Patricia Owens

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Patricia Owens 17 January 1925 Golden British Columbia 31 August 2000 Lancaster California was a Canadianborn American actress working in Hollywood She appeared in about 40 films and 10 TV episodes in a career lasting from 1943 to 1968 Canadianborn actress Patricia Owens moved to England with her parents in 1933 and ten years later at age 18 she made her motionpicture debut in Val Guests musical comedy Miss London Ltd The following year she had a small role in Harold Frenchs social satire English Without Tears Her career continued in this manner for the next few years Owens getting everlarger roles in generally better movies though not alwaysthe same year in which she worked in the LaunderGilliat production of The Happiest Days of Your Life one of the funniest movies ever made in England she also appeared in the abysmal Old Mother Riley Headmistress Her career took a giant step upward when she was seen by a 20th Century Fox executive while performing in a theatrical production of Sabrina Fair and was offered a screen test The result was a contract with the studio and a move to Hollywood Her first American film was Island in the Sun 1957 for Fox and then Owens was loaned out to Warner Bros to play opposite Marlon Brando in the drama Sayonara 1957 one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the year Owens spent the rest of 1957 working mostly on loanout but it was a 1958 Fox production that secured her place in motion picture historyas Helene Delambre the wife of scientist Andre Delambre in The Fly 1958 costarring with David Hedison and Vincent Price Owens carried much of the films story and drama which were told in flashback from her characters pointofview The Fly was one of the most successful science fiction movies of the decade the image of Owens unmasking her stricken husband and screaming at what she seesand the shot of her horrified visage seen in a flys eye viewbecame one of the defining moments in the genre Unfortunately for Owens she never got another movie half as good as The Fly from Fox or anyone else and in 1961 was reduced to working in the threadbare backlot POWjungle chase drama Seven Women from Hell Owens made occasional television appearances on series such as Perry Mason and Burkes Law but these were relatively infrequent Owens also starred in one of the 17 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents directed by Hitchcock himself The Crystal Trench 1959 By 1965 she was working in Black Spurs one of producer AC Lyles BWesterns renowned for their use of aging genre stars and Owens retired from movies after portraying Richard Egans love interest in the lowbudget espionage thriller The Destructors 1968 Her last professional appearance was in a 1968 episode of Lassie She was the third wife of screenwriter and producer Sy Bartlett Description above from the Wikipedia article Patricia Owens actress licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia