Welcome to OliverReed.net
A website dedicated to the late, great Oliver Reed.
When Oliver Reed died in May 1999, the world lost one of its most compelling on-screen presences - and most colourful off-screen personalities.
Since then his catalogue of work spanning over forty years seems to have been largely forgotten or ignored. Remarkable for an actor who at the
height of his career was Britain's most highly paid and internationally famous film star; unfortunate for a man who
later became infamous for his TV appearances and off-screen antics rather than his earlier film successes.
Whether he was brawling with the Cardinal's guards as Athos in The Three Musketeers or staggering his way through singing The Wild One on a TV chat show, there can be little doubt that Oliver Reed never did anything half-heartedly.
"Life should be lived and that's all there is to it", he once remarked - and he certainly lived his life with a gusto that has rarely been equalled.
That such a colourful and eventful life should go un-commemorated would be a great loss; a waste of the story of not only a talented and constantly underrated actor, but of a man who knew from an early age what we may only come to realise in later life; that life is short - and should be enjoyed to the
full and in the best way we know how.
The aim of this website is to celebrate that life - both on and off screen - through a collection of articles, interviews, anecdotes and images.
So whether you're looking for Oliver Reed the actor or Ollie Reed the hellraiser - you should find it here at OliverReed.net.
Would you like to contribute to OliverReed.net?
We're always happy to hear from those of you who may have met Oliver, or perhaps have some images or other memorabilia that you would like to share with other fans, or just simply want to express an opinion about his life or career - it's always great to hear from you!
So, if you'd like to share your memories of the time you met Oliver Reed, then just email encounters@oliverreed.net.
To read about the people who did just that - visit the Encounters section.
If you'd like to share some images of Oliver with other fans, simply email images@oliverreed.net and we'll add them to the Gallery section.
And if you'd like to comment on Oliver's films, television appearances or books, contact review@oliverreed.net.
To see what others have already said, visit the Reviews section.
But whatever the message, it's always good to hear from fans of Oliver Reed!
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From Trivia/Anecdotes:
Lawnmower racing owes its origins in part to actor Oliver Reed who, at an inaugural event lost control of his machine and demolished the VIP toilet tent, fortunately without injury to either driver or occupant - "luckily, dear boy, because we were both seated at the time"
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
Apparently, police were once called to a remote rural location close to Reed's home in the early hours of the morning, due to complaints that a number of naked men had been seen running across fields. The naked men were a rugby team who Reed had spent the evening entertaining. Having consumed vast quantities of alcohol, the whole lot of them stripped off and went for a run through the fields surrounding Reed's house, their muscled white buttocks probably glistening in the moonlight.
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
Oliver Reed was related by marriage to fellow actor Edward Fox, who was once married to Reed's cousin Tracy Reed, daughter of director Carol Reed.
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
On Desert Island Discs, the radio program where guests are asked to choose one record and one luxury item that they would like to be castaway with, Oliver Reed chose an inflatable woman as his luxury item.
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
"Oliver Reed once walked into Gough Square to be interviewed by Douglas Cameron and he was completely naked apart from wearing a pair of Wellington boots. He was obviously worse for wear but Douglas carried on as if nothing had happened."
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
"Actor Oliver Reed gets drunk on Aspel & Company" was voted the 90th Greatest Television moment of all time for a Channel4 poll in 1999. This was ahead of both "Gareth Southgate's Euro 96 penalty miss" and "Torvill and Dean win Olympic gold, accompanied by Bolero". The winner was "The NASA moon landing in 1969".
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
"I have two ambitions in life: one is to drink every pub dry, the other is to sleep with every woman on earth."
(Oliver Reed, paraphrased)
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
Oliver Reed has been banned from every pub in town (Dorking), most notably the Bull's Head where he climbed the chimney naked shouting "Ho! Ho! Ho! I'm Santa Claus!".
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
In the late 1960's, thanks to the generosity of that well-known film, and television actor, Oliver Reed, Rosslyn Park became the first London club to have floodlights.
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
QUOTATION: I do not live in the world of sobriety.
ATTRIBUTION: Oliver Reed (b. 1938), British screen actor. Quoted in Sunday Times (London, December 27, 1987).
ATTRIBUTION: Oliver Reed (b. 1938), British screen actor. Quoted in Sunday Times (London, December 27, 1987).
From Articles/Interviews:
It's almost impossible to believe all you read about Oliver Reed: his appetite for the full, rich life is so firmly rooted in a Restoration-like appreciation of excess, that his adventures read like a bawdy novel which is 'not quite naice' but utterly compelling. He is somehow automatically the actor one thinks of when you want a colourful comment on the news that a Bulgarian baker made love to 1,700 women.
Read the complete text: OLIVER REED THE MAN NOBODY CAN TAME
From Articles/Interviews:
Then all of a sudden fifteen boys came in dressed as policemen, with machine guns, and they dragged me off. And they woke up a judge at half past three in the morning, because the hotel insisted that something should be done about it. I couldn't speak Spanish, so I said "Tres Musketeer'el Musketeer," and they thought I was going to attack them. So five boys jumped on my arm, and I was taken into this great empty courtroom with the judge sitting there, who was very cross at being woken up so early in the morning. In the end, he gave it up and just shook his head and smiled. And he said, "Just tell him to leave your hotel." And so I was thrown out on to the streets with my bags.
Read the complete text: RUSSELL HARTY PLUS: OLIVER REED
From Articles/Interviews:
Travellers from Victoria to Dorking recently witnessed an astonishing tightening up of security. A burly uniformed officer, carrying postcards of the Royal Family and Union Jacks, strode officially through the compartments asking passengers to identify their bags an briefcases saying, "That's not a bomb in there, is it'" Everyone enjoyed themselves hugely, pocketed the postcards which the officer had handed out and continued their journey secure in the knowledge that British Rail was taking no chances.
The officer, who had just collected his uniform from Bremans, the theatrical costumiers, tells the story with enormous relish. Ladies and gentleman, Oliver Reed is back in town.
Read the complete text: Oliver Reed on trees and pubs and staying in Britain
From Articles/Interviews:
"Ollie was in one of his moods, and I was in one of my moods. Young Simon Reed was there too. After a few drinks, we started our games - we rolled over and the tables went over.
I went looking for Simon, and Ollie came out looking for me. When he reached the steps, there was this 'gorilla' standing there who was known locally as 'Jesus' because he used to think he was God's gift to women. He didn't speak a word of English, and he was approaching Ollie with open arms.
Now if you see a 'gorilla' coming at you with his arms open, you think you are going to be attacked. So Ollie pounced on him and bit his nose!"
Read the complete text: MY WILD DAYS (AND NIGHTS) WITH OLLIE... By REG PRINCE
From Articles/Interviews:
So when the car stopped for a red light, Oliver thoughtfully jumped out and made tracks for a store in which he thought he'd spied some Haitian art. He thought it would be a good thing to buy what he perceived to be an attractive Haitian painting, and he remembered to get some money from Jacqueline, who wouldn't have missed this - or any other - escapade of Oliver's for anything. What he didn't seem to remember was that he still had a flagon of wine in his hand, one shoe missing, and that he was still soaking and dripping wet!
Read the complete text: "If I can't live like a star, why be one?"
From Articles/Interviews:
And Ollie's capacity for booze seems limitless. Ask him what he drinks, and he'll say 'anything that anyone's got the best of' - he's not always so discriminating, and one of his favourite tipples is an ice-bucket full of everything behind the bar.
There've been unnerving rumours that Ollie's carrying a grudge against all journalists, after one hack insulted his young wife Josephine (Fleet Street calls her his 'child bride'). The journalist in question ended up in hospital.
Read the complete text: REED ALL ABOUT IT
From Articles/Interviews:
Oliver Reed rises unsteadily from his deep leather armchair and follows a slightly deviating course across the hotel foyer in search of the Gents. As if suddenly aware of the stagger in his step, he turns and with an affable growl announces, "I'm not pissed. I'm concussed", to anyone within earshot. I smile involuntarily, assuming this is just his little joke.
Read the complete text: Oliver Reed: another drink, another film
From Articles/Interviews:
On After Dark - the famous edition of the late, lamented Channel 4 chat show, I watched gobsmacked as this lovable buffoon alternately insulted and dismissed the women on the sofa and rudely shouted down every other guest. Puffed up with a drinker's self-righteous conviction that only he has suffered, he was asked to leave before he inevitably grew maudlin.
I can't claim to dislike Reed entirely, though I had substantial doubts about meeting such a patent chauvinist and aggressive drinker.
Read the complete text: a thirst for life
From Articles/Interviews:
"DARLING! REMIND ME! DID I REALLY WAVE MY chopper around in the casino last night?" Oliver Reed has been in the Slav republic of Belarus for less than 24 hours and has seemingly wasted no time in living up to his reputation as the last mad musketeer. Reports of his previous night's swashbuckling antics are already sweeping the streets of the Belarusian capital of Minsk quicker than a dose of dripsy through a Bangkok knocking-shop. Did he really drink three bars dry before retiring to the gambling house to treat the locals to a lingering glimpse of his tattooed todger? And did he really round off the evening by wrestling nude in the street with a small battalion of elderly Russian generals?
Read the complete text: WHAT FRESH LUNACY IS THIS
From Articles/Interviews:
It's true that there was frequently something bullying, acrid and bilious in Reed's work, yet I think - like Winner - that he was also a genuinely great actor. And it's disagreeable now that he's dead, to see his acting patronised by being discussed almost entirely in terms of his highly-coloured personal life. Yet the misconceptions are understandable, and not wholly unaffectionate. Because for all its hell-raising saloon-bar violence, there was something about Reed's notorious public persona which it was very hard not to like and, perhaps less admissably, to admire.
Read the complete text: Devil of an actor
From Articles/Interviews:
"There were times when he was eloquent, funny and quick, and there were times when he was actually drunk and it wasn't an act," says Mark. "He didn't really care and wanted to live life as he was, but there were times when the chat shows were a bit embarrassing and too far over the top. My father drank to have fun with people. He never drank by himself. To him, beer was like a cup of tea. But it was whiskey which turned him into Mr Nasty and made him belligerent. At those times, I would make an exit. Then I'd find him in great humour at 7am the next morning, drinking tequila and eating strawberries."
Read the complete text: Life and Love after Oliver
From Articles/Interviews:
Reed was the Errol Flynn of his day, a womaniser and fearsome boozer whose exploits aroused contempt and derision in the strait-laced, and something close to admiration in those - many of us, I expect - who occasionally yearn to go wildly off the rails but wouldn't dare. Like Flynn he probably hurt a few people along the way, but also like Flynn he did most damage to himself.
Read the complete text: The demon in Oliver
From Articles/Interviews:
Being in a war-torn capital of a Muslim country did not stop Reed, who played another senior British officer, getting up to his usual antics during his five-week stay. These included entering into an impromptu 'table lifting' competition in a Baghdad restaurant.
Read the complete text: Ollie: Another fine mess you've gotten me into, Saddam
From Articles/Interviews:
One anecdote about the filming relates that Reed, having substantially refreshed himself in the course of the day, spiritedly challenged Crowe to a good old-fashioned fight, with both stars doing, as it were, their own stunts. Crowe is rumoured to have stayed timidly in his trailer and refused to come out until roaring Ollie had calmed down.
Read the complete text: Wanna fight?
From Articles/Interviews:
It would be easy to cast Oliver in the role of Falstaff - he tells his marvellous funny stories - but there is something almost sad and resigned behind it all. He originally wanted to retire at 35, but is still working at 36 because of things like alimony and renovating his huge mansion. And while he is far from reticent about discussing his film work he is much more excited when telling about health spas he been to and his personal philosophies.
Read the complete text: Let me have fat men around me
From Articles/Interviews:
With a face that has reminded one critic of a neglected part of Stonehenge, with a deep scar as a souvenir of a bar brawl, Reed looks tough and talks smooth. That dangerous combination has brought him adoring worship from females, who had switched their allegiance to pop groups in the early Sixties.
Read the complete text: STARDUST AND MAGIC
From Articles/Interviews:
Several weeks later, in the US, Reed was in turn menacing, incomprehensible and downright surreal on Late Night with David Letterman. Asked about his drinking, the actor veered manically into a gibberish soliloquy about his diet: "I'm taking a high quantity, high porcelain diet. I drink a lot of cups, coffee cups. And I eat a lot of plates." By the time the show broke for a commercial break, Reed was shouting like a man possessed and Letterman looked scared for his life.
Read the complete text: Oliver Reed: Hyde in Plain Sight
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
Movie legend Oliver Reed missed out on playing superspy James Bond because of his love of alcohol and fighting. A new biography of the star has 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 remold 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."
From Articles/Interviews:
To confront Oliver Reed in the middle of an overgrown field is very disconcerting for a city girl. The physical impact of the man is profound. From the distance, he was still an abstraction. Then, he moves closer until suddenly he is a few inches away, looming, massive, a dark shadow between me and the sun, well over six feet tall, fourteen solid packed, rock hard stone. His hair is thick arid raked by the wind. It is black, flecked with grey and earlobe length. This day, he sports a sinister Fu Manchu moustache that caresses the corners of his mouth and forms brackets for his chin, partly hiding the infamous three-inch scar he got in a brawl eight years ago. There are tiny, furry hairs on top of his nose. His chest and arms are bursting the seams of a white sweat shirt with a dragon over his heart. Faded blue jeans cling like a relief map. Where the denim has worn thin on his powerful thighs, there are thick canvas patches. Why the patches?
Read the complete text: OLIVER REED - GOTHIC HERO
From Obituaries:
But Reed's screen career often seemed like a mere rehearsal for the more important business of hell-raising in real life. He once summarised his career as "shafting the girlies and downing the sherbie". A prodigious drinker, he spent much of his later life being escorted from various pubs and hotels after initiating what he regarded as "tests of strength".
Read the complete text: Obituary: Oliver Reed
From Obituaries:
In thick set of muscle, growling voice and manner, he was a type generally more useful to a Hollywood casting agency than to British cinema of the time - the young heavy; but that scowl won him his first lead role in a Hammer horror of ritual creakiness, The Curse Of The Werewolf. But physicality, and rough trade at that, not the fake-elegant tapping the cigarette on the monogrammed case sort, was then rare in a British actor, and Reed had enough of it to interest Ken Russell, who had begun his series of television biographies of musicians and artists: 'He struck me as vivacious, cheeky and not run-of-the-mill,' said Russell. 'He came to see me and looked terrific. I remember him being very moody and glowering. I liked his spirit - everyone else seemed to fade into insignificance.'
Read the complete text: Oliver Reed 1938-1999
From Articles/Interviews:
Oliver Reed at thirty-six is among a mere handful of British actors who are top money earners, instantly recognisable and internationally established. For many years he has been accessible to the press, and always quotable. Now the shutters are coming down because Oliver, in his canny way, reckons he has probably been too accessible. The image of a beer-swilling trouble maker is false, but it sticks. Possibly because wherever he goes, whatever he does, makes news.
Read the complete text: REED BETWEEN THE LINES
From Articles/Interviews:
Only Oliver Reed owns up to his battle scars. He says: "I seem to get into fights fairly easily. It's not a publicity stunt, I assure you."
"If it were, I wouldn't have scars on my face, a broken nose, chipped teeth and mucked-up knuckles."
Read the complete text: STARS OF STAGE, SCREEN AND PUNCH-UPS
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
I COULD SEE OLIVER REED'S HANDS SHAKING. It was not yet ten o'clock on a freezing February morning, but he clearly needed a drink, so someone rushed off and got him two large cans of strong beer. We were outside the Prince Charles Theatre in London's Leicester Square with the great Peter Cushing, ready to put our handprints on a pavement, Hollywood style, and Ollie wanted to steady himself before plunging his enormous mitts into the cement.
Read the complete text: Page 5
From Articles/Interviews:
Olly himself is not sure exactly what he is. "I'm a mixture, I suppose, of the culture bug, the farmer and the stroppy boozer. I used to have all the answers once but now I have only questions."
"I spend my life parading around the screens of the world falsifying my identity and masquerading as a sex maniac, a priest, a burglar or a soldier and I suppose that if you are as good at your job as I am - you see, I love being arrogant - you are bound to get lost in your identities."
"The best way to sum it up is to say that I would like my epitaph to be: 'Here lies a man who loved life'."
Read the complete text: OUTRAGEOUS, ARROGANT, MERCURIAL, UNPREDICTABLE - A VERY PHYSICAL PERSON: OLIVER REED
From Articles/Interviews:
In 1969 Reed delivered a masterful and groundbreaking performance - opposite Alan Bates and the future Labour MP Glenda Jackson - in Ken Russell's adaptation of Women in Love. Amid the excess of praise and platitudes, Harris impishly sent Reed a pair of crutches - one inscribed 'Ken Russell', the other 'Glenda Jackson'.
Read the complete text: Behaving Badly. The Life of Richard Harris 1930-2002 (excerpts)
From Articles/Interviews:
Suddenly I had a serious movie actor on my hands. He talked brilliantly about the effect of dyslexia on the work of reading scripts and, once on the subject of Glenda Jackson, he was riveting - the effect her talent had on others, the widening range of emotions, the sharp editorial judgement. The sweat poured from his forehead and yet his opinions were well formed, his rhythm constant and enunciation perfect. He had become that dangerous combination for an interviewer to face: drunk but absolutely articulate.
Read the complete text: Taking Fresh Guard - A Memoir (excerpt)
From Encounters:
Until about five minutes into the Q&A session when a door crashed open at the back of the stage and Olly, looking resplendent in beard and what I remember as blazing red hair, staggered on. I can't recall what the question in progress was at the time, but Olly's answer involved "having it off with two birds at the same time" one of whom might've been the director's daughter (this needs to be clarified)
Read the complete text: Encounters
From Articles/Interviews:
My admiration for Oliver Reed has never been greater than when I watched him keep his cool and speak courteously to the unfortunate young man whose job it was to keep coming to the door to warn him of a further delay. And the patience with which he endured the long hours of waiting in the stuffy little room which he described to me as "nothing more than a prison cell except I don't have to slop out and don't have to use a potty."
I suggested that anyone who believed everything written about him would imagine him to be rolling around on the floor with a couple of bottles of booze close to hand.
Read the complete text: OLIVER REED: Boozing, Brawling, Bully Boy?
From Articles/Interviews:
"I was sitting in my local In Wimbledon when I was about 18," he went on, remembering another spot of frivolity, "thinking about James Dean and Marlon Brando. A chap was sitting next to me and I tapped him on the shoulder, and when he turned round I hit him."
"Of course, I got arrested but I got the publicity in the newspapers. Something like 'Young Actor In Pub Fight'. You see, I am an actor and people expect to be entertained."
Read the complete text: The Oliver Reed You DON'T Know
From Obituaries:
Oliver's undoubted talent as an actor was often overshadowed by the media's coverage of his drinking and off-screen antics. And it was this aspect of his personality that much of the press concentrated on in their obituaries to the star. However, those that knew him, knew his real life persona belied this portrayal by the media. Michael Winner paid tribute to the actor in the Daily Mail: "The public knew him as a boozing, fighting, cursing, womanising and hellraising problem; I knew and worked with a quiet and gentle person who in six movies never caused me so much as five minutes delay. He was generous; he was shy; he was very sensitive, and he was invariably considerate and kind."
Read the complete text: Oliver Reed
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
When interviewed on The Paul O'Grady Show (ITV), former chat show host Michael Aspel was asked how he dealt with badly behaved guests. His reply inevitably turned to the occasion when he interviewed Oliver Reed:
"Half of the time badly behaved guests are good telly. And you know when Oliver Reed got drunk... I mean I was delighted. People said 'Aspel was furious' - I was thrilled! You don't expect him to come on and behave like... a Bank Manager; if he had it would be disappointing. But we knew he was sloshed because he'd taken fifteen stops - and a couple of pints of gin and tonic. So when he lurched on I thought 'This is great!'"
From Articles/Interviews:
Our conversation came back to me when I heard the news of his sudden death in Malta; it reached me in hospital, where I was recovering from a heart attack of my own. At such times one naturally conjures up memories: I saw him again, sweeping his Musketeer cloak round his shoulders and telling Frank Finlay to "kill the fellow and come after us"; sitting, sad and heavy, with Michael York, intoning in that beautiful voice "There was a man once"; pronouncing sentence of death on Faye Dunaway with a sudden catch in his throat; bellowing a welcome with that gleaming grin through his beard when we met again in Spain - and our final meeting, at the Return of the Musketeers premiere, when he told me he was making Treasure Island with Charlton Heston: "I'm playing Billy Bones, playing him as a Jock, what d'you think?".
Read the complete text: The Light's on at Signpost - Memoirs of the movies, among other matters (excerpts)
From Articles/Interviews:
Somewhere along the line though, it all went awry and Oliver Reed the esteemed actor slowly metamorphosed into Ollie the notorious hellraiser. Through the 70s and 80s, his film career was a series of dropped catches. During this period, he was involved in more turkeys than you could chase out of a packed farmyard. As his professional reputation staggered downhill, his hellraising image grew to monstrous proportions. By the mid-'80s, Ollie was more famous for his drinking exploits and his uproarious appearances on chat shows where he could invariably be found effing and blinding whilst removing his trousers.
Read the complete text: great moments in life - Oliver Reed raising hell on After Dark
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
Oliver told me that one Christmas Eve in Los Angeles he and a friend made it a champagne evening, to such a degree that Oliver suddenly decided he would like two eagle's claws tattooed on his 'knob' as he put it.
A visit to several of the more orthodox practitioners of the art met with flat refusals. The cab driver came to the rescue.
'I know who'll do it,' he said.
'Then take me there, my good fellow,' said Oliver.
Read the complete text: Page 5
A visit to several of the more orthodox practitioners of the art met with flat refusals. The cab driver came to the rescue.
'I know who'll do it,' he said.
'Then take me there, my good fellow,' said Oliver.
From Articles/Interviews:
The sound of a dull thud meant that one of our companions had now fallen off his stool onto the floor, for the second time inside of an hour. He was helped to his feet - again - but the event seemed to indicate to Ollie that something more lively was called for to spice up the flagging proceedings; we were to be subjected to the ritual of the 'singing-box' - an antique ottoman to the side of the room, into which the participants in the game were enclosed, and from where they sang or recited some 'ditty' until he was content to let them out again. This Ollie adjudicated by sitting on top of the box while they performed.
Read the complete text: INTERVIEW WITH THE WEREWOLF
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
It was about eight o'clock in the evening and there were six of us, and we were going off afterwards to have something to eat. Ollie had asked for the drinks to be sent up, and when the waiter brought the drinks, he also brought the bill for signing. Ollie saw how much it was and said, 'I'm not paying that!' and I thought - whoops, this is going to be a short evening: one drink and goodbye! But Ollie rang his driver from the bedroom, and fifteen minutes later, in came the driver with eight 'flunkies' behind him, each of whom carried a box. He had gone out and bought eight boxes of booze.
Read the complete text: Page 5
From Articles/Interviews:
"I don't think women mind men being unfaithful, they don't mind where you go as long as when you come back you give them some good sex. If you aren't giving them that, then they start thinking you're a non-goer, a puppet, and they become dissatisfied."
"If a woman is asking for it, then give it to her... wallop. Don't be frightened to dominate them, tell them to shut up and get on the bed... they love it. Don't mess about. Women are like a ripe cherry waiting to be picked. If you're going to do it then get on with it, don't muck about."
Read the complete text: A HELL OF A REED
From Articles/Interviews:
Another happy memory dates back to the same film. It is of Keith Moon, drummer and hellraiser extraordinaire. The two rebels established such a rapport that, when two or three "delightful young lovelies" got out of hand during location work for the film, it was to Moon that Oliver called for help. Despite his own pressing engagement, Moon responded. "The result was spectacular," recalls Oliver. "Moonie came storming into my room, stark naked! He threw a tray of glasses at the girls, and - in none-too-polite language - asked them to leave. They did, hurriedly!"
Read the complete text: OLLIE ENJOYS LIFE WITH A CAPITAL 'HELL'
From Articles/Interviews:
Oliver not only looks tough, he is tough. You are not taken on as a bouncer in a Soho strip club, as he was, unless you are able and willing to tackle any obstreperous client and chuck him out of the place. Nor do you get a job in a fairground boxing booth, like he did, unless you know how to use your mitts. Both these jobs came to grief, however. The police put a stop to the first (they raided the joint); and an opponent who proved to be better than Oliver called a halt to the second.
Read the complete text: OLIVER
From Articles/Interviews:
"I did have a very nasty scrape in Canada once, while making The Trap [with Rita Tushingham]. They shoved me into this big bullring surrounded by a high wall and overlooked by three Mounties armed with high-powered rifles. They then stuck this mountain lion on a tree above me, with the camera mounted behind, and pushed it into the ring. I was supposed to shoot it. The owner told me not to worry because if the lion sprung on me, by the time it actually made contact the Mounties would have shot it. In fact it only missed me by inches. I was also seriously hurt while making the same film by a pack of alsatians posing as wolves. I still have the scars from that attack."
Read the complete text: 'I'm three-quarters done'
From Articles/Interviews:
Oliver is protective of Josephine and takes his responsibilities to her very seriously. He explains that when a journalist was rude to her he had no option but to take action. "He was in our house so I stood up to throw him out." says Oliver with dignity. "Unfortunately, I tripped over the carpet and fell on top of him. Next thing I knew, he was complaining of broken ribs, black eyes and all sorts of other injuries. I ended up in court."
Read the complete text: 'I'm a butterfly!'
From Articles/Interviews:
Their first meeting was at Russell's house, where the cast (including Alan Bates and Glenda's screen sister, Jennie Linden) had assembled for a preliminary script reading. Before Glenda's arrival, Russell informed Reed, "You're going to work with an actress from the Royal Shakespeare Company." Reed, the erstwhile school drop-out, Soho nightclub bouncer, boxer, cab driver and former film extra who, with no formal drama training, much less theatrical experience, had become one of Britain's highest-paid movie stars, looked half suspiciously at the corpulent director and, in exaggeratedly 'cultured' tones, replied sarcastically, "Oh, jolly good."
Read the complete text: Glenda Jackson - A Study In Fire And Ice (excerpts)
From Articles/Interviews:
"I adore women," he said, "I don't understand them, I make no pretence of understanding them, but then I don't expect to - that's the constant majesty of women, being unpredictable and thinking differently from a man. Directly a woman becomes understandable, predictable, then she's deep in trouble. All these women going on about women's liberation - trying to shed the feminine mystique - well, all I can say is God help them."
Read the complete text: WHY OLIVER REED ADORES WOMEN
From Articles/Interviews:
The media label, 'hellraiser' was actually quite apt for Reed. Early in his career he did a famous nude wrestling scene with Alan Bates in Women In Love; in 1998, after a 72 hour bender, life imitated art when he dared a man to a naked wrestling match in a pub in Hampstead.
Read the complete text: Hall of infamy No 21: Oliver Reed
From Articles/Interviews:
This triggers memories. He has to stop for a few minutes to fight back tears as he talks about Reed. "He was a beautiful man. Everyone who knew him will always defend him. I wish I could say the same thing about myself."
Read the complete text: Old devil
From Articles/Interviews:
OLIVER Reed died, drink in hand, in a bar in Malta, while filming Gladiator. Arguably the acting fraternity's greatest hellraiser, he once asked: "I like the effect drink has on me. What's the point of staying sober?"
It was alleged that during the stag weekend prior to his second marriage, Reed downed 104 pints of beer. He was quick to dispel this rumour: "The event that was reported actually took place during an arm-wrestling competition in Guernsey 15 years ago."
Read the complete text: Hellraiser Crowe in new storm
From Articles/Interviews:
I was lucky to get the chance to write parts for him; very lucky indeed. He was a remarkable screen presence, and among those for whom I've been privileged to write, he ranks with any, Heston, Harrison, Scott, Lee, Brando, and the rest.
Read the complete text: The Light's on at Signpost - Memoirs of the movies, among other matters (excerpts)
From Articles/Interviews:
To see the 54-year-old former boxer, bouncer, hospital porter, and film extra as he was in 1992 was nonetheless to be reminded of the more youthful Reed - the square-jawed, steely-eyed star of the sixties, who was loved by the camera and blessed with a presence on screen that had assured him international fame by the time he came to be cast as Father Urbain Grandier in Russell's film of THE DEVILS. But I began, naturally enough, at the beginning. "How did it all start?" I asked him.
Read the complete text: INTERVIEW WITH THE WEREWOLF
From Articles/Interviews:
"Bleedin' Reedy", said the film cameraman, who lives down the road at Datchet. "Christ... I met him when I was working with him in Czechoslovakia on a film. He comes up to me and says: 'Do you want a fight?'" "No", I says. "But if it comes I can't run away. We got on from that moment. He had his 'minder', Prince, with him. One night I saw Princey chop down a dozen Czechs, when they started having a go..."
Read the complete text: A QUICK REED
From Articles/Interviews:
"I broke a window, quite accidentally, in this hotel, trying to open it. It was £10 to get it replaced and I obviously would have paid, but the police outside told me to go back in. I came back and thought: 'Why should they speak to me like that? I've done nothing wrong' - so I went outside again, and back, once more, they sent me. Everyone was laughing and joking, so I went out a third time and put my 'dukes' up, laughing all over my face, saying: 'Come on, come on, if you want a fight...' and they took me into the concrete barracks here; the prison. As it was the weekend and a bank holiday they kept me in until the Court sat Tuesday morning."
Read the complete text: A QUICK REED
From Articles/Interviews:
"I'm true blue - that's why I have a Union Jack. Very few men have a Union Jack in their library. Few men have a library. Very few men go to prison because they're true blue, and hit punchy tourists."
"I said, 'I'm true blue' - then nailed a couple of Americans. After I'd been in the nick and I was up before the judge, I explained that I was Athos, one of the three Musketeers."
Read the complete text: THE GREATEST LOVE OF MY LIFE
From Articles/Interviews:
'We told one of the crew while we were there that he could get a very beautiful Indian squaw for a packet of salt and some beads. So, sure enough, he got the salt and beads and we drove him to the trading post and went away and left him there. It was a three hour walk back to the hotel and it was snowing, but of course he turned up about three hours later minus a squaw, with a rather damp packet of salt, and the beads he had lost.'
Read the complete text: OLIVER!
From Articles/Interviews:
The orang-utan was Reed, and he was holding me by my ankles, dangling me from a sixth-floor window of the Grand Hotel, Torquay, while being liberally sprayed with a soda siphon by a drunk and giggling Andrew Ray - all for a bet, for God's sake - and I prayed he wouldn't drop me.
Read the complete text: David Hemmings - Blow-up and Other Exaggerations (excerpts)
From Encounters:
We still followed and watched him as he interacted with those kids.He was a truly a wonderful gentle man.After a whole day there he was leaving and my boyfriend called to him for more photos and he agreed.So many photos that day such a wonderful day and such a wonderful man.
Read the complete text: Encounters
From Articles/Interviews:
Years later, after becoming markedly overrefreshed at Newbury Races, he turned up naked outside Mabberleys on a cold November night. It was Philippa's birthday and he had experienced a little trouble finding the right house, startling a number of stable lads (male and female) in the neighbouring yard as he asked directions. When he finally found the right front door ("As it's your birthday, I've come in my birthday suit") the dramatic effect he desired was first deflated by young Rory Kindersley calling to his mother in a most matter-of-fact voice to say there was a funny man on the door-step without any clothes, and then by Philippa (not even bothering to investigate) responding from the kitchen, "Oh, it must be you, Oliver. Aren't you cold? Why don't you put a coat on?"
Read the complete text: Flings Over Fences - The Ups And Downs Of Gay Kindersley (excerpts)
From Articles/Interviews:
The boozy actor had turned the air blue throughout the show by peppering his speech with abuse like p***, f***, c***, s*** and b******s.
His answer to the live debate on why men are violent was: "No bullsh*t. It's all down to whether she wants to get shafted."
Waving his arms and rolling his eyes he added: "I'll put my plonker on the table if you don't give me my mushy peas."
Read the complete text: OLLIE'S TV SHAME
From Articles/Interviews:
In 1980, Reed began what would be the last relationship of his life with 16-year-old schoolgirl Josephine Burge - three years younger than his son - whom he met while doing handstands in his local bar. He was banned from the bar soon afterwards after climbing onto the roof and re-entering via the chimney. Josephine soon learnt what to expect of Reed when, waking up one morning, she found the bedroom full of empty beer cans and Reed on the end of the bed, naked but for a policeman's helmet, swapping jokes with a man neither of them knew.
Read the complete text: LEGENDS - Ollie Reed
Recommended reading:
The wasted talent of Oliver Reed: |
Devil of an actor |
A Hammer retrospective and close encounter with Oliver Reed: |
INTERVIEW WITH THE WEREWOLF |
Fallen stars, tragic lives and lost careers: |
Oliver Reed: Hyde in Plain Sight |
Loaded magazine interview with Oliver Reed: |
WHAT FRESH LUNACY IS THIS |
OliverReed.net:
Launched on 13th February 2004, OliverReed.net is a website created to celebrate the life and career of legendary British actor and 'hellraiser' Oliver Reed by gathering together articles and materials produced by interviewers, critics, friends and fans.
Read the complete text: OliverReed.net
OliverReed.net:
Did you ever encounter Oliver Reed?
If so, then why not share the experience by e-mailing encounters@oliverreed.net
If so, then why not share the experience by e-mailing encounters@oliverreed.net
OliverReed.net:
Have you got any images of Oliver Reed that you'd like to share with other Oliver Reed fans?
If so, then why not e-mail images@oliverreed.net
If so, then why not e-mail images@oliverreed.net
OliverReed.net:
Have you got any thoughts of your favourite (or not so favourite) Oliver Reed film, tv appearance, book etc. that you'd like to share with other Oliver Reed fans?
If so, then why not e-mail review@oliverreed.net
If so, then why not e-mail review@oliverreed.net
From Articles/Interviews:
WHATEVER you want to say about Ollie Reed, he went out in style - a style he had made his own - stretched out on a bar-room floor giggling that he had pains in his chest. It all seems a bit of a waste to me but then I've got a thing about drunks. One paper that I read claimed that he boasted to have once sunk 104 pints. As Tony Hancock might have pointed out, that is considerably more than an armful. A skinful, in fact. Where did he put it all?
Read the complete text: FAREWELL TO OLIVER REED AND A FRENCH EXCURSION... (excerpt)
From Articles/Interviews:
"However, I'm passionately against women's liberation. You can't be in love with women and support that sort of movement. They would do better to spend more time making themselves more attractive for men. Maybe they would get one and stop complaining."
Read the complete text: Oliver Reed! WHAT HE WANTS IN HIS LIFE - AND HIS WOMEN
From Articles/Interviews:
Looking back over Reed's work in film - the good, the bad and the magnificent - it becomes ever clearer that the film world lost one of its true greats on May 2, 1999. But more importantly, it lost - we all lost - a unique personality with whom we had grown for over 30 years. In many ways, Oliver Reed was one of the last great movie stars, for as much as he was a gifted, even brilliant actor, he was also a star in the best sense of the term.
So while we wait for next summer's release of his final performance in Ridley Scott's GLADIATOR, let the revival houses crank up the projectors, and let's pop our favorite Oliver Reed pictures into the VCR... and though most of us have neither the capacity nor the capital to quite equal Ollie's final $400 bar tab, let's knock back a few in memory of a man who gave us all so many treasured moments for so many years.
Read the complete text: Farewell to Oliver Reed
From Articles/Interviews:
Is it true what Ken Russell said: that there had been some manual stimulation - prior to shooting the scene - to enlarge your reputation, so to speak?
"Yes, that's true," he says solemnly, then roars with laughter. "There was, as you say, some manual stimulation prior to that scene. It was a freezing cold day and I don't know about you but ... ha ha ha ha ... and it was six o'clock in the morning! You should try it. Get up at six on a freezing morning and throw yourself repeatedly on to a hard floor. The open fire that they had in the background didn't warm the place up at all. And we weren't sweating like you see in the film, that was cold water and glycerine. On top of being freezing, they kept pouring cold water on us! So, yes, something had to be done to temporarily increase the size of my inadequate winkle."
Read the complete text: Who the hell does OLIVER REED think he is?
From Articles/Interviews:
He's such a perverse mixture of gentleman and thug, bully and friend, articulate and crude, funny and sad, warm and cold. Yet - whatever the contrasts, whatever the moods - there are two things that always run through him. First, his generosity of spirit and deed. Second, he's one of the few true showbusiness characters. A man who is larger than life.
Read the complete text: A HELL OF A REED
From Encounters:
I opened my mouth and after what seemed like a lifetime said, "Excuse me sir"..................Nothing!!! not a thing, Oliver just kept on talking not even acknowledging i was there,
i hadn't bargained on him blanking me and desperately tried again, "Eh,Sorry, Excuse me sir"...........this time he stopped talking mid sentence and i knew in that split second that i was in trouble,
he turned slowly and looked at me, not a glimmer of friendliness on his face, "Sir,... Sir," he said menacingly in his trade mark hushed voice, he stood up slowly, "Do i look like your F***ing school master boy?"
those piecing blue eyes boring into me, along with everyone else's within ear shot no doubt! Quick as a flash and in a last second somewhat brave attempt to diffuse the situation, i replied "yes, you do actually Sir, my old science teacher
Mr Rawlings" Oliver stood looking at me,his face betraying not the slightest show of humor, i could see Bill over his shoulder, taking a sip of his beer and eying Oliver up, trying to gauge his next move.
Oliver bought his face level with mine, never losing eye contact and said........."well, he is a most fortunate man then" a smile broke across his face, he put his arm around my shoulder, squeezed it tightly and said, "What can i do for you dear boy?"
Read the complete text: Encounters
From Encounters:
I watched Oliver hold court that day, true, he was in familiar surroundings and probably knew most of the people there, but he was charming, polite, generous to a fault,and utterly riveting.
As friends around him chatted and laughed i just looked on in amazement, nobody, and i mean nobody! was going to believe this, i hadn't even bought a camera with me (the one thing to this day i regret more than anything else!)
In between all the chat, jokes and laughter, Oliver found the time to listen to what i had to say with (what appeared to be) genuine warmth and understanding. On my intention to become an Ac-Tor (his pronunciation) he said...."Only do it if you are
sure in your heart that it will make you happy, it is not the same out there as it once was, your life and how you live it is far more important than any part you may or may not get!" "one other thing boy" (he never called me by my name that day for some reason)
"Enjoy every minute you have on this earth as if its your last, because one day it will be!" then, smiling he winked at me and seated himself back at the bar, "David"..........he boomed as another friend entered the bar...............................
Read the complete text: Encounters
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
Oliver Reed was waiting for us with a maniacal grin on his face. His eyes were red and his hair flattened.
I began by handing him a present I'd bought the previous afternoon.
According to reports, Ollie was going to attend a Scotland v Ireland rugby match at Murrayfield before the premiere of The Bruce. So, I had brought him an official SRU Scotland top.
Then, suddenly, he charged at me like a raging bull. I'm not exactly a butcher's pencil, so I readied my sixteen stone to meet Ollie's run.
Read the complete text: Page 8
From Articles/Interviews:
Some bucko, to coin a local metaphor, was thirsting for a fight, and I therefore acceded to his request that we repair to the bog to discuss terms. Well, to hell with it, I thought. What's the point? He hadn't done anything which called for a thumping. At least, not to me. So, I fixed him with an icy stare and said: "If you so much as raise either your voice or your fist to me again I will make you part of the urinal stalls for ever.'' He looked, wavered, his eyes left mine, and at that moment I knew I had won.
Read the complete text: MEN ONLY INTERVIEW - OLIVER REED
From Articles/Interviews:
It would be all to easy to draw the smug conclusion that the real tragedy of Oliver Reed's life is that he was blessed with an extraordinary talent and that, as soon as he found out how it could be put to good use, proceeded to squander it. That, like Georgie Best before him, and Alex Higgins after him, he simply pissed his talent up against the nearest pub wall. However, one suspects that, given the choice, Ollie would sooner be judged on his life than on his work. If, in the final analysis, his life's work is found wanting, then the same cannot be said about his life in all its boozy poet-ruffian glory. Quite simply, the last 25 years would have been a whole lot duller without Ollie there to show that the only way to go is too far. And bugger the consequences.
Read the complete text: WHAT FRESH LUNACY IS THIS
From Articles/Interviews:
"There was this new man who came to live in the area. He heard I was the king around here and wanted to challenge me to a vodka drinking contest. He passed out in twenty-five minutes. Now he pays homage to me."
Read the complete text: THE BARON OF BROOME HALL
From Articles/Interviews:
He could always be relied on to give lines full value (and often more than they were worth), and he was blessed with that rare quality that is beyond mere acting: style. He had it by the bucket; Flynn and Fairbanks never swept a cloak or threw out a challenge with greater panache.
Read the complete text: The Light's on at Signpost - Memoirs of the movies, among other matters (excerpts)
From Trivia/Anecdotes:
According to legend, a milkman turned up early one morning at Oliver Reed's house to find the actor had been up all night and was not entirely sober. Legend is rather vague about the subsequent events, but the actor is supposed to have kidnapped the milkman and taken him to London for a two-day drinking binge of epic proportions. The milkman was duly sacked, but Reed took him on as a gardener and doubled his wages.
From Articles/Interviews:
The next time you see one of the chat show appearances resurrected on a clip show or read yet another celebratory article running down his drunken 'achievements', just remember that he did it all so much better when there was a script in hand and a production crew behind him. The Damned, The Devils, The Debussy Film, The Party's Over, and so on: this should be Reed's real legacy, not slurring insults at a feminist author or offering to get his cock out before the watershed.
Read the complete text: Cracked Actor: In Defence Of Oliver Reed
From Articles/Interviews:
At 3. 12am in the Watergate Hotel , Washington DC, on February 16th, 1985, I was awoken from a jet-lagged coma by the shattering of glass, and loud oaths. With racing heart I found the light which revealed an inebriated apparition fixing me with a rheumy and strabismic eye.
"On yer facking feet, McGuigan," it roared, huge hams of fists windmilling. "I'm not Barry McGuigan, Oliver!" I croaked, attempting to bring my voice down to a manly calm. He lunged at me blindly like a bull to a red cape and collided with a table, whereupon he came face to face with his reflection in the mirror.
Immediately he straightened, barked at himself and then saluted: "Reed, Oliver. Corporal 18th field ambulance corps SAH," he shouted as if on parade. Dressed in a rugby shirt and the trousers of an evening suit he sported also satin ballet slippers. There was a vivid gash of blood visible in his scalp.
Then, just as suddenly, he reverted to his pugilist self: "Come on, lady boy, let's be 'avin yer then."
From Articles/Interviews:
Only one possible conclusion may be reached after reading this book and examining the evidence: that despite his homophobia, Reed was homosexual, or crypto-homosexual, or deutero-homosexual. He was always stripping off in male company and couldn't wait to expose his penis, which was tattooed with the design of an eagle. His kitchen cupboards had handles shaped like penises. His door knocker was a brass cock and balls. In pubs he thought it amusing to indulge in two-men kissing contests and, according to Sellers, was "unable to resist anyone in uniform".
Latest Updates:
| 08 Mar 2014 | Articles/Interviews: 2013. Oliver Reed: Starring boor with a bottle | |
| 20 Feb 2014 | Guestbook: Updated | |
| 13 Feb 2014 | OliverReed.net launched 10 years ago today, 13th Feb 2004 | |
| 06 Feb 2014 | Reviews: New | |
| 16 Dec 2013 | Guestbook: New | |
| 31 Oct 2013 | Articles/Interviews: 1993. Stuntman loses case against Oliver Reed | |
| 20 Sep 2013 | Articles/Interviews: 2013. What Fresh Lunacy Is This? - The Authorised Biography of Oliver Reed by Robert Sellers | |
| 04 Sep 2013 | Links: Updated | |
| 12 Aug 2013 | Encounters: New | |
| 07 Aug 2013 | Trivia/Anecdotes: Page 9 updated |
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