Tom Owen

Tom Owen was a British actor, born in Brighton, who trained at the Leatherhead Theatre in 1966 as a student assistant stage manager and went on to work extensively in repertory as an actor and director. He appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a Broadway production of London Assurance, and his Krapp in Krapp's Last Tape drew comparisons with performances by Michael Gambon, John Hurt and Harold Pinter. On television he made his debut in 1968 in Freewheelers and later turned up in Z-Cars, The Bill, Minder and Upstairs Downstairs. He was best known as Tom Simmonite in Last of the Summer Wine, joining as a regular in 2000 and appearing in 93 episodes until the show ended in 2010. His films included Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971) and The Bromley Boys (2018). He died in 2022.