Monroe Owsley
{{Short description|American actor (1900-1937)}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Monroe Owsley
| image = Monroe Owsley in Ex-Lady poster.jpg
| caption = Owsley in Ex-Lady (1933)
| birth_name = Monroe Righter Owsley
| birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1900|08|11}}
| birth_place = Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1937|06|07|1900|08|11}}
| death_place = Belmont, California, U.S.
| occupation = Actor
| years_active = 1924–1937
}}
Monroe Righter Owsley (August 11, 1900 – June 7, 1937) was an American stage and film actor.
Early life
The son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Owsley,{{cite news|title=Death Calls Actor Owsley|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380728050/?terms=%22Gertrude%2BOwsley%22%2BMonroe|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=June 9, 1937|location=California, Los Angeles|page=Part II-Page 1|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = March 9, 2018}} {{Open access}} he was born in Atlanta, Georgia.{{cite book|last1=Ellenberger|first1=Allan R.|title=Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory|date=2001|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786409839|pages=65–66|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bOJCgAAQBAJ&q=%22Monroe+Owsley%22&pg=PA66|access-date=10 March 2018|language=en}} His father was a manufacturing executive, and his mother was a concert singer. Owsley was educated at Loomis Institute in Windsor, Connecticut; Bristol High School in Bristol, Connecticut; and Philadelphia High School.{{cite news|date=June 9, 1937|title=Monroe Owsley, Hollywood Actor|page=25|work=The New York Times|agency=Associated Press|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/06/09/archives/monroe-owsley-hollywood-actor-suave-villain-of-many-films-with-wide.html|access-date=May 22, 2021}} He started taking acting classes when he was a teenager.
Before Owsley became an actor, he worked as a reporter and a drama critic for the Public Ledger newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.{{cite news|title=Stage Ambitions of Monroe Owsley|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/18151744/monroe_owsley/|work=Hartford Courant|date=February 25, 1924|location=Connecticut, Hartford|page=7|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = March 9, 2018}} {{Open access}}
Career
Owsley gained acting experience with stock theater troupes in Chicago, Cincinnati, and Dayton, and in a road company that presented The Meanest Man in the World playing one-night stands in tents. He made his Broadway debut in Young Blood (1925).{{cite web|title=Monroe Owsley|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/monroe-owsley-55321|website=Internet Broadway Database|publisher=The Broadway League|access-date=10 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310022435/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/monroe-owsley-55321|archive-date=10 March 2018}} His film debut was 1928's The First Kiss, starring Fay Wray. This was followed by the Philip Barry film Holiday in 1930, in the role played by Lew Ayres in the 1938 version. Soon after, he was cast opposite actresses such as Clara Bow, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, Mae West, and Kay Francis.
Death
Filmography
| class="wikitable" | |||
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| rowspan=2 | 1928 | The First Kiss | the Other Suitor | Lost film |
| Carry on, Sergeant! | Leonard Sinclair | ||
| rowspan=2 | 1930 | Holiday | Ned Seton | |
| Free Love | Rush Begelow | ||
| rowspan=4 | 1931 | Ten Cents A Dance | Eddie Miller | |
| Honor Among Lovers | Philip Craig | ||
| Indiscreet | Jim Woodward | ||
| This Modern Age | Tony Gerard | ||
| rowspan=3 | 1932 | Unashamed | Harry Swift | |
| Hat Check Girl | Tod Reese | ||
| Call Her Savage | Lawrence Crosby | ||
| rowspan=5 | 1933 | The Keyhole | Maurice Le Brun | |
| The Woman Who Dared | Jack Goodwin, Newspaper Reporter | ||
| Ex-Lady | Nick Malvyn | ||
| Brief Moment | Harold Sigrift | ||
| Twin Husbands | Colton Drain | ||
| rowspan=5 | 1934 | Little Man, What Now? | Kessler | |
| Wild Gold | Walter Jordan | ||
| Shock | Bob Hayworth | ||
| She Was a Lady | Jerry Couzins | ||
| Behold My Wife! | Bob Prentice | ||
| rowspan=3 | 1935 | Rumba | Hobart Fletcher | |
| Goin' to Town | Fletcher Colton | ||
| Remember Last Night? | Billy Arliss | ||
| rowspan=4 | 1936 | Private Number | Coakley | |
| Yellowstone | Marty Ryan / Jenkins | ||
| Mr. Cinderella | Aloysius P. Merriweather | ||
| Hideaway Girl | Count de Montaigne | ||
| 1937 | The Hit Parade | Teddy Leeds |
References
{{Portal|Biography|Georgia (U.S. state)|Film|Theater}}
{{reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Monroe Owsley}}
- {{IMDb name|0654530}}
- {{IBDB name}}
- {{Find a Grave|19211}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Owsley, Monroe}}
Category:American male stage actors
Category:American male film actors
Category:American vaudeville performers
Category:Male actors from Atlanta
Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:20th-century American singers
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