Oliver Reed Oliver Reed Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his upper-middle class, macho image, hellraiser lifestyle, and "tough guy" roles. Notable films include "The Trap" (1966), playing Bill Sikes in the Best Picture Oscar winner "Oliver!" (1968), "Women in Love" (1969), "Hannibal Brooks" (1969), "The Devils" (1971), portraying Athos in "The Three Musketeers" (1973), "Tommy" (1975), "Lion of the Desert" (1981), "Castaway" (1986), "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988) and "Funny Bones" (1995). For playing Antonius Proximo, an old, gruff gladiator trainer in Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" (2000) in what was his
Oliver Reed In 1993 Reed was unsuccessfully sued by his former stuntman and stand-in Reg Prince, for an injury incurred by the latter while filming "Castaway". In 2013, the writer Robert Sellers published "What Fresh Lunacy Is This? – The Authorised Biography of Oliver Reed". Reed was known for his alcoholism and binge drinking. Numerous anecdotes exist, such as Reed and 36 drinking friends drinking in one evening: 60 gallons of beer, 32 bottles of scotch, 17 bottles of gin, four crates of wine, and a bottle of Babycham. He subsequently revised the story, claiming he drank 106 pints of beer on