Oliver Reed "Tommy". With their reckless lifestyles Reed and Moon had much in common, and both cited the hard drinking actor Robert Newton as a role model. Christopher Lee, a friend and colleague of Reed, commented on his alcoholism in 2014: "when he started, after [drink] number eight, he became a complete monster. It was awful to see." Reed was often irritated that his appearances on TV talk shows concentrated on his drinking feats rather than his latest films and acting career. On 26 September 1975, in front of a speechless Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show", the bellicose Reed had a
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.