Cliff Owen

Cliff Owen (born April 22, 1919 in London , † November 1, 1993 in Oxfordshire , England ) was a British director in film and television. He has directed over 30 film productions, including Gentlemenkillers , Willkommen, Mister B. , Harold and the Stripper , Please No Sex, We're British or Vagabond in a thousand needs .

Life

Cliff Owen, born in London in 1919, began his career after the Second World War, first as an assistant director in feature film productions. Between 1947 and 1953 he worked under directors such as John Boulting , Edmond T. Gréville , Alfred Hitchcock , Vincent Sherman , Ken Annakin , J. Lee Thompson and Henry Cass , before he finally switched to British television as an independent director in 1955 and did episodes there for well-known series such as London Playhouse , ITV Television Playhouse , ITV Play of the Week , On Trial or Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone .

Since the early 1960s, he has also directed films. He made his screen debut there in 1961 with the crime film In the Fangs of the FBI with William Sylvester and Mai Zetterling in the leading roles. In the following years he made the two films Das Netz (1962) with Stanley Baker and the crime comedy Gentlemenkillers (1963) in the cast of Peter Sellers , Lionel Jeffries and Bernard Cribbins . In 1966, together with Ronald Neame , he directed the feature film Willkommen, Mister B. with James Garner and Melina Mercouri , whose title song Strangers in the Night, composed by Bert Kaempfert, became a global hit and in 1967 won the Golden Globe Award in the category Best Original Song in a Motion Picture received. In the next ten years Owen turned mostly comedies, among other things like A Touch of Riviera and The Magnificent Two each with Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise , Harold and the stripper with Wilfrid Brambell , Please no sex, we are British with Ronnie Corbett or the adventure comedy Vagabond in a Thousand Distresses, starring Nicky Henson , Trevor Howard and, Terry-Thomas . With this film, Owen ended his film career in 1976.

Cliff Owen died in Oxfordshire in November 1993 at the age of 74.

Cliff Owen. In: Michael Singer: Film directors: a complete guide. , Lone Eagle Pub., 1993, p. 230.

↑ Cliff Owen. In: Peter Noble: British Film and Television Year Book, Volumes 29-30. , Cinema TV Today., 1974, p. 300

personal data
SURNAME	Owen, Cliff
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British director in film and television
DATE OF BIRTH	April 22, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH	London , England
DATE OF DEATH	November 1, 1993
Place of death	Oxfordshire , England