Owen Ramsay Nares (11 August 1888 – 30 July 1943) was an English stage and film actor. Besides his acting career, he was the author of Myself, and Some Others (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 productions, 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.
Career
In 1914, Nares appeared in Dandy Donovan, the first of the 25 silent films in which he appeared. The early 1920s was his golden period and he was the male lead opposite such actresses as Gladys Cooper, Fay Compton, Madge Titheradge and Daisy Burrell. His stage career also continued to flourish.
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 youthful, 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’s The Petrified Forrest, and afterwards he went on tour with the play to Northern England and Wales.
Family
Nares married actress Marie Pollini in 1910; the couple had two sons, David and Geoffrey.[citation needed]
Death
During tour through Wales, touring Army training camps,[2] he visited Brecon, and the Shoulder of Mutton (now the Sarah Siddons public house), the birthplace of actress Sarah Siddons. While touring the room where Siddons was born, Nares had a heart attack[citation needed] and died shortly afterwards, aged 54, on 30 July 1943.
Filmography
Danny Donovan, the Gentleman Cracksman (1914) - Frank Ashworth
