Oliver Reed

Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles. His films include The Trap, Oliver!, Women in Love, Hannibal Brooks, The Triple Echo, The Devils, The Three Musketeers, Tommy, Castaway, Lion of the Desert and Gladiator. At the peak of his career, in 1971, British exhibitors voted Reed one of the most popular stars at the box office (5th). --- Reed was born Robert Oliver Reed in Wimbledon,London, to sports journalist Peter Reed and his wife Marcia (née Napier-Andrews). He was the nephew of film director Sir Carol Reed, and grandson of the actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree by his alleged mistress May Pinney Reed. He was alleged to have been a descendant (through an illegitimate step) of Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia. Reed attended Ewell Castle School in Surrey. Oliver's brother is Simon Reed, who is a sports journalist and also works for British Eurosport. After compulsory military service, in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Reed commenced his thespian career as an extra in films in the late 1950s. He had acting training or theatrical experience. He appeared uncredited in two Norman Wisdom films, The Square Peg (1958) and The Bulldog Breed(1960), in which Reed played the leader of a gang of Teddy Boys roughing up Wisdom in a cinema. Uncredited television appearances during this period include episodes of The Invisible Man (1958) and The Four Just Men (1959). Reed got his first significant roles in Hammer Films' Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960), The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960), Captain Clegg (1962), Pirates of Blood River (1962), The Scarlet Blade (1963) and The Curse of the Werewolf (1961). Reed also starred in Paranoiac and The Damned (1963). --- In 1959–1960, Reed married Kate Byrne. The couple had one son, Mark, before their divorce in 1969. While filming his part of Bill Sikes in Oliver!, he met Jacquie Daryl, a classically trained dancer who was also in the film. They became 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. In his last years, Reed lived with Josephine in Churchtown, County Cork, Ireland. --- Reed died from a sudden heart attack during a break from filming Gladiator in Valletta, Malta on 2 May 1999. He was 61 years old. Several of his scenes in Gladiator had to be completed using computer-generated imagery (CGI) techniques and, in one place, a mannequin.