Oliver! (film) in the United States, and Oliver Reed, who played Bill Sikes, had just begun to make a name for himself. Producer John Woolf suggested Oliver Reed for the role to the director Reed, without knowing that the two were in fact related. Ron Moody, who was also well known in Britain but not the US, recreated his London stage performance, after Peter Sellers, Dick Van Dyke and Peter O'Toole reportedly turned down the role. Elizabeth Taylor turned down the role of Nancy as well. Julie Andrews was also considered. Director Reed also had Shirley Bassey in mind, but his choice
Oliver! (film) second time. In the film, "Food, Glorious Food" and "Consider Yourself" were sung by the choristers of the Temple Choir in London, conducted by Sir George Thalben-Ball. The beginning section of Dickens's novel, in which Oliver is born in the workhouse, was never filmed, although there is evidence that it was supposed to have been. Still photos of this section exist in an "Oliver!" novelisation for children, published in 1968. In this same "Oliver!" storybook, Nancy has a final moment in which, after being fatally bludgeoned by Bill Sikes, she gasps out her dying words to Mr. Brownlow, but there