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 to the scarring. He claimed to have turned down major roles in two Hollywood movies, including "The Sting" (although he did appear in the 1983 sequel "The Sting II"). When the UK government raised taxes on personal income, Reed initially declined to join the exodus of major British film stars to Hollywood and other more tax-friendly locales. In the late 1970s Reed relocated to Guernsey as a tax exile. He had sold his large house, Broome Hall, between the villages of Coldharbour and Ockley some years earlier and initially lodged at the Duke of Normandie Hotel in Saint Peter Port.