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Oliver Reed (February 13, 1938 – May 2,
1999) was an England|English actor known for his
macho image on and off screen. 

He was born in Wimbledon, London, England. The
nephew of film director Sir Carol Reed, the young
Oliver was dyslexic and was expelled from many
different Private school|private schools.

Reed never had any acting training or theatrical
experience. His films included Women In Love, The
Assassination Bureau, The Devils (film)|The
Devils,  I'll Never Forget What's 'Isname,
Oliver!, Tommy, The Three Musketeers, Zero
Population Growth (movie)|Zero Population Growth,
The Brood, Castaway, The Adventures of Baron
Munchausen, and Gladiator (2000 movie)|Gladiator. 

A major international star in the late 1960s and
1970s, Reed's career declined in the 1980s. Some
of his contemporaries have ascribed his frequent
appearances in films which wasted his talent to
his desire for financial security: when the UK
government raised taxes on personal income, Reed
declined to join the exodus of major British film
stars to Hollywood and other more tax-friendly
locales. 

Reed married three times. In 1959 he wed Kate
Burn, they had one son, Mark, before their divorce
in 1969. He then married Jackie Daryl in 1969, but
they divorced in 1970, after having a daughter,
Sarah. His last wife was Josephine Burge, whom he
married in 1985.

Burly and with a 48 inch chest, he began his
career playing romantic leads, but gradually
acquired a tougher image. He was famous for his
excessive drinking, and was once forced to leave
the set of a television discussion programme after
arriving drunk and attempting to kiss
feminism|feminist writer Kate Millett.  

Reed's drinking bouts fitted in with the "social"
attitude of many rugby union|rugby teams in the
sixties and seventies, and there are numerous
anecdotes such as Reed and 36 friends drinking, in
an evening, 60 gallons of beer, 32 bottles of
Scotch, 17 bottles of gin, four crates of wine and
one bottle of Babycham. He claimed of the story
that he drank 106 pints of beer on a 2-day binge
before marrying Josephine; "The event that was
reported actually took place during an
arm-wrestling competition in Guernsey about 15
years ago, it was highly exaggerated." Despite
occasional reports in publications such as The
Sydney Morning Herald, Reed never played for the
Sunday rugby team the Entertainers Rugby Football
Club|Entertainers.

Reed was often irritated that his appearances on
TV chat shows concentrated on his drinking feats,
rather than his latest film.

He died suddenly of a heart attack in Valletta,
Malta reportedly after drinking three bottles of
rum and after beating five sailors at arm
wrestling. His death came while he was in the
middle of filming Gladiator, and his remaining
scenes were completed using a body double and
digitally manipulating previously shot footage.
Alex Higgins, himself suffering from throat
cancer, was the only celebrity to attend Reed's
funeral in Ireland. "Consider Yourself", a song
from the hugely successful Oliver!, was played at
the funeral.

==External link==
*http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0001657/ IMDb entry
*http://www.oliverreed.net OliverReed.net