Bill Owen

Biography

William John Owen Rowbotham (14 March 1914 – 12 July 1999) was an English actor and songwriter. He is best known for portraying Compo Simmonite in the Yorkshire-based BBC comedy series Last of the Summer Wine for over a quarter of a century. He died on 12 July 1999, his last appearance on-screen being shown in April 2000.

Early life and career

Born at Acton Green, London to a working-class family (his father a staunchly left-wing tram driver), Owen made his first film appearance in 1945, but did not achieve lasting fame until 1973, when he took the co-starring role of William "Compo" Simmonite in the long-running British sitcom Last of the Summer Wine. Compo is a scruffy working-class pensioner, often exploited by the bossy characters played by Michael Bates, Brian Wilde, Michael Aldridge and Frank Thornton for dirty jobs, stunts and escapades, while their indomitably docile friend Norman Clegg, played by Peter Sallis, follows and watches with a smirk. He wore a woollen hat and spent much of his time lusting after dowdy housewife Nora Batty. The series, starting in 1973 and finishing in 2010, became the world's longest-running comedy series. Owen became an icon and featured in episodes for 26 years, until his death.
Owen served in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps during World War II, where he was injured in an explosion during a battle training course. His first screen role was in the 1941 short Tank Patrol, produced by the Ministry of Information.
He was to appear in a number of similar films during the remainder of the War.
During the 1960s, Owen had a successful second career as a songwriter, with compositions including the hit "Marianne", recorded by Cliff Richard. At this time he also collaborated with songwriter Tony Russell on the musical The Matchgirls about the London matchgirls strike of 1888. Owen also recorded a novelty song with Kathy Staff in 1983 called "Nora Batty's Stockings".
He was "a spry, dry little gnome of a Ko-Ko" for Sadler's Wells Opera in their 1962 Christmas season Mikado, "skimpering through the piece and playing conventional comic tricks". He co-starred as Spike Milligan's straight man in the West End hit Son of Oblomov in 1964.
Owen was a regular in the early Carry On films – Sergeant (1958), Nurse (1959), Regardless (1961) and Cabby (1963) and also featured in several Lindsay Anderson films including O Lucky Man! (1973) and In Celebration (1974). On TV had had regular roles playing Fred Cuddell in 13 episodes of Taxi! (1963); Sergeant Sam Short in 13 episodes of Copper's End (1971), George Edwards in 4 episodes of Emergency-Ward 10 and George Chambers (Thelma's father) in four episodes of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?. He also had a cameo appearance in Brideshead Revisited as Lunt, Charles Ryder's scout during his days at the University of Oxford.

Personal life

Owen was a staunch socialist and supporter of the Labour Party. Peter Sallis described Owen as being "slightly to the left of Lenin" and said that his left-wing views contrasted so much with the right-wing opinions of Michael Bates that Last of the Summer Wine was almost not made because of their arguments. Owen was a founding member of the Keep Sunday Special campaign group, and president of Arts for Labour, a campaign group of performers linked to the Labour Party. He was appointed an MBE in 1977.
Owen was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1980 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in Trafalgar Square.

Illness and death

While filming the Last of the Summer Wine French special for the millennium of 2000, Owen fell ill but insisted on continuing despite being in pain; when he got back to England, he was confirmed as having pancreatic and bowel cancer.
Owen continued working until his death from pancreatic cancer in Westminster, London, on 12 July 1999. He is buried in the churchyard of St John's Parish Church, Upperthong, near his beloved town of Holmfirth in Yorkshire, the home of Last of the Summer Wine. His co-star Peter Sallis was buried next to him after his death aged 96 in June 2017, followed by the ashes of his son Tom Owen after his death aged 73 in November 2022.