Tom Owen is a British actor who is best known for playing Tom Simmonite on the longest-running British sitcom

British sitcom

A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...

 Last of the Summer Wine

Last of the Summer Wine

Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...

. He is the son of the late Bill Owen, who played "William 'Compo' Simmonite" (the father of Tom Simmonite) on the show.

Owen first shot to fame in 1968 at the age of 19 making his name on television as a star of the teen series Freewheelers

Freewheelers

Freewheelers is a British television series made by Southern Television between 1968 and 1973. It was the brainchild of television producer Chris McMaster, who was aware of the popularity of adult action series such as The Avengers and Department S amongst teenagers and saw the potential of a...

(1968–70). Other appearances include Z Cars, Upstairs, Downstairs

Upstairs, Downstairs

Upstairs, Downstairs is a British drama television series originally produced by London Weekend Television and revived by the BBC. It ran on ITV in 68 episodes divided into five series from 1971 to 1975, and a sixth series shown on the BBC on three consecutive nights, 26–28 December 2010.Set in a...

, The Onedin Line

The Onedin Line

The Onedin Line is a BBC television drama series which ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham.The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and deals with the rise of a shipping line, the Onedin Line, named after its owner James Onedin...

, and The Piglet Files

The Piglet Files

The Piglet Files is a British sitcom produced by LWT .The show consisted of three series totaling twenty-one episodes that ran between 1990 and 1992....

. Before being cast in Last of the Summer Wine

Last of the Summer Wine

Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...

in 1999 following the death of his father, he had not acted for many years and had instead worked for the Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 and taught drama as well as comedy and light-entertainment.

Television roles

Year	Title	Role
2000 to 2010	Last of the Summer Wine Last of the Summer Wine Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...	Tom Simmonite

He also had a part in the BBC series Billy Bunter

Billy Bunter

William George Bunter , is a fictional character created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards...

, which was a programme televised in the 1950s. The lead role of Bunter was played by Gerald Campion

Gerald Campion

Gerald Theron Campion , was an English actor best-known for his role as Billy Bunter in a 1950s television adaptation of books by Frank Richards....

. In 1969 Owen played one of the schoolboys in the musical version of Goodbye Mr Chips, which starred Peter O'Toole

Peter O'Toole

Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...

 in the leading role and in which Petula Clark

Petula Clark

Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...

played the part of the schoolmaster's wife.

External links