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Oliver Reed
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Oliver Reed, the feisty, hard-drinking actor who was as well known for his antics off-screen as he was for his performances on-screen, died of an apparent heart attack Sunday in Malta. He was 61. Reed, who played the fearsome Bill Sikes in the 1968 musical "Oliver!," died on the way to a hospital after taking ill while drinking with friends in a bar in the Maltese capital of Valetta, police said. Reed was on the Mediterranean island filming a new movie, "The Gladiator."
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For the next ten years Oliver Reed's career was in the ascendant. He collaborated with Ken Russell on Women in Love (1969), The Devils (1971), and Tommy (1974) with equal measures of acclaim and controversy. Richard Lester cast him as Athos in the hugely successful The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974). Reed is... probably best remembered for his performance as Bill Sikes in his uncle's Oscar-winning musical Oliver! (1968).
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Prison warden Oliver Reed has his wife snatched by violent criminals who demand the release of an inmate. When the prisoner is allowed to escape the plot thickens into a tale of corruption, conspiracy and murder. This tense crime drama features an explosive score from the legendary Ennio Morricone.
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Oliver Reed ... appeared in Russell's excessive The Devils in 1971, and achieved popularity starring as Athos in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers in 1974 and its sequel, The Four Musketeers in 1975. He was severely injured during the filming of the windmill fight scene in The Three Musketeers. Also in 1975, he gave singing a try in Russell's adaptation of The Who's rock opera Tommy and Richard Lester's Royal Flash. In 1978, he starred in Michael Winner's The Big Sleep.
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Oliver Reed died from a heart attack on May 2nd 1999 while – true to form - drinking with his wife and friends in a bar in Malta. A little over a year later, we’re finally getting the chance to witness Reed’s final acting role, as Maximus’ trainer, in Ridley Scott’s much anticipated Gladiator. In a career that spanned over 40 years, and 60 films, Reed was once described as “Always word perfect and unfailingly courteous to colleagues and technicians”. However, despite being famous for his professional behaviour among colleagues, it was Reed’s notoriety as one of this country’s finest hellraisers for which most will remember him. Bubblegun is happy to add further fuel to fire of Ollie’s legend.
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Legendary drinker and rabble-rouser, Oliver Reed was born in London in 1938. He first caught the public's attention in a 1961 Hammer horror film Curse Of The Werewolf, but he refused to be typecast. Reed appeared in many good films during the 1960s, including These Are The Damned, the Oscar winning Oliver! and Ken Russell's groundbreaking hit Women In Love, in which he famously wrestled nude with Alan Bates. Thereafter, he starred in The Three Musketeers and Tommy, as well as a series of more trashy films like The Brood. Reed died in 2000 during the filming of Gladiator, having turned in a wonderful, reflective performance as an ageing former star of the amphitheatre.
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Oliver Reed