Lloyd Owen

Lloyd Owen

Owen in December 2006
Born Richard Lloyd Owen
(1966-04-14) 14 April 1966
Charing Cross, London, England
Years active 1990s–present
Spouse(s) Juliette Mole
Website Official website

Lloyd Owen (born 14 April 1966) is an English actor. Trained at the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, he is probably best known for his portrayal of Indiana Jones's father Professor Dr. Henry Jones, Sr. in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles between 1992 and 1993 and for playing Paul Bowman-MacDonald in the BBC Scotland series Monarch of the Glen from 2002 to 2005. He played the role of solicitor William Heelis in the film Miss Potter (2006). His most recent TV role was playing the US President in "You, Me and the Apocalypse" on Sky.

However, his first love has always been the theatre. His first break on stage was the role of Nick in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1996. Other highlights of his stage career include playing Dan in Closer in 1998, George in The York Realist in 2002, and Peter in Paul in 2005.

Early life

Richard Lloyd Owen was born on 14 April 1966 at the Charing Cross Hospital[1] in Westminster, London, England. He was brought up in London, although both of his parents were Welsh – his father, actor Glyn Owen (1928–2004), was from Caernarfon, Gwynedd, in north-west Wales, while his mother, actress Patricia Mort, was from Morriston in Swansea, Wales.[2] His sister is the actress Cathy Owen.

Owen said he grew up around "a mob of entertaining, troublesome, fascinating" actors involved in challenging the Lord Chamberlain during some of the most exciting days of a very controversial Royal Court Theatre.[3] When he was at Highgate School,[4] because his father was an actor, his teachers thought that he should be able to act, too. However, at first he was not interested. "I was always made to read plays at school but I never wanted to. Then I was made to take part in a school play and I didn't want to do that either but I started to get approval for my acting. I was reasonably academic, good at sport, but somehow with the acting, people said 'that was fantastic'.[5] So I thought,'Ok, I'll carry on doing this for a bit and the next thing you know that's how I make my living these days".

At 16, Owen went straight from school to the National Youth Theatre, and subsequently received some formal training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. While there he managed to get an acting job and an Equity card, but when he told the principal of RADA he needed a term off, the request was denied and he was expelled from the Academy after just a year. Fortunately, Owen landed a job with Cheek by Jowl and followed the theatre company on tour around the world performing Shakespeare plays.[5] Owen has said that he wished he had gone to university, and that he had been "in too much of a rush".[6]

Career

Owen's first big break was clinching the role of Professor Dr. Henry Jones, Sr., father of Indiana Jones, in eight episodes of the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1992 and 1993. Subsequently, he appeared in 25 episodes of the popular BBC Scotland series Monarch of the Glen as Paul Bowman-MacDonald between 2002 and 2005.[7] He also played Professor Jon Ford in the BBC Northern Ireland series The Innocence Project (2006–2007); however, as a result of poor reviews and falling viewership, the programme was pulled from the schedules in the middle of the first series and no further episodes were filmed.[8]

Owen's film career has included appearances in short films, and supporting roles in The Republic of Love (2003) (as Peter),[9] which was based on a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carol Shields, and in Miss Potter (2006) (as a solicitor named William Heelis who married children's author Beatrix Potter).[10] However, Owen's first love has always been the theatre. Early in his professional career he was involved in the Cheek by Jowl productions of Philoctetes and the Shakespeare plays Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night. Owen's break on stage was playing Nick in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), directed by Howard Davies, at the Almeida Theatre in London in 1996. Owen studied the play during his A-levels, and it is his favourite play. Other highlights of his stage career include playing Dan in Closer by Patrick Marber in 1998 and George in The York Realist by Peter Gill in 2002.[1] Critics praised his performance in the latter play as "astonishing in its power, throttled fury and sadness"[11] and "superb, richly voiced",[12] and called him "a fast-rising star".[13]

Owen has said, "My screen work often funds my theatre career – that's the way I think of it. Theatre is where my heart and soul is, where I feel absolutely vocational. Creatively, theatre is the most democratic forum for an actor because you have near total control over your performance. It's also where the playwright can never be censored and, as such, that makes it a truly democratic forum for debate. And the communal experience, the chemistry that you get between actors and audience can be extraordinary. It can move you in a way that film can't. That's the power of theatre at its best." The role that he would most like to play is Macbeth; other roles on his wish-list include Iago in Othello, Brick in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Lenny in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, and Hamlet "as long as no one gives it to me because it's completely daunting".[1]

Owen is a baritone, and speaks fluent French.[14]

Personal life

Owen is married to actress and artist Juliette Mole,[2] and they have two children, Maxim and Mimi.[15] They currently reside in Battersea, Wandsworth, in south-west London.[2]

To relax, Owen plays sports such as football and tennis. He also runs frequently, finding it quite meditative,[6] and enjoys watching rugby union matches.[2]

Selected work

Medium Year(s) of
appearance		 Production Role
Theatre The Passport – Young Vic, London
The Parquet Floor – Young Vic, London
Philoctetes – (Cheek by Jowl production) (Chorus)
The Tempest – (Cheek by Jowl production) Ferdinand
Macbeth – (Cheek by Jowl production) Donalbain
1986 Twelfth Night – (Cheek by Jowl production) Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon Sebastian
1989 Hamlet – Haymarket Theatre, Leicester Laertes
Television 1992–1993
(eight episodes)		 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992–1996) Professor Dr. Henry Jones, Sr.
1993 All in the Game Darren Matthews
1994 The Cinder Path Charlie MacFell
Theatre Henry VI, Part 3 – (Royal Shakespeare Company production) The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon Edward IV
1995 Our Boys – Donmar Warehouse, London Joe
Grab the Dog – The Studio, Royal National Theatre, London
1996 East Lynne – Greenwich Theatre, London Captain Francis Levison
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?[16] – Almeida Theatre, London and Aldwych Theatre, London Nick
Television Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father Professor Dr. Henry Jones, Sr.
1998 Get Real Adam
Theatre Closer[17] Lyric Theatre, London Dan
1999 Morphic Resonance – Donmar Warehouse, London Wallace
Film Between Dreams (short film) Stephen Tredre
Television The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Spring Break Adventure (video) Professor Dr. Henry Jones, Sr.
2000
(series 2)		 Hearts and Bones James
Theatre 2000 The Way of the World[18] – Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester Mirabell
Julius Caesar[19] – Young Vic, London Brutus
2001 Edward II[20] – Crucible Theatre, Sheffield Mortimer the Younger
Television Des del Balcó Patrick
2002
(three episodes)		 Coupling (2000–2004) James
2002–2005
(25 episodes)		 Monarch of the Glen (2000–2005) Paul Bowman-MacDonald
2002 Dead Gorgeous Vic
Film The Seasons Alter Oberon
Theatre The York Realist[13][21] – Royal Court Theatre, London George
2003 Iphigenia[22] – Crucible Theatre, Sheffield Agamemnon
Film The Republic of Love Peter
2004 Get the Picture (short film) Jake Wells
Theatre Clouds[23] – Cambridge Arts Theatre, Cambridge, and Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford Owen Shorter
2005 Paul[24] – Cottesloe Theatre, Royal National Theatre, London Peter
Film 2006 Miss Potter William Heelis
Television 2006–2007 The Innocence Project Professor Jon Ford
2007 Viva Laughlin Ripley Holden
2009 Taking The Flak (ep. "Bigfooting"), Jack
Film 2011 Apollo 18 (film) Nathan Walker
Theatre 2012 The Bodyguard Frank Farmer
Television 2012 Fairly Legal Robin Archer
2014 The Originals Ansel
2015 Midsomer Murders episode 17.4 "A Vintage Murder" Louis Paynton
Television 2016 Death in Paradise episode 5.1 Dr Sam Blake
Theatre 2016 The End of Longing[25] Joseph

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Terri Paddock (3 February 2003), 20 questions with... Lloyd Owen, WhatsOnStage.com, archived from the original on 30 November 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Rob Driscoll (4 November 2006), "Lloyd Owen: Everything but my dad", Western Mail (reproduced on icWales.co.uk).
  3. ↑ Marshall, Charlotte (2012-12-07). "The Big Interview: Lloyd Owen". Official London Theatre. Society of London Theatre. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  4. ↑ As an alumnus of Highgate School, Owen is a member of the Old Cholmeleian Society and Old Cholmeleian Sports Club, both named after the school's founder Sir Roger Cholmeley: Famous Old Cholms: Lloyd Owen, Old Cholmeleian Sports Club, 21 December 2005, archived from the original on 9 October 2007, retrieved 27 June 2007.
  5. 1 2 Alison Maloney (October 2006), "From laird to lawyer", Sunday Post Magazine Online, archived from the original on 28 September 2007."
  6. 1 2 Monarch of the Glen: Live chat: Lloyd Owen, bbc.co.uk, 15 November 2003, archived from the original on 27 August 2006, retrieved 25 January 2010.
  7. ↑ See Return of the Monarch: Lloyd Owen talks about the final series of Monarch of the Glen, GMTV, 15 September 2005, archived from the original on 28 September 2007, retrieved 25 January 2010. According to Mrs. Elsie Orme, a former assistant stage manager interviewed for the Theatre Archive Project who is a friend of Owen and once his landlady, Owen did not particularly like acting in Monarch of the Glen but did it because it brought in considerable income, which enabled him to take on projects that he really wanted to do for probably very little money: Anneka Shah, interviewer (18 January 2005), Interview with Elsie Orme – page 3, Theatre Archive Project, British Library, retrieved 25 January 2010.
  8. ↑ A BBC spokeswoman said the remaining episodes will "definitely be shown", but that it was not yet known when: Ben Dowell (3 December 2006), "Innocence lost on BBC1 viewers: Prime-time drama of young lawyers righting wrongs has been pulled from the schedules", The Guardian, archived from the original on 25 January 2010.
  9. ↑ "The Republic of Love (2003)", The New York Times, retrieved 25 January 2010.
  10. ↑ About Miss Potter: The actors on their characters: Interview: Matyelok Gibbs and Lloyd Owen (Miss Wiggin & William Heelis), Visual Hollywood, 2006, archived from the original on 19 June 2008, retrieved 25 January 2010.
  11. ↑ Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard (9 January 2002): see Lloyd Owen at Actors in Good Company. Retrieved on 27 June 2007.
  12. ↑ Stephen Brown in The Times Literary Supplement (25 January 2002): Lloyd Owen at Actors in Good Company. Retrieved on 27 June 2007.
  13. 1 2 Billington, Michael (2002-01-09). "The York Realist: Royal Court, London [theatre review]". The Guardian.
  14. ↑ Lloyd Owen at the website of Hamilton Hodell, his agent. Retrieved on 27 June 2007.
  15. ↑ In October 2006, the Sunday Post Magazine Online reported that Maxim was aged 15 and Mimi eight: see Maloney, Alison (October 2006). "From laird to lawyer". Sunday Post Magazine Online. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.
  16. ↑ Spencer, Charles (1996-09-28). "Howls of pain from the marital bearpit [review of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?]". The Daily Telegraph.
  17. ↑ "Archive Page for Closer". Albermarle of London. Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  18. ↑ Hopkin, James (2000-04-26). "Just enough tomfoolery: The Way of the World: The Royal Exchange, Manchester [review]". The Guardian.
  19. ↑ Billington, Michael (2000-09-22). "Poor start at the Young Vic [review of Julius Caesar]". The Guardian.
  20. ↑ Billington, Michael (2001-03-15). "Majestic decline of Joseph Fiennes: Edward II: Crucible Theatre, Sheffield [review]". The Guardian. Spencer, Charles (2001-03-15). "Fiennes leaves Shakespeare in Hollywood [review of Edward II]". The Daily Telegraph.
  21. ↑ Macaulay, Alastair (2002-01-10). "Flawless acting on a Yorkshire farm [review of The York Realist]". Financial Times. Spencer, Charles (2002-01-10). "Before the sixties began to swing [review of The York Realist]". The Daily Telegraph. "Say it with Vaseline: The York Realist: Royal Court, London SW1 [review]". The Guardian. 2002-01-13. Grayling, A.C. (2002-01-13). "The York Realist by Peter Gill: Royal Court Theatre 4 January – 2 February 2002". Online Review London. Retrieved 2007-06-27. Dalglish, Darren (2002-01-15). "The York Realist". The London Theatre Guide Online. Retrieved 2007-06-27. "Reviews of Past Productions: The Royal Court presents The English Touring Theatre production of The York Realist written and directed by Peter Gill". Royal Court Theatre. 2002. Retrieved 2007-06-27.
  22. ↑ Billington, Michael (2003-02-12). "Iphigenia: Crucible, Sheffield [review]". The Guardian. Spencer, Charles (2003-02-13). "How to rip the heart out of Euripides [review of Iphigenia]". The Daily Telegraph. Shuttleworth, Ian (2003-02-19). "Unspeakable actions of wartime [review of Iphigenia]". Financial Times.
  23. ↑ Spencer, Charles (2004-11-18). "Lost in the tropical haze [review of Clouds]". The Daily Telegraph. Billington, Michael (2004-11-24). "Clouds: Yvonne Arnaud, Guildford (theatre review)". The Guardian. van Emst, Christine (2004-11-24). "Cirrus comedy". This is Local London.
  24. ↑ Billington, Michael (2005-11-10). "Paul: National, London". The Guardian. Nightingale, Benedict (2005-11-10). "Theatre: Paul". The Times. Spencer, Charles (2005-11-10). "A powerful and thrilling act of heresy [review of Paul]". The Daily Telegraph. Hemming, Sarah (2005-11-11). "The apostle, the songstress and the superficial Scrooge [review of Paul]". Financial Times. Sierz, Aleks (2005-11-11). "Paul". The Stage. Hemming, Sarah (2005-11-15). "Paul". Financial Times.
  25. ↑ "Casting announced for Matthew Perry's The End of Longing". whatsonstage.com. Whats On Stage. 8 January 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2016.

References

Further reading


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