Oliver Reed MacDonald Fraser. Reed had an uncredited bit-part in Russell's "Mahler" (1974), was the lead in "Blue Blood" (1973) and "And Then There Were None" (1974), produced by Harry Alan Towers. His next project with Ken Russell was "Tommy", based on The Who's 1969 concept album "Tommy" and starring its lead singer Roger Daltrey. "Royal Flash" (1975) reunited him with Richard Lester and George MacDonald Fraser, playing Otto von Bismarck. He had a cameo in Russell's "Lisztomania" (1975). Reed appeared in "The New Spartans" (1975) then acted alongside Karen Black, Bette Davis, and Burgess Meredith in the Dan Curtis horror film
Oliver Reed Reed, and grandson of the actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his mistress, May Pinney Reed. His other grandmother was Beatrice Reed, "the only person who understood, listened to, encouraged and kissed Oliver". Reed claimed to have been a descendant (through an illegitimate step) of Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia. Reed attended 14 schools, including Ewell Castle School in Surrey. Oliver's brother Simon Reed, a sports journalist, works for British Eurosport. ""My father thought I was just lazy," Reed later said. "He thought I was a dunce." Reed worked as a boxer, a bouncer, a cabdriver and a hospital