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
Norman Sykes fee of £2,000, but during his time there he was dogged by injury and made just three League appearances for them. He played 52 League games for Stockport County in seventeen months between September 1965 and February 1967, before spending the remainder of the 1966–67 season with Doncaster Rovers. Following that he dropped down to non-League football, where he played for Altrincham. After his footballing career Sykes opened a teetotal nightclub in Manchester in 1975, and later lived and worked in Manchester. Norman Sykes Norman A.J. Sykes (16 October 1936 – 9 December 2009) was a professional footballer who played