Oliver Reed

Bull-necked, muscular British actor Oliver Reed got his first big break terrifying children in the BBC's kids series "The Golden Spur", and though he has played plenty of ruthless, scheming villains, he has proved his versatility through the years in numerous comedic and swashbuckling parts. After landing his first starring role in "The Curse of the Werewolf" (1961), he attracted attention as a sadistic and lecherous motorcycle gang leader in Joseph Losey's "The Damned" (1963; released in the USA as "These Are the Damned" in 1965) and as an upper class cut up in Michael Winner's "The Jokers" (1966). Reed's memorable turns as the evil Bill Sykes in his uncle Carol Reed's Oscar-winning musical "Oliver!" (1968) and as arrogant, intransigent mine owner Gerald Crich in Ken Russell's adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's "Women in Love" (1969) brought him international recognition. (His naked, homoerotic wrestling scene with Alan Bates was the subject of much controversy at the time for its unabashed depiction of full-frontal male nudity.) Follow-up roles in two Russell films ("The Devils" 1971, the Who's "Tommy" 1975), together with his first appearance as the hot-blooded Athos in Richard Lester's "The Three Musketeers" (1973), kept him in the spotlight.

Reed would act in three more swashbucklers for Lester, two of them in 1975, reprising Athos for "The Four Musketeers" and traveling forward a few centuries to play Otto von Bismarck in "The Royal Flash". (The final installment of the "Musketeer" series, "The Return of the Musketeers" 1993, went straight to video.) Demonstrating his comic brilliance in the perverse horror spoof "Dr. Heckyl & Mr. Hype" (1980), Reed was touching as the gruesomely deformed podiatrist (and foot fetishist) and had a field day playing a parody of macho leading men as Mr. Hype. He delivered a show-stopping turn as Vulcan in Terry Gilliam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988) and also portrayed Dolly Hopkins in Peter Chelsom's "Funny Bones" (1995). 1997 was a banner year for Reed who wrapped three films: "Marco Polo" with Jack Palance and Christopher Lee; his fifth film with Michael Winner, "Parting Shots" (alongside Diana Rigg, Ben Kingsley and Bob Hoskins); and Menahem Golan's "Louisa and the Jackpot". He died in May 1999 during the filming of what would be his last motion picture, Ridley Scott's spectacular "Gladiator" (2000).