Norman MacOwan

Norman MacOwan (2 January 1877 – 31 December 1961) was a Scottish author, playwright, and actor, both on stage and in film.

History

MacOwan was born in Hope Park, St Andrews, Scotland, the son of a Presbyterian minister.^[1]

He became well known as an actor, appearing as the name part in a stage adaptation of Booth Tarkington's Monsieur Beaucaire no less than 677 times.^[2]

He became well known as author of plays for the stage.

In 1924 he published his first novel, The Infinite Shoeblack^[a] to glowing reviews.^[3]

He was a member of Dion Boucicault's company, whose members included Mary Jerrold, Hubert Harben and Mary Hinton, that toured Australia in 1926.^[4][5]

Plays

• The Chalk Line with a cousin, Sir Fabian Ware.^[1] Its first production was in London in 1912
• The Demagogue
• The Blue Lagoon (1921), dramatization of De Vere Stacpoole's story
• Lord o' Creation
• Jacob's Ladder
• The Infinite Shoeblack (1930), dramatization of his own book
• Glorious Morning (1938), lambasting totalitarianism and predicting a second world war

As actor

He appeared in films:

• The Dark Light (1951), also co-writer
• Valley of Eagles (1951)
• The Card (1952)
• Castle in the Air (1952)
• Footsteps in the Fog (1955)
• Where There's a Will (1955)
• X the Unknown (1956)
• Action of the Tiger (1957)
• Tread Softly Stranger (1958)
• Heart of a Child (1958)
• The Boy and the Bridge (1959)
• Kidnapped (1960)
• The City of the Dead (1960)

Other interests

MacOwan was a keen and proficient golfer.^[1]

Notes

1. A reference to Carlyle's epigram in Sartor Resartus: "Can all the finance ministers of Europe make one shoeblack happy?"^[1]