Robert Oliver Reed 14 February β 2 May was an English actor, known for his upper-middle class, macho image [ 1 ] and his heavy-drinking, "hellraiser" lifestyle. At the peak of his career, in , British exhibitors voted Reed fifth-most-popular star at the box office. After making his first significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early s, his notable film roles included La Bete in The Trap , Bill Sikes in Oliver!
Reed claimed he had worked as a boxer, a bouncer, a taxi driver and a hospital porter. He then did his compulsory army service in the Royal Army Medical Corps. I was in the peacetime army and they were all telling us youngsters about the war. Reed began his acting career as an extra in films. He appeared in the documentary Hello London He played a bouncer in The Two Faces of Dr.
Jekyll for Hammer Films with whom he would become associated; the director was Terence Fisher. Reed was then in The Bulldog Breed , another Wisdom film, playing the leader of a gang of Teddy Boys roughing up Wisdom in a cinema.
He played the role of Sebastian in the ITV series It's Dark Outside , which was popular with teenagers, making him an idol for the first time.
Reed's first starring role came when Hammer cast him as the central character in Terence Fisher 's The Curse of the Werewolf Everybody thought I was a cripple. Reed returned to Hammer for The Brigand of Kandahar , playing a villainous Indian in an imperial action film for Gilling.
