A truly great man, Oliver Reed (
1938-
1999) was one of the finest
actors
Britain has ever produced. He came to promenance in the
1960s and
1970s for his work in
Oliver! (where he played an extremely menacing
Bill Sykes),
Women in Love and
The Devils. His final
cinematic appearance was for
Gladiator where he plays Proximo, and he died shortly before shooting was complete.
More importantly than all this though, was Reed's legendary love of alcohol. Although over sixty years of age, he passed away a few hours after challenging a group of marines to a drinking contest at his local bar in Malta (apparently he drunk them all under the table as well).
A few salient titbits from Olly's life (and IMO far more informative than
any official biography):
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In one celebrated incident in 1974, Reed invited 36 rugby players to a
party at his home. Between Saturday night and Sunday lunchtime, they
managed to consume between them 60 gallons of beer, 32 bottles of Scotch,
17 bottles of gin, four crates of wine and a lone bottle of Babycham.
The entertainment concluded with Reed leading the players on a nude dawn run
through the Surrey countryside.
-
In 1974, Reed made a convincingly doughty Athos in The Three Musketeers. On one occasion during filming in Spain, the police were summoned to Reed's hotel to arrest him for dancing naked in a giant goldfish tank. "Leave me alone," shouted Reed. "You can't touch me! I'm one of the Four Musketeers".
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Reed's notoriety increased yet further in 1985 when he married Jospehine Burge; she was then 21, but had been his companion since she was a 16-year old schoolgirl. At his stag party, which lasted two days, Reed claimed to have downed 136 pints of beer. But to the surprise of many, the marriage proved a success, although in 1986 Reed was forced to dig up nine acres of his back garden after forgetting where he had buried his wife's jewellery when drunk.
-
In 1991, Reed appeared on the late-night Channel 4 discussion programme After Dark (popularly known as After Closing Time). The subject was violence, and Reed was determined not to disappoint. Drinking wine from a half-pint glass, he freely expressed his views on the subject,
periodically falling off his chair before kissing a surprised feminist author and announcing "Right, I'm off to have a slash". Channel 4 took the programme off the air after 20 minutes; when it returned, Reed terminated the discussion with the words: "Look, I'll put my plonker on the table if you don't give me a plate of mushy peas".
A couple of nights ago in the pub I saw a bloke wearing a T-shirt. On the
front was a picture of the great man himself, on the back, the simple slogan:
King of the Hellraisers
Lost in Action, May 3rd, 1999
"Lost in Action". I like that. Olly's memory will live on forever!