Oliver Reed (February 13, 1938 – May 2, 1999) was an English actor known for his macho image on and off screen. His major films include Oliver!, Women In Love, The Assassination Bureau, The Devils, I'll Never Forget What's 'Isname, Tommy, The Three Musketeers, Burnt Offerings, The Brood, Castaway, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Lion of the Desert, and Gladiator.

Early life

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Born in Wimbledon, London as Robert Oliver Reed, the son of sports journalist Peter Reed and his wife Marcia, he was the nephew of film director Sir Carol Reed, and grandson of the actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree by his mistress May Pinney Reed. Dyslexic, Reed was expelled from many different private schools.

Career

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Starting off as an extra in films in the late 1950s (Reed had no acting training or theatrical experience), Reed got his first notable roles in Hammer films Sword of Sherwood Forest, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (both 1960), The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), Paranoiac, and The Damned (not the Visconti film, but an earlier English movie) (both 1963). In 1964 he starred in the first of six films directed by Michael Winner, The System, known as The Girl-Getters in the U.S. He first collabarated with director Ken Russell in a biographic of Claude Debussy in 1965, which would later be followed with his famous role in Women In Love (1969) in which he wrestled naked with Alan Bates in front of a log fire, followed by the controversial 1971 film The Devils, and the 1975 musical film Tommy based on The Who's 1969 concept album Tommy and starring its lead singer Roger Daltrey. In 1968 Reed played his memorable role of Bill Sikes in his uncle Carol Reed's screen version of the hit musical Oliver!.

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