Lloyd Owen - Early Life

Early Life

Richard Lloyd Owen was born on 14 April 1966 at the Charing Cross Hospital in Westminster, London, England. He was brought up in the nation's capital, although both of his parents were Welsh – his father, actor Glyn Owen (1928–2004), was from Caernarfon, Gwynedd, in northwest Wales, while his mother, actress Patricia Mort, was from Morriston in Swansea, Wales. His sister is the actress Cathy Owen.

When he was at Highgate School, because his father was an actor, his teachers thought that he should be able to act, too. However, at first he was not interested. "I was always made to read plays at school but I never wanted to. Then I was made to take part in a school play and I didn't want to do that either but I started to get approval for my acting. I was reasonably academic, good at sport, but somehow with the acting, people said 'that was fantastic'. So I thought 'maybe that's what I'll do then'. It went from there." Growing up in a theatrical family, as a child Owen met many icons who were his father's friends, including John Conteh, Tommy Cooper, Ken Dodd, Ronnie Fraser, Richard Harris, Danny La Rue and Peter O'Toole. On one occasion, he met Albert Finney and told him he wanted to be an actor. Finney advised him: "Keep your head down and work hard."

At 16, Owen went straight from school to the National Youth Theatre, and subsequently received some formal training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. While there he managed to get an acting job and an Equity card, but when he told the principal of RADA he needed a term off, the request was denied and he was expelled from the Academy after just a year. Fortunately, Owen landed a job with Cheek by Jowl and followed the theatre company on tour around the world performing Shakespeare plays. Owen has said that he wished he had gone to university, and that he had been "in too much of a rush".