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 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