Nephew of the famous film director Carol Reed and grandson of the famous theater actor and impresario Herbert Birbohm Tree (one of the founders of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), Robert Oliver Reed was born on 13 February 1938 in London. His parents divorced early and preferred not to see each other, and Oliver grew up virtually on his own. Since childhood, he suffered from dyslexia and therefore was always among the most lagging students. At the same time, strong, physically strong Reed was a good athlete and at one time headed the school athletic team. He replaced many private schools, but the streets of his native London became his real university of life. Before graduating from school, he got a job as a bouncer in one of the nightclubs in Soho. Subsequently, he entered the service in the medical corps of the British army, but due to the consequences of dyslexia, he was unable to start a career as an officer and returned to civilian life. He worked as a watchman, a professional boxer, a taxi driver, until in the late fifties he began to act in films, first as an extra, later as an actor in episodes.
Thanks to the patronage of relatives, he played Richard I in the children's television series "Golden Spurs" (1959), but in the movies he first got episodic roles: a factory worker in "Angry Silence" (1960, Guy Green), a ballet dancer in "Gentleague" (1960, dir. Bazil Darden) and Dr. His first notable role, a young werewolf Leon, he received in the horror film studio "Hummer" "The Curse of the Werewolf" (1961, dir. Terence Fisher). Soon he starred in several more films of this film studio. Already in those years, Reed with his strong, dense physique, in which remarkable physical strength was guessed, a sullen look from the underside and a heavy square chin was most often invited to the role of negative characters. However, as his acting talent improved, he managed to significantly expand the range of his roles.
One of the first to pay attention to the potential of the young actor directors Michael Winner and Ken Russell. He played leading roles in Winner's comedies The System (1964), Jokers (1967) and I'll Never Forget What That Name Means (1967), as well as composer Claude Debussy in one of Ken Russell's early works, the television film Debussy (1965). However, the real breakthrough he managed to make only in 1968, as London thief Bill Sykes in the musical of his uncle Carol Reed Oliver! (1968). This was followed by two rather interesting psychological roles in Ken Russell: the saturated life of industrialist Gerard Creach in the decadent drama Women in Love (1969, based on the novel by David Herbert Lawrence) and the priest Grandier in Devils (1971). Subsequently, Reed worked with Russell in such films as "Maler" (1974), "Listomania" (1975), "Tommy" (1975) and much later, in the nineties in "Prisoner of Honor" (1991).
Being in the heyday of his acting career, Reed played Athos in Richard Lester's film "Three Musketeers" (1973) and its sequel "Four Musketeers" (1974) and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in his "Royal shine" (1975). His other starry-period paintings include The Assassin's Bureau (1969, dir. Basil Durden), The Plant Duck (1972, dir. Douglas Hickox) and The Prince and the Beggar (1977, dir. Richard Fleischer). Being one of the most popular and highly paid British actors, Reed, known for his unpredictable behavior and irreconcilable character, spoiled relations with Hollywood producers and refused to star in the films “The Hustle” (1973, directed by George Roy Hill) and “Jaws” (1975, directed by Steven Spielberg). With the onset of the eighties, the flow of interesting roles dried up and for several years he starred in a variety of, often passing films, which mainly replenished his bank account, but could not add anything to his acting biography.
Nevertheless, with a violent temper, Reed never let the public forget himself, always remaining in the spotlight of the press, participating in all sorts of scandals and hooligan antics, accompanied by excessive alcohol consumption. It wasn’t until the mid-eighties that he again made himself speak of as a talented actor, starring in Nicholas Rouge’s psychological drama The Exile (1986) as a writer trying to find his happiness on a remote tropical island. Later, he played the god Vulcan in the fantastic fairy tale "Baron Munchausen" (1988, dir. Terry Gilliam) and again, after a long break, returned to the role of Athos in "The Return of the Musketeers" (1989, dir. Richard Lester).
He later resumed cooperation with Michael Winner, appearing in the funny role of the murderer Jamie in his crime comedy "Fat Shot" (1998). In general, his later paintings were quite unequal. Reed’s best acting work of recent years was the psychological role of the cynical owner of the gladiator circus Proximo in the historical blockbuster Gladiator (2000), Ridley Scott. He died of a heart attack on 2 May 1999 in the port city of Valeta, Malta, where Gladiator was filming. Oliver Reed, whose scandalous fame often overshadowed his outstanding talent, remained in memory as one of the most underrated among famous British actors.
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