Tom Owen, an actor from Last of the Summer Wine, passed away at the age of 73, according to his family. Bill Owen, the actor’s real-life father, portrayed Compo, who played by Owen in the role of Tom Simmonite, Compo’s long-lost son.
Throughout the decade of the 2000s, the wandering character appeared in the long-running BBC sitcom for ten years.
In addition to The Bill, The Onedin Line, and Upstairs Downstairs, Tom Owen also acted in the 2018 movie The Bromley Boys.
According to a statement from his family,
“he passed away quietly and is survived by his two children, James and William, and ex-wife, Mary.”
Before moving on to Westminster Theatre, Owen started his career as an assistant stage manager at Leatherhead Theatre in Surrey. He returned to Sidmouth, Devon, to work and direct in the theater after a brief time in television.
Only a few days after his father’s 1999 cancer death, he was cast as Compo’s son.
He remembered the unexpected phone call from the show’s producer, Alan Bell, in 2000, saying that it came “two or three days after Dad had passed.”
Naturally, planning the burial was in my thoughts. It never even crossed my mind that I may be asked to play Compo’s long-lost son.
Alan proposed the idea, and I gave it two seconds of consideration before agreeing.
“At first, when I got on set, everything was quite strange,” he continued.
It was emotional, but I made the decision early on that the only way I could deal with it was by acting professionally.
In the same interview, Owen continued to add that he had been “quite aware” of how wary the other cast members may have been of him. When Dad passed away, he said, “They had all been through a tremendous shock.” “They had also been familiar with him for all those years.
“Dad loved the show, and I believe he would be extremely happy to learn that it will go on, in a sense carrying on in his memory. He would likely be overjoyed that I have taken his place, in my opinion.
The affectionate comedy Last of the Summer Wine, by Roy Clarke, was about people in the autumn of their years and was set in the Yorkshire village of Holmfirth.
It had aired for over 30 series and numerous Christmas specials, making it the longest-running sitcom in the history of television.
The 1973 television premiere of the series, which chronicled the exploits of Compo, Nora Batty, and friends, featured several well-known actors, including Eric Sykes and Dame Thora Hird.
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