Robert Oliver Reed
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Oliver Reed played Bill Sikes in Oliver! 1968, Athos in The Three Musketeers 1973, and Proximo in Gladiator 2000. He died of a heart attack in 1999 while filming Gladiator. He never had any stage experience.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Oliver Reed — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Oliver Reed by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Oliver Reed — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Oliver Reed was born on February 13, 1938, in Wimbledon, London, into a theatrical family. His grandfather Herbert Beerbohm Tree founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He attended Ewell Castle School. His father Peter Reed was a sports journalist; his uncle Sir Carol Reed was a film director. Reed never received formal acting training and began his career with roles in Hammer horror films like The Curse of the Werewolf 1961.
Oliver Reed’s first starring role was in The Curse of the Werewolf 1961. He played Bill Sikes in the 1968 musical Oliver!, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1969, his nude wrestling scene with Alan Bates in Women in Love became the first full-frontal male nudity in a mainstream film. He portrayed Athos in the 1973 film The Three Musketeers and its sequel The Four Musketeers 1974. Reed called his performance as Father Grandier in Ken Russell’s The Devils 1971 his best. Other credits include The Brood 1979, Lion of the Desert 1981, Castaway 1986, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 1988, and Funny Bones 1995. His final role was Proximo in Gladiator 2000, a film released after his death.
Reed married twice: first to Kate Byrne from 1960 to 1969, then to Josephine Burge from 1985 until his death. He had a son Mark Reed with Kate Byrne, and a daughter Sarah Reed from a relationship with dancer Jacqueline Daryl. His heavy drinking and bar fights became notorious. On May 2, 1999, he died in a bar in Valletta, Malta, after drinking heavily and arm-wrestling five Royal Navy sailors. Only Michael Winner and snooker champion Alex Higgins attended his funeral in Ireland. He is buried in Bruhenny Cemetery, Buttevant, Cork, with a view of his favorite pub, O’Brien’s Bar.
Oliver Reed appeared in two Academy Award Best Picture winners: Oliver! 1968 and Gladiator 2000. His wrestling scene in Women in Love 1969 broke new ground for on-screen nudity. Reed remains the only British film star who never performed on stage. After his death, visual effects cost $3 million to complete his scenes in Gladiator. His roles as Athos, Bill Sikes, and Proximo, along with his hellraiser persona, defined British cinema of the 1970s.
The complete filmography of Oliver Reed — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
A wall of memorable lines from Oliver Reed — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
You Meet a Better Class of People in Pubs.
I Do Not Live in the World of Sobriety.
My Only Regret Is That I Didn’t Drink Every Pub Dry and Sleep with Every Woman on the Planet.
I Believe That My Woman Shouldn’t Work Outside the Home. When I Come Home and I’m Tired from Filming All Day, I Expect Her to Be There and Make Sure That Everything Is Cool for Me. You Know, Like Drawing My Bath and Helping Me into Bed. That’s the Kind of Job She Had And, in Return for It, She Can Bear My Children and If Any Man Talks Bad to Her, I’ll Hit Him.
There Is, of Course, a World of Difference Between Cricket and the Movie Business . . . I Suppose Doing a Love Scene with Raquel Welch Roughly Corresponds to Scoring a Century Before Lunch.
American Men Like Their Women to Have These Special Teeth and Be Perfectly Coiffured and Have Amazing Breasts. Have You Seen an Italian Mama with Those Kinds of Teeth, That Kind of Hair, and That Kind of Waist? They’re Not Like That. They’re in the Kitchen Cooking for Their Families – Doing What They Should Do. I Believe My Woman Shouldn’t Work Outside the Home.
I Also Use Women as a Sex Object; Maybe I’m Kinky. However, I Like to Talk to Them as Well.
I Like the Effect Drink Has on Me. What’s the Point of Staying Sober?
I’m the Biggest Star This Country Has Got, Destroy Me and You Destroy the Whole British Film Industry.
Richard Burton Was Hitting the Bottle with Jimmy Hurt the Night Before His Death. He Knew It Was Going to Kill Him, but He Did Not Stop. I Don’t Have a Drink Problem. but If That Was the Case and Doctors Told Me I Would Have to Stop, I’d Like to Think I Would Be Brave Enough to Drink Myself into the Grave.
Life Shouldn’t Be About Sitting Around Staring at Frosted Glass. Life Should Be Lived and That’s All There Is to It.
I’m Not a Villain. I’ve Never Hurt Anyone. I’m Just a Tawdry Character Who Explodes Now and Again.
I Like to Give My Inhibitions a Bath Now and Then.
I Do Think a Carpenter Needs a Good Hammer to Bang on the Wall.
I Have Made Many Serious Statements – I Just Can’t Remember Any of Them. I Guess They Mustn’t Have Been Very Important.
I Have Two Ambitions in Life: One Is to Drink Every Pub Dry, the Other Is to Sleep with Every Woman on Earth.
Once a Pirate, Always a Pirate. I’m a Buccaneer – a Bucco – Through and Through. I’m the Same Old Ollie I Was Years Ago. Ollie Reed Doesn’t Change.
My Acting School Was, and Still Is, Life in the Raw – the Whole Wide World as a Stage. I Didn’t Go into a Shop Full of Mirrors, I Stayed Outside and Gazed at the Reflections of Life. I’ve Got a Lot of Performances Stored Away at the Back of My Mind, Ready to Come Out in Front of the Cameras When They Are Needed.
I Was Disappointed in Sonja Henie. Her Legs Were Muscle-bound and Unattractive and Didn’t Give Me the Urge to Give Her One.
I Didn’t Go to Acting School, Only to Normal School. I’m Not for Acting Schools Because I Suspect That the Majority of the Teachers Are There Because They Can’t Find Work as Actors or Because They Think They Can Teach People to Act but Haven’t Had Much Experience Themselves in the Field. What I Mean Is That My Skepticism Derives from the Fact That I Believe That for an Actor It’s Much More Important to Learn with the Audience . . . the Audience Is the Real Teacher and It’s the Audience That Has Taught Me What I Know. the Audience’s Reaction Tells Me What I Need to Do, Just as the Audience’s Reaction Makes You into a First-rate Star. It’s Easy: the Important Thing Is That a Sufficient Number of People, an Audience, in a Sufficient Number of Countries Is Willing to Spend Money to Go See This Actor. at This Point the Movie Producers Interfere and Ask You to Work on This or That Film. and Then One Becomes an Actor with International Success Depending on the Public’s Reaction.
Theatre Doesn’t Interest Me. It Doesn’t Interest Me Because in England Theatre Means Warm Gin During Intermission, Not Being Able to Smoke in the Theatre, Eat Chocolates and Try to Find Out Who Else Is Present in Order to Then Greet Them in the Foyer. Going to This or That Theatre Premiere Is Very Much an In Thing to Do. but This Is Only One of the Reasons; the Second Reason Is a Bit More Professional. Logically Speaking, I Think That for an Actor or an Actress Working in the Theatre Is Boring, but I Am Not Referring to Theatre Actors Who Have Always Worked There, and This My Own Boring Opinion, but Because It Means Reciting the Same Lines Every Night Six Nights a Week, Not Counting Matinées . . . Boring, Don’t You Think?
I Think That the Most Important Achievement of My Career Was Getting Paid for Something That I Really Wanted to Do.
One Day I Should Like to Live in Ireland. I Love the Irish, the More I See of Other Races the More I Believe the Irish Are the Only Real People Left, and Apart from That They Have Space and Clear Air in Which to Wander and Think and to Feel Free.
Rita Tushingham Was Not the Most Fantastically Classical Beautiful Woman That England Has Ever Produced, but She Is, and I Mean This, Fantastic. She’s Got the Pair of Eyes That I Would Like to Go Swimming In.
Little-known facts about Oliver Reed — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Reed died of a heart attack in a bar after downing three bottles of Captain Morgan’s Jamaica rum, eight bottles of German beer, numerous doubles of Famous Grouse whiskey and Hennessy cognac, and beating five much younger Royal Navy sailors at arm-wrestling. His final bar bill was 270 Maltese lira, about £450 or $600.
Reed died during the filming of Gladiator 2000. It cost the company $3 million to recreate his face so he could appear in the scenes he still had left to shoot.
While filming The Three Musketeers 1973, he was stabbed in the throat during the windmill duel scene and nearly died.
Obituaries noted similarities between Reed’s death and Robert Newton’s. Newton, a notoriously heavy drinker, remained sober while filming Around the World in 80 Days 1956, which was supposed to be his big comeback. Toward the end of filming, he indulged in one final drinking marathon and died from a heart attack.
A 1963 bar fight caused facial cuts requiring 36 stitches. It left him with a permanent scar, which he initially feared would put an end to his screen career.
Reed remains the only British film star who never had any stage work of any kind. A 1980s National Portrait Gallery show noted this, saying he was their only pure film actor.
Buried in Bruhenny Cemetery in Buttevant, Cork Ireland. His grave was chosen for its view of his favorite pub O’Briens.
During the filming of The Three Musketeers 1973, co-star Christopher Lee described Reed as a menace when armed with a sword. The stunt performers were also extremely wary, as Reed would often forget or outright ignore the choreography and go at them for real.
His wrestling scene with Alan Bates in Women in Love 1969 was the first time full frontal male nudity had featured in a mainstream movie.
He starred in the first film to say fuck, I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname 1967. He also starred in the first British film to be rated X just for the violent content, Sitting Target 1972.
Had an intense dislike for his Tommy 1975 co-star Jack Nicholson, whom he called a balding midget. Reed claimed Nicholson was only 5’7 tall.
Michael Winner said that Oliver Reed was a rather shy, withdrawn person when sober.
In 1973 Steve McQueen flew to England to meet Reed and discuss a possible film collaboration. Reed showed me his country mansion and we got on well, recalled McQueen. He then suggested he take me to his favorite London nightclub. The drinking, which started at Reed’s home, Broome Hall, continued into the night until Reed could barely stand. Suddenly, and with no apparent warning, he vomited over McQueen’s shirt and trousers. The staff rushed around and found me some new clothes, but they couldn’t get me any shoes, said McQueen. I had to spend the rest of the night smelling of Oliver Reed’s sick.
He was a close friend of The Who’s drummer Keith Moon.
Bought Broome Hall, a 63-bedroom Victorian mansion in Surrey, in 1970.
He and Russell Crowe didn’t get along during the making of Gladiator 2000.
By the mid-1970s, Reed was Britain’s biggest movie star. He declined roles in The Sting 1973 and Jaws 1975 because he didn’t want to move to Los Angeles. A Hollywood executive claimed, Reed didn’t turn us down. We turned him down. We like our stars to have respect – Oliver Reed didn’t respect anyone and he showed it.
He never forgot his Hammer roots. After hitting the big time, he went back to pay homage to his horror beginnings to narrate the full Hammer retrospective, a reminder that his voice was the one quality the English critics admired about him.
Had a tattoo on his penis. According to Patrick Warburton, Reed showed him the tattoo the first day they worked together.
Narrowly missed out on playing superspy James Bond because of his love of alcohol and fighting. A new biography of the star uncovered a letter from Bond mastermind Albert R. Broccoli outlining how close he came to replacing Sean Connery in the role. Broccoli wrote, With Reed we would have had a far greater problem to destroy his image and re-mold him as James Bond. We just didn’t have the time or money to do that. According to Cliff Goodwin, author of the book Evil Spirits, Oliver was probably within a sliver of being cast as Bond. He adds, But by 1968 his affairs were public and he was already drinking and fighting – as far away from the refined Bond image as you could get.
The actor he admired most was Errol Flynn.
He never had any acting training or stage experience.
Only Michael Winner and former snooker champion Alex Higgins, who had throat cancer, attended Reed’s funeral in Ireland.
Nephew of the film director Sir Carol Reed, who directed him in his breakthrough role as the villainous Bill Sikes in Oliver! 1968.
He appeared in two Best Picture Academy Award winners: Oliver! 1968 and Gladiator 2000.
Lost weight to appear in Castaway 1986 on a diet of vodka.
At age 22, Reed was paid £90 per week for his first starring role in The Curse of the Werewolf 1961. It was banned in Spain for many years because the government thought it portrayed Spain as a backward nation.
He loved horses all his life and also enjoyed breeding and rearing them.
He agreed to play Eddie Mars in The Big Sleep 1978 because he admired the film’s star Robert Mitchum so much.
In his final years, when he lived in Ireland, Reed was a regular in the one-roomed O’Brien’s Bar in Churchtown, County Cork, close to the 13th-century cemetery in the heart of the village where he was laid to rest.
Infamously clashed with Shelley Winters on Episode dated 6 July 1972 1972. He got angry at her for constantly jokingly interrupting the stories he was trying to tell and, when Winters had to leave the show early, Reed told Johnny Carson that he thought that women were happy in the kitchen. She returned and poured a cup of water over his head. He then claimed it was whiskey that she poured over him.
Reed released several pop music singles, with limited success. They included Wild One/Lonely for a Girl 1961, Sometimes/Ecstasy 1962, Baby It’s Cold Outside duet with Joyce Blair and Wild Thing 1992 duet with Alex Higgins. He also narrated a track called Walpurgis Nacht by heavy metal band Death SS.
He originally got the role of Mordechai Fingers Adams in Cutthroat Island 1995, but was fired after a bar fight and threatening to expose himself to Geena Davis. George Murcell eventually took his place.
He named his favorite American actors as Lee Marvin, Rock Hudson and Rod Steiger.
Said that when he made the infamous drunken appearance on the Michael Aspel chat show when he sang a raucous rendition of Wild Thing, that the producers of that show had plied him with spirits in the green room prior to the interview so that he was already plastered when he came on stage.
Richard Harris once mocked Reed by sending him two crutches. One crutch was christened with the name Ken Russell and the other Michael Winner. Included was a note from Harris which read: Careful Ollie old boy. Don’t lose these crutches, otherwise you shall fall right on your a.
For a brief period in the late 1960s Reed was the highest paid actor in Europe, but by the early 1980s he was reduced to starring in dire European films.
In 1979 he published an autobiography, entitled Reed All About Me. Asked to describe the book by an interviewer he replied, It’s a load of bollocks really.
He suffered from acute tinnitus for many years.
On location for The Hunting Party 1971, Reed bemoaned the necessity of faking an American accent. Along with his love of Broome Hall and English pubs, it cemented his decision not to move to Hollywood.
In order to avoid charges of nepotism, Reed deliberately avoided working for his uncle, director Carol Reed, until he was already established as a star in British movies.
He was related by marriage to fellow actor Edward Fox, who was once married to his cousin, Tracy Reed, daughter of director Sir Carol Reed.
During the Falklands War in 1982, Reed covered his house in a huge Union Jack flag and decorated every room with military memorabilia.
He made seven films with Christopher Lee: The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll 1960, Wild for Kicks 1960, The Pirates of Blood River 1962, The Three Musketeers 1973, The Four Musketeers 1974, The Return of the Musketeers 1989, and Treasure Island 1990.
Grandson of actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art RADA in 1904.
Described his role as Father Grandier in Ken Russell’s The Devils 1971 as the best performance he ever gave.
Befriended Charlton Heston while filming The Three Musketeers 1973.
Father of Mark Thurloe Reed born January 21, 1961 with his first wife Kate Byrne and of Sarah Reed born 1970 from his 12-year relationship to dancer Jacqueline Daryl.
He appeared in four Robert Louis Stevenson adaptations: The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll 1960, Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype 1980, Black Arrow 1985, and Treasure Island 1990.
He turned down the role of Doyle Lonnegan in The Sting 1973 but later played the role in The Sting II 1983.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Oliver Reed.
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