Oscar Owide

Oscar Manuel Owide (23 December 1931 – 3 December 2017) was a British businessman, who ran nightclubs, restaurants and sex industry businesses over a long career. He was the proprietor of Soho's Windmill Theatre, which he ran with his son Daniel Owide as the Windmill International, a "gentleman's club", offering adult cabaret, table and lap dancing. The Evening Standard in 2004 said Owide was once "Britain's biggest pimp".

Early life Oscar Owide was born in Whitechapel, London, in December 1931, the son of Isidore and Mary Owide. He grew up in Finsbury Park, where his father was a "prosperous hairdresser".

Career Owide began his career as a hairdresser in the family business. In the 1970s, his nightclub Chaplin's at 9 Swallow Street "became known as a pick-up place for prostitutes".

In 2002, he went into partnership with restaurateur Marco Pierre White and club owner Piers Adam, and combined Swallow Street's Stork Club and Crazy Horse, both of which Owide owned, into a new club called the Stork Rooms, but it closed six months later.

Personal life Owide married Jeanette, the daughter of an East End market trader.

Owide lived in St John's Wood, London.