Oliver Reed

Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor renowned for his upper-middle class, macho image and his infamous "hellraiser" lifestyle. His screen career, which spanned over four decades from 1955 to 1999, saw him peak in 1971 when British exhibitors voted Reed as the fifth-most-popular star at the box office. Reed made significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early 1960s, and his notable film roles included Bill Sikes in Oliver! (a film directed by his uncle, Carol Reed, that won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Picture), the title role in Hannibal Brooks, and Antonius Proximo in Gladiator (2000). Reed's exceptional portrayal of the old, gruff gladiator trainer in Ridley Scott's Gladiator, his final film, earned a posthumous nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture in 2000. However, the British Film Institute (BFI) suggested Reed's career was punctuated from the mid-1970s onwards by his struggle with alcoholism.

Reed was born on 13 February 1938 in Wimbledon, southwest London, to Peter Reed, a sports journalist, and Marcia (née Napier-Andrews). He was the nephew of renowned film director Sir Carol Reed, and the grandson of the actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Reed's colorful personal life saw him claim he had worked as a boxer, a bouncer, a taxi driver, and a hospital porter before switching to acting. Interestingly, he also asserted that he was a descendant of Peter the Great, the Tsar of Russia. Despite being associated with heavily macho roles in his acting career, Reed also released several singles in the popular music vein, with limited success.