Tony Owen (May 2, 1907 – May 12, 1984) was an American agent and producer, who was married to Donna Reed.[1]
Biography
Owen was born in Chicago and worked in that city as a journalist. In the late 1930s he produced game programs for the Detroit Lions, and in 1940 became a vice president of the football club.[2]
He served in the army during the war, but was invalided out. He moved to Los Angeles in 1942 and got work as an agent.[1]
He married Donna Reed in 1945 and they would go on to have four children (two were adopted).[3]
Todon Productions
Owen and Reed formed their own company, Todon Productions. Owen moved into film production with Duel in the Jungle (1953). It established a formula of using two American leads, an American director, and 80% British crew, to qualify for the subsidies of being a British film and because it was cheaper to make. "As an independent I can give everybody a percentage", said Owen. "This includes a star who will take a cut in lieu of his regular salary of say, $300,000." Owen added that "I believe the American public loves seeing foreign backgrounds. They're a definite plus value."[4]
Duel in the Jungle made $3 million. This launched Todon on a series of films.[4]
He followed it with two films directed by Ken Hughes and distributed by Allied Artists: Little Red Monkey (1955), with Richard Conte, and Timeslip (1955) with Gene Nelson and Faith Domergue.
Then came Portrait of Alison (1956) with Terry Moore directed by Guy Green; Dial 999 (1956), with Gene Nelson directed by Montgomery Tully; and The Intimate Stranger (1956) with Richard Basehart and Mary Murphy.
In 1956, a report said Todon was "perhaps the biggest Anglo-American company next to Warwick."[4] As he made Beyond Mombasa Owen said he'd produced six films and "all of them stink but they made money... But not the final one I made with my wife. In fact, this is the first one I've done that isn't lousy – and I'm worried."[4]
"I'm no genius", he said later. "I just wanted to make commercial films."[1]
In May 1956, Owen said Todon would make eight films with an overall budget of $9,250,000.[5]
That month it was announced Maxwell Setton would run the company in London, to make six films, starting with The Nylon Web which became Town on Trial.[6] Others included The Long Haul (1957) with Victor Mature and Diana Dors, directed by Hughes; I Was Monty's Double (1958) with John Mills directed by John Guillermin;[7]
Owen said "the last one [film] died the death of a dog at the box office. So I came back and started working in television."[1]
Owen developed a series for his wife where she would play the secretary of the Secretary of State. A number of scripts were written but they did not feel confident, and eventually developed a show where Reed played the wife of a pediatrician. This became the hugely successful The Donna Reed Show.[1]
Filmography
- The Traveling Saleswoman (1950)
- Duel in the Jungle (1954)
- The Case of the Red Monkey (1955) a.k.a. Little Red Monkey
- Timeslip (1955) a.k.a. The Atomic Man[8]
- Postmark for Danger (1955) a.k.a. Portrait of Alison[9]
- Dial 999 (1955) a.k.a. The Way Out
- Finger of Guilt (1956) a.k.a. The Intimate Stranger
- Beyond Mombasa (1956)
- Town on Trial (1957)
- I Was Monty's Double (1958)
- The Long Haul (1957)
- The Donna Reed Show (1958–66)
Unmade films
- Twist of Night (1956) from a book by Roger McDermott[5]
- The Man Inside (1956) from a novel bu Victor Canning[5]
- The Last Pursuit (1956)[5]
- It's Not Cricket (1956) by Lawrence Brollings[5]
- Wherever You Are (1956) by Stirling Silliphant[5] to star Reed and Rosanno Brazzi[10]
- The Unhappy Warrior (1957) with Van Johnson[4]
- The Eddie Calvert Story (1956)[4]
- Wherever You Are (1957) – a drama of "transplanted eyes"[4]
- biopic of Joseph Conrad.[11]
- life story of pianist Roger Williams[12]