny Kemble. She was most famous for her portrayal of the Shakespearean character,...
. While he was in the very room where Siddons had been born, Nares had a heart-attack and died half an hour later, at the age of fifty-four.
Filmography
- 1941 The Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister (film)The Prime Minister is a British film from 1941 directed by Thorold Dickinson. It details the life and times of Benjamin Disraeli, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and stars John Gielgud, Diana Wynyard, Fay Compton and Stephen Murray.-Plot:...
- 1938 The Loves of Madame DubarryThe Loves of Madame DubarryThe Loves of Madame Dubarry a.k.a. I Give My Heart is a 1935 British historical film adapted from the stage operetta The DuBarry. Directed by Marcel Varnel, and produced by J. H. Hoffberg Company. It is based on the life of Madame Du Barry....
- 1937 The Show Goes OnThe Show Goes OnThe Show Goes On is a 1937 British musical comedy film directed by Basil Dean and starring Gracie Fields, Owen Nares and John Stuart.-Plot summary:...
- 1936 Head Office
- 1935 Regal Cavalcade
- 1934 The Private Life of Don JuanThe Private Life of Don JuanThe Private Life of Don Juan is a 1934 British comedy-drama film about the life of an aging Don Juan, based on the 1920 play L'homme à la Rose by Henry Bataille. The movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Merle Oberon.-Plot:...
- 1933 There Goes the BrideThere Goes the Bride (1932 film)There Goes the Bride is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Albert de Courville and starring Jessie Matthews, Owen Nares, Carol Goodner, Basil Radford and Roland Culver...
- 1933 One Precious Year
- 1933 DiscordDiscord (film)Discord is a 1933 British drama film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Owen Nares, Benita Hume and Harold Huth. Its plot involves a struggling composer who has to be supported financially by his wealthier wife. It was based on the play A Roof and Four Walls by E...
- 1932 The Love Contract
- 1932 Woman in Bondage
- 1932 Where is This Lady?
- 1932 Aren't We All?Aren't We All?Aren't We All? is a play by Frederick Lonsdale.At the core of the drawing room comedy's slim plot is the Hon. William Tatham who, having been consigned to the proverbial doghouse for a romantic indiscretion, is determined to catch his self-righteous wife in an extramarital kiss of her own, while a...
- 1932 The Woman Decides
- 1932 Frail Women
- 1932 The Impassive FootmanThe Impassive FootmanThe Impassive Footman is a 1932 British drama film made at Ealing Studios and was directed by Basil Dean. The film starred Owen Nares, Betty Stockfeld, Allan Jeayes and George Curzon.-Plot:...
- 1931 The Office Girl
- 1931 The Woman Between
- 1930 The Middle WatchThe Middle Watch (1930 film)The Middle Watch is a 1930 British comedy film directed by Norman Walker and starring Owen Nares, Jacqueline Logan, Jack Raine and Dodo Watts...
- 1930 Loose Ends
- 1927 This Marriage Business
- 1926 The Sorrows of SatanThe Sorrows of SatanThe Sorrows of Satan is an 1895 faustian novel by Marie Corelli. It is widely regarded as one of the world's first bestsellers, partly due to an upheaval in the system British libraries used to purchase their books and partly due to its popular appeal...
- 1924 Miriam Rozella
- 1924 Young LochinvarYoung LochinvarYoung Lochinvar is a 1924 British silent historical drama film directed by W.P. Kellino and starring Owen Nares, Gladys Jennings and Dick Webb. It was based on a story by Walter Scott. In Scotland a young man insists on marrying the woman he loves in spite of the fact that she is betrothed to...
- 1923 The Indian Love Lyrics
- 1922 Brown SugarBrown Sugar (1922 film)Brown Sugar is a 1922 British silent romance film directed by Fred Paul and starring Owen Nares, Lillian Hall-Davis and Eric Lewis. It was based on a play by Lady Arthur Lever.-Cast:* Owen Nares - Lord Sloane* Lillian Hall-Davis - Stella Deering...
- 1920 The Last Rose of Summer
- 1920 All the Winners
- 1919 Edge O'Beyond
- 1919 Gamblers All
- 1918 Onward Christian SoldiersOnward Christian Soldiers (film)Onward Christian Soldiers is a 1918 British silent romance film directed by Rex Wilson and starring Isobel Elsom, Owen Nares and Minna Grey.-Cast:* Isobel Elsom - The Girl* Owen Nares - The Soldier* Minna Grey - The Sister* Tom Reynolds - The Man...
- 1918 The Man Who Won
- 1917 One Summer's Day
- 1917 The Labour Leader
- 1917 FlamesFlames (1917 film)Flames is a 1917 British silent drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Margaret Bannerman, Owen Nares and Edward O'Neill. It is based on a novel by Robert Hichens...
- 1916 Just A Girl
- 1916 MilestonesMilestones (film)Milestones is a 1916 British silent drama film directed by Thomas Bentley. As of August 2010, the film is missing from the BFI National Archive, and is listed as one of the British Film Institute's "75 Most Wanted" lost films.-Cast:...
- 1914 Danny Donovan, the Gentleman Cracksman