Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough-guy" roles. His films include
The TrapThe Trap is an adventure/romance film released in 1966 starring Oliver Reed, written by David D. Osborn and directed by Sidney Hayers.The soundtrack was composed by Ron Goodwin and the main theme is familiar as the title music used by the BBC for London Marathon coverage.-Cast:*Rita Tushingham as...
,
Oliver!Oliver! is a 1968 musical film directed by Carol Reed. The film is based on the stage musical Oliver!, with book, music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart. The screenplay was written by Vernon Harris....
,
Women in LoveWomen in Love is a novel by British author D. H. Lawrence published in 1920. It is a sequel to his earlier novel The Rainbow , and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, pursues a destructive relationship with Gerald Crich, an...
,
Hannibal BrooksHannibal Brooks is a 1969 film about a man, accompanied by an Asian elephant, trying to get to Switzerland from Germany in World War II.-Plot:A POW in World War II is put to work in a Munich zoo, looking after an Asian elephant....
,
The Triple EchoThe Triple Echo is a 1972 film starring Glenda Jackson, Brian Deacon and Oliver Reed, and based on a novel by H. E. Bates. Brian Deacon played the deserter from the British Army. It is also known as Soldier in Skirts. The film was directed by Michael Apted.- External links :*...
,
The DevilsThe Devils is a name for:* The Devils , the 1960 play by John Whiting based on the book The Devils of Loudon by Aldous Huxley* The Devils , the 1971 Ken Russell film...
,
The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers is a 1973 film based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. Directed by Richard Lester and written by George MacDonald Fraser . It was originally proposed in the 1960s, as a vehicle for The Beatles, whom Lester had directed in two other films...
,
TommyTommy is a 1975 musical film, based on The Who's 1969 rock opera album musical Tommy. It was directed by Ken Russell and featured a star-studded cast, including the band members themselves . Ann-Margret received a Golden Globe Award for her performance, and was also nominated for the Academy Award...
,
Castaway,
Lion of the DesertLion of the Desert is a 1981 Libyan historical action film starring Anthony Quinn as Libyan tribal leader Omar Mukhtar fighting the Italian army in the years leading up to World War II. It was directed by Moustapha Akkad and funded by Muammar al-Gaddafi's government...
and
GladiatorGladiator is a 2000 British and American epic film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, and Richard Harris. Crowe portrays General Maximus Decimus Meridius, favorite of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius who is...
.
Early life
Reed was born in
Wimbledon, LondonWimbledon is a suburb in south west London, part of the London Borough of Merton and located from Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
, to sports journalist Peter Reed and his wife Marcia (
néeNEE, Nee, Née may refer to:* Née or Nee, French for "born", indicates a person's birth surname* Nee , a band in Kannada* NEE, a political party in Flanders, Belgium* "Ne~e?", a 2003 single by Aya Matsuura- People with the family name :...
Andrews). He was the
nephewNephew is a term referring to the son of one's sibling or spouse's sibling, and niece to the daughter of one's sibling or spouse's sibling. Sons and daughters of siblings-in-law are also informally referred to as nephews and nieces respectively, even though there is no blood relation...
of
film directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
Sir
Carol ReedSir Carol Reed was an English film director, most famous for directing The Third Man, The Agony and the Ecstasy and Oliver!...
, and grandson of the
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
-
managerA theatre director or stage director is a practitioner in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production by unifying various endeavours and aspects of production...
Sir
Herbert Beerbohm TreeSir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor-manager.-Life and career:Born in Kensington, London as Herbert Draper Beerbohm, Tree was the second son of Julius Ewald Edward Beerbohm , of Dutch, Lithuanian, and German origin, who had come to England in about 1830 and set up as a prosperous corn...
by his alleged mistress May Pinney Reed. He attended
Ewell Castle SchoolEwell Castle School is a British independent day school for boys aged 3 to 18 and Girls aged 3 - 11.Founded in 1926 by Mr H Budgell originally as a boarding school, it is located in Ewell, Surrey...
in Surrey. He is alleged to be a descendant (through an illegitimate step) of Tsar
Peter the GreatPeter I the Great or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V....
of
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
http://www.oliverreed.net/Books/index.html
Career
After time in the British Army, serving in the
Royal Army Medical CorpsThe Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
, Reed commenced his thespian career as an extra in films in the late 1950s. He had no acting training or theatrical experience.
Oliver Reed appeared uncredited in an early
Norman WisdomSir Norman Wisdom OBE is a mostly retired English comedian, singer, songwriter, actor and musician.-Early years:Norman Wisdom was born in the Marylebone district of London. His parents were Frederick, a chauffeur, and Maud Wisdom , a dressmaker who often worked for West End theatres. The couple...
classic,
The Square Peg in 1958, and again with Norman Wisdom in another of his classic comedy films,
The Bulldog BreedThe Bulldog Breed is a 1960 British comedy film starring Norman Wisdom and directed by Robert Asher.- Plot Summary:After Norman Puckle is denied by the love of his life, he has many attempts at suicide but is saved by someone who convinces him to join the British Navy...
in (1960), where Reed played the leader of a gang of teddy boys roughing up Norman in a cinema. Reed got his first notable roles in
Hammer Films'Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film Noir, and comedies and in later...
Sword of Sherwood ForestSword of Sherwood Forest is a 1960 British adventure film directed by Terence Fisher for Hammer Film Productions. Richard Greene reprises the role of Robin Hood, which he played in The Adventures of Robin Hood on TV from 1955 to 1960....
(1960),
The Two Faces of Dr. JekyllThe Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll is a 1960 horror film by Hammer Film Productions. It was directed by Terence Fisher, and stars Paul Massie as Dr. Jekyll, and co-stars Dawn Addams, Christopher Lee and David Kossoff. It was written by Wolf Mankowitz, based on the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr...
(1960),
Captain CleggCaptain Clegg can refer to:*Captain Clegg & The Night Creatures, a fictional psychobilly band featured in Rob Zombie's Halloween II .* Captain Clegg a character in the Doctor Syn stories.* Captain Clegg a 1962 film by Hammer Films....
(1962),
Pirates of Blood RiverPirates of Blood River is a 1962 Hammer Film Productions pirate film starring Christopher Lee and Kerwin Matthews.While in a penal colony, Huguenot Jonathan Standish is captured by pirates led by Capt...
(1962), and
The Curse of the WerewolfThe Curse of the Werewolf is a 1961 British film based on the novel The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore. The film was made by the British film studio Hammer Film Productions and was shot at Bray Studios.-Plot:...
(1961). Reed also starred in
ParanoiacParanoiac is a 1963 suspense film from Hammer Films directed by Freddie Francis and starring Janette Scott, Oliver Reed, Sheila Burrell, and Alexander Davion....
, and
These Are the DamnedThe Damned is a British science fiction film drama starring Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field and Oliver Reed. It was a Hammer Film production directed by Joseph Losey and based on H.L...
. In 1964 he starred in the first of six films directed by
Michael WinnerMichael Robert Winner is an English film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...
,
The SystemThe System can refer to:* Any system* Any system of government, law, or bureaucracy. The phrase in this usage often carries negative connotations.* Systema, a Russian martial art-In media:* The System , an American synth pop duo founded in 1982...
, (known as
The Girl-Getters in the U.S.). More Hammer Films productions followed, such as
The Brigand Of Kandahar (1965). He first collaborated with director
Ken RussellHenry Kenneth Alfred Russell, known as Ken Russell , is an English film director. He is known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his controversial style. He has been criticized as being overly obsessed with sexuality and the church. His subject matter is often about famous...
in a TV biopic of
Claude DebussyAchille-Claude Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
in 1965, and later played
Dante Gabriel RossettiDante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 and was later to be the main inspiration for second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement...
in Russell's subsequent TV biopic
Dante's InfernoDante's Inferno: The Private Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Poet and Painter is a feature-length television film directed by Ken Russell about the relationship between Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal. It was one of a series of films made by Russell for the BBC during the 1960s about...
(1967).
In 1966 Reed played a mountain fur trapper, with co-star
Rita TushinghamRita Tushingham is a noted British actress.-Career:She started her career as a stage actress at the Liverpool Playhouse. Her screen debut was in A Taste of Honey , the groundbreaking movie of the British realist tradition...
, in an action-adventure film
The TrapThe Trap is an adventure/romance film released in 1966 starring Oliver Reed, written by David D. Osborn and directed by Sidney Hayers.The soundtrack was composed by Ron Goodwin and the main theme is familiar as the title music used by the BBC for London Marathon coverage.-Cast:*Rita Tushingham as...
with a soundtrack by British film composer
Ron Goodwin
Ronald Alfred Goodwin was a British composer and conductor known for his film scores.-Life:...
. Reed's presence could be seen in
The Shuttered Room (1969), after which came another performance in the film
Women in LoveWomen in Love is a novel by British author D. H. Lawrence published in 1920. It is a sequel to his earlier novel The Rainbow , and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, pursues a destructive relationship with Gerald Crich, an...
(1969), in which he wrestled nude with
Alan BatesSir Alan Arthur Bates CBE was a British actor of stage, screen and television.-Early life:Bates was born in Allestree, Derby, England on 17 February 1934, the eldest of three sons of Florence Mary , a homemaker and a pianist, and Harold Arthur Bates, an insurance broker and a cellist...
in front of a log fire. The controversial 1971 film
The DevilsThe Devils is a 1971 horror film directed by Ken Russell. It stars Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave/ It is based partially on the 1952 book The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley, and partially on the 1960 play The Devils by John Whiting, also based on Huxley's book. Derek Jarman was responsible for...
was one of Reed's best acting roles, followed in the summer of 1975 by the musical film
TommyTommy is a 1975 musical film, based on The Who's 1969 rock opera album musical Tommy. It was directed by Ken Russell and featured a star-studded cast, including the band members themselves . Ann-Margret received a Golden Globe Award for her performance, and was also nominated for the Academy Award...
, based on
The WhoThe Who are an English rock band formed in 1964. The primary lineup consisted of guitarist Pete Townshend, vocalist Roger Daltrey, bassist John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They became known for energetic live performances including the pioneering spectacle of instrument destruction...
's 1969 concept album
Tommy and starring its lead singer
Roger Daltrey Roger Harry Daltrey CBE is an English singer-songwriter and actor, best known as the founder and lead singer of English rock band The Who...
. Reed made another contribution to the horror genre in 1976, acting alongside
Karen BlackKaren Black is an American actress, screenwriter, singer and songwriter. She is noted for films such as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby, The Day of the Locust, Nashville, Family Plot and Firecracker in a career that has spanned five decades.-Early life:Black was born Karen Blanche...
,
Bette DavisRuth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theatre. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
, and
Burgess MeredithOliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor. He was best-known for portraying Rocky Balboa's trainer Mickey Goldmill in the Rocky films and The Penguin in the television series Batman...
in the
Dan CurtisR. Daniel Curtis was an American director and producer of television and film, probably best known for the afternoon TV series Dark Shadows. Dark Shadows originally aired from 1966 to 1971 and has aired in syndication for nearly 40 years. Curtis was responsible for the 1991 remake of Dark...
film
Burnt OfferingsBurnt Offerings is a 1976 horror film based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Robert Marasco. It is about a family who moves into a haunted house that rejuvenates itself with each death that occurs inside of it...
.
In between those films for Russell, Reed played the role of
Bill SikesWilliam "Bill" Sikes is a fictional character in the novel Oliver Twist by Charles DickensHe is one of Dickens's most vicious characters and a very strong force in the novel when it comes to having control over somebody or harming others. He is portrayed as a rough and barbaric man. He is a career...
, alongside
Ron MoodyRon Moody is a British actor.- Life and work :Moody was born in London, England, the son of Kate and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive. He is the cousin of the popular director Laurence Moody and actress Clare Lawrence Moody. His surname was legally changed to "Moody" in 1930...
,
Shani WallisShani Wallis is an English actress and singer, who released several records in the 1950s.Making her first stage appearance at the age of four, she later studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a scholarship, and went on to play many leading lady roles in the West End, but she is best...
,
Mark LesterMark Lester is an English former child actor known for playing the title role in the 1968 musical film version of Oliver! and starring in a number of other British and European films of the 1960s and 70s....
,
Jack WildJack Wild was a British actor who achieved fame for his roles in both stage and screen productions of the Lionel Bart musical Oliver! with Ron Moody, Shani Wallis and Oliver Reed. For the latter performance , he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the age of 16...
,
Harry SecombeSir Harry Donald Secombe, CBE was a Welsh entertainer with a noted fine tenor singing voice and a talent for comedy. He is best known for playing Neddie Seagoon, the central character in The Goon Show , a BBC radio comedy series...
, in his uncle
Carol ReedSir Carol Reed was an English film director, most famous for directing The Third Man, The Agony and the Ecstasy and Oliver!...
's 1968 screen version of the hit musical
Oliver!Oliver! is a 1968 musical film directed by Carol Reed. The film is based on the stage musical Oliver!, with book, music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart. The screenplay was written by Vernon Harris....
. Reed played the title role in the 1969 Michael Winner comedy
Hannibal BrooksHannibal Brooks is a 1969 film about a man, accompanied by an Asian elephant, trying to get to Switzerland from Germany in World War II.-Plot:A POW in World War II is put to work in a Munich zoo, looking after an Asian elephant....
, alongside an elephant named Lucy.
An anecdote holds that Reed could have been chosen to play
James BondJames Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr...
. In 1969, Bond franchise producers
Albert R. BroccoliAlbert Romolo Broccoli, CBE , nicknamed "Cubby", was an Academy Award-winning American film producer, who made more than 40 motion pictures throughout his career, most of them in the United Kingdom, and often filmed at Pinewood Studios...
and
Harry SaltzmanHarry Saltzman was a Canadian theatre and film producer best known for his mega-gamble which resulted in his co-producing the James Bond film series with Albert R...
were looking for a replacement for
Sean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , best known as Sean Connery, is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award winning Scottish actor and producer....
, and Reed was mentioned as a possible choice for the role. Whatever the reason, Reed was never to play Bond. After Reed's death, the
Guardian Unlimitedguardian.co.uk, formerly known as Guardian Unlimited, is a British website owned by the Guardian Media Group. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers The Guardian and The Observer, as well as a substantial body of web-only work produced by its own staff, including a rolling news...
called the casting decision, "One of the great missed opportunities of post-war British movie history".
Reed starred as Athos the musketeer in three films based on
Alexandre DumasAlexandre Dumas, père, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
's novels. First in
The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers is a 1973 film based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. Directed by Richard Lester and written by George MacDonald Fraser . It was originally proposed in the 1960s, as a vehicle for The Beatles, whom Lester had directed in two other films...
(1973), followed by
The Four MusketeersThe Four Musketeers is the title of a 1974 Richard Lester film, which follows upon his film of the year before, The Three Musketeers, and covers the second half of Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers...
(1974), and
The Return of the MusketeersThe Return of the Musketeers is a film adaptation loosely based on the novel Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas, père. It is the third Musketeers movie directed by Richard Lester, following 1973's The Three Musketeers and 1974's The Four Musketeers...
(1989). He starred in a similarly historical themed film,
Crossed SwordsCrossed Swords may refer to:* Crossed Swords , an arcade game by ADK** Crossed Swords 2, its sequel for the Neo Geo CD console* Crossed Swords , a swashbuckling film by Richard Fleischer* ⚔, unicode symbol at u+2694...
(1978), as Miles Hendon alongside
Raquel Welch-Early life:Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Illinois, the oldest of three children and the daughter of Josephine Sarah and Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo...
and a grown up Mark Lester who had worked with Reed in
Oliver!. Reed returned to horror as Dr. Hal Raglan in
David CronenbergDavid Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection...
's 1979 film
The BroodThe Brood is a 1979 Canadian horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, starring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar and Art Hindle. It was filmed in Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario. In 2004, one of its sequences was voted #78 among the "100 Scariest Movie Moments" by the Bravo Channel...
.
From the 1980s onwards Reed's films had less success, his more notable roles being General
Rodolfo GrazianiRodolfo Graziani, Marchese di Neghelli , was an officer in the Italian Royal Army who led military expeditions in Africa before and during World War II.-Rise to prominence:...
in the 1981 film
Lion of the DesertLion of the Desert is a 1981 Libyan historical action film starring Anthony Quinn as Libyan tribal leader Omar Mukhtar fighting the Italian army in the years leading up to World War II. It was directed by Moustapha Akkad and funded by Muammar al-Gaddafi's government...
, which co-starred
Anthony QuinnAnthony Quinn was a Mexican-American actor, as well as a painter and writer. He starred in numerous critically acclaimed and commercially successful films, including Zorba the Greek, Lawrence of Arabia, and Federico Fellini's La strada...
and chronicled the resistance to Italy's occupation of Libya; and in
Castaway (1986) as the middle aged
Gerald KingslandGerald W. Kingsland was a journalist, adventurer and writer, born and raised in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, England. He was five times married. He had five sons and two daughters from the total marriages...
, who advertises for a 'wife' to live on a desert island for a year. The 'wife' is played by
Amanda Donohoe-Early life:Donohoe was born in London, the daughter of Joanna and Ted Donohoe, antique dealers. Her father , is of Irish/Russian descent and her mother is Swiss. She left home at sixteen, and in her early twenties she was accepted at the Central School of Speech and Drama...
.
He also starred in the Iraqi historical film
Clash of Loyalties (
al-Mas' Ala Al-Kubra) in 1982 where he played Lt-Col
Gerard LeachmanBrevet Lieut.-Colonel Gerard Evelyn Leachman CIE DSO , was a British soldier and intelligence officer who travelled extensively in Arabia.Leachman was commissioned into the Royal Sussex Regiment and served in India and in the Boer War...
during the 1920 revolution in Iraq. By the late 1980s, he was largely appearing in exploitation films produced by the infamous impresario
Harry Alan TowersHarry Alan Towers was a London born radio and film producer and screenwriter, who produced over a hundred feature films and who continued to write and produce well into his eighties....
, most of which were filmed in South Africa at the time of apartheid, and released straight to video in the US and UK. These included
Skeleton CoastThe Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast...
(1987),
Dragonard (1987) and its filmed-back-to-back sequel
Master Of Dragonard Hill,
Hold My Hand I'm Dying (1988),
House Of Usher (1988),
Captive Rage (1988),
GorGor , the Counter-Earth, is the alternate-world setting for John Norman's Chronicles of Gor , a series of twenty-seven novels that combine philosophy, erotica and science fiction....
(1988) and
The Revenger (1989).
His last major successes were
Terry GilliamTerrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British writer, filmmaker, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several well-regarded films including Time Bandits , Brazil , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
's
The Adventures of Baron MunchausenThe Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a 1988 film directed by Terry Gilliam, starring John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, and Robin Williams.-Plot:...
(1988) (as the god
VulcanIn ancient Roman religion and Roman Neopaganism, Vulcan is the god of beneficial and hindering fire, including the fire of volcanoes. He is also called Mulciber in Roman mythology and Sethlans in Etruscan mythology...
),
Treasure IslandTreasure Island is an adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "pirates and buried gold". First published as a book in 1883, it was originally serialised in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881-82 under the title The Sea Cook, or Treasure Island.Traditionally...
(1990) (as Captain Billy Bones), and
Peter ChelsomPeter Chelsom is a British actor and film director. He has directed among others such films as Shall We Dance? and Hannah Montana: The MovieChelsom studied at the Central School of Drama in London...
's
Funny BonesFunny Bones is a 1995 comedy-drama film from Hollywood Pictures. It was written, directed and produced by Peter Chelsom, co-produced by Simon Fields, and co-written by Peter Flannery. The music score was by John Altman and the cinematography by Eduardo Serra.-Plot:Tommy Fawkes is the failed comic...
(1995).
His final role was the elderly slave dealer Proximo in
GladiatorGladiator is a 2000 British and American epic film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, and Richard Harris. Crowe portrays General Maximus Decimus Meridius, favorite of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius who is...
, in which he played alongside
Richard HarrisRichard Saint John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer...
, an actor whom Reed admired greatly both on and off the screen. The film was released after his death in 2000 with some footage filmed with a double, digitally mixed with outtake footage. He was posthumously nominated for a British Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in this film, and also for the Screen Actors Guild Award along with the rest of the principal players for Best Ensemble Cast.
Personal life
In 1959, Reed wed Kate Byrne. They had one son, Mark, before their divorce in 1969. While filming his part of
Bill SikesWilliam "Bill" Sikes is a fictional character in the novel Oliver Twist by Charles DickensHe is one of Dickens's most vicious characters and a very strong force in the novel when it comes to having control over somebody or harming others. He is portrayed as a rough and barbaric man. He is a career...
in
Oliver!Oliver! is a 1968 musical film directed by Carol Reed. The film is based on the stage musical Oliver!, with book, music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart. The screenplay was written by Vernon Harris....
, he met one of the dancers hired for the film, the classically trained Jacquie Daryl. By the end of the film they were lovers, and subsequently had a daughter named Sarah. In 1985, he married Josephine Burge, to whom he was still married at the time of his death.
When the UK government raised taxes on personal income, Reed initially declined to join the exodus of major British film stars to Hollywood and other more tax-friendly locales. Reed turned down major roles in two hugely successful Hollywood movies:
The StingThe Sting is a 1973 caper film set in September 1936 and revolving around a complicated plot by two professional grifters to con a mob boss . The story, created by screenwriter David S...
(1973) (although he did appear in the sequel) and
JawsJaws is a 1975 American horror/thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel Jaws. The police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant great white shark by closing the beach, only to be overruled by the town...
(1975). In the late 1970s Reed finally relocated to the
Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
as a tax exile.
Alcoholism
Reed was famous for his
excessive drinkingAlcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions. In common and historic usage, alcoholism is any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, despite health problems and negative social consequences...
, which fitted in with the "social" attitude of many
rugby teamsRugby union is a full contact team sport, a form of football which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. It is played with an oval-shaped ball, outdoors on a level field, usually with a grass surface, 100 m...
in the 1960s and 1970s, and there are numerous anecdotes such as Reed and 36 friends drinking, in an evening, 60 gallons of beer, 32 bottles of Scotch, 17 bottles of gin, four crates of wine and one bottle of
BabychamBabycham is the trade name of a light, sparkling perry invented by Francis Showering, a brewer in Shepton Mallet in Somerset, England; the name is now owned by Constellation Europe Limited. Launched in the United Kingdom in 1953, the drink was marketed with pioneering television advertisements to...
. He subsequently revised the story, claiming he drank 106 pints of beer on a 2-day binge before marrying Josephine; "The event that was reported actually took place during an arm-wrestling competition in
GuernseyThe Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown Dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.As well as the island of Guernsey itself, it also includes Alderney, Herm, Jethou, Brecqhou, Burhou, Lihou, Sark and other islets. Although the defence of all these islands is the...
about 15 years ago, it was highly exaggerated." Steve McQueen told the story that in 1973 he had flown to the UK to discuss a film project with Reed and suggested the pair go to a nightclub in London. This led to a marathon
pub crawlA pub crawl is the act of one or more people drinking in multiple pubs or bars in a single night, normally walking to each one between drinking.-Origin of the term:...
during which Reed threw up on McQueen. Reed's face had been carved up ten years previously during a 1963 bar fight after which he received 63 stitches and was in danger of having his film career cut short in his 20s.
Reed was often irritated that his appearances on TV chat shows concentrated on his drinking feats, rather than his latest film.
David LettermanDavid Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman...
cut to a commercial when it appeared Reed might get violent after being asked too many questions about his drinking. He was held partly responsible for the demise of BBC1's
Sin on SaturdaySin on Saturday was a British live late night chat show based on the theme of the seven deadly sins that was produced by BBC Scotland. It was pulled from the schedules after only three broadcasts out of an intended eight .The show was hosted by Bernard Falk...
after some typically forthright comments on the subject of
lustLust is a craving for sexual intercourse, sometimes to the point of assuming a self-indulgent or violent character. Lust, or a desire for the flesh of another, is considered a sin, or impure act, in the three major Abrahamic religions, although rarely criticized and even encouraged in other...
, the sin featured on the first programme. The show had many other problems and a fellow guest revealed that Reed recognised this when he arrived and had to be virtually dragged in front of the cameras. Near the end of his life he was brought onto some TV shows specifically for his drinking; for example
The WordThe Word may mean:*The Word , a blues/jam rock group*The Word , a 1953 documentary film*The Word or Ordet, a 1955 Danish film*The Word , a novel by Irving Wallace...
put bottles of drink in his dressing room so he could be secretly filmed getting drunk. He was forced to leave the set of the
Channel 4Channel 4 is a UK public-service television broadcaster which began working on November 2, 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station owned now and operated by the Channel Four Television...
television discussion programme
After DarkAfter Dark was a British late night live discussion programme which ran off and on Channel 4 television between 1987 and 1997, and on the BBC in 2003...
after arriving drunk and attempting to kiss feminist writer
Kate MillettKate Millett is an American feminist writer and activist. She is best known for her 1970 book Sexual Politics.-Career:...
, uttering the memorable phrase "give us a kiss, big tits". He was seemingly very drunk on the
Michael AspelMichael Terence Aspel, OBE is an English journalist and television presenter, known for his reserved demeanour and rich speaking voice. He has been a high-profile TV personality in the United Kingdom since the 1960s, presenting programmes such as Crackerjack, Aspel and Company, This is Your Life,...
chat show, to many highly entertaining, to others a waste of a great acting talent. However, author Cliff Goodwin, in his biography of Reed titled Evil Spirits, offers the theory that Reed was not always as drunk on chat shows as he appeared to be, but rather was acting the part of an uncontrollably sodden former star to liven things up, at the producers' behests.
In later years, Reed could often be seen quietly drinking with his wife Josephine Burge, at the bar of the White Horse Hotel in the High Street in
DorkingDorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...
,
SurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford...
, not far from his home in Oakwoodhill. He had sold his larger house, 'Broome Hall', between the villages of
ColdharbourColdharbour is a village in Surrey UK. It is situated on Leith Hill in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.Europa Oil & Gas has submitted a planning application to Surrey County Council to explore for oil and gas in Coldharbour....
and
OckleyOckley is a historic village in Surrey, built on Stane Street, a Roman Road stretching from Chichester to London. Situated between Dorking and Horsham, close to the Sussex/Surrey border, Ockley nestles in the shadows of Leith Hill, the highest point in South east England. Neighbouring villages...
some years earlier.
Death
Reed died of a sudden
heart attackMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart, causing some heart cells to die...
during a break from filming
Gladiator in
VallettaValletta is the capital city of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta and the city proper has a population of 6,315....
,
MaltaMalta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed European country in the European Union. The Southern European island nation is an archipelago that includes the inhabited islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino, along with a number of smaller, uninhabited islands...
on 2 May 1999. He was 61 years old and was reported to be heavily
intoxicatedIntoxication is the state of being affected by one or more psychoactive drugs. It can also refer to the effects caused by the ingestion of poison or by the overconsumption of normally harmless substances.Some types of intoxication:*A mechanism of disease....
at the time of his death. Racking up an $866 alcohol bill, Reed had reportedly drunk three bottles of Captain Morgan's
rumRum is a distilled beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses and sugarcane juice by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak and other barrels...
, eight bottles of beer and numerous doubles of Famous Grouse whisky. He also beat five much younger Royal Navy sailors at arm wrestling at a bar called "The Pub". The owners have since added "Ollie's Last Pub" to the sign. Several of his scenes in "Gladiator" had to be completed using
CGIComputer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
techniques. His funeral was held in his home town
ChurchtownChurchtown is a village near Buttevant in County Cork, Province of Munster, Ireland and is the native place of renowned horse racing trainer, Vincent O'Brien who set-up his training establishment here in the 1940s before moving to Ballydoyle, near Cashel, County Tipperary. The official web site for...
,
County CorkCounty Cork is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the province of Munster, and was named after the city of Cork...
,
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
. The song "
Consider Yourself"Consider Yourself" is a song from the 1960s original West End and Broadway musical Oliver! and the 1968 film of the same name. In the 1968 Oliver! film, it is performed in the market....
" from his classic film
Oliver!Oliver! is a British musical, with music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
was played at Oliver Reed's funeral. Reed was buried in the 13th-century cemetery in the heart of Churchtown village, where his grave is seeded with Irish wildflowers.
External links
- Interview from Playmen
Playmen was an Italian adult entertainment magazine, founded in 1967 by a mother of three, Adelina Tattilo, reaching fame as Italy's 'Playboy magazine'....
, by Michael Pergolani, August 8, 2000
- Obituary in The Daily Telegraph