Diana Rigg & Oliver Reed: The Shocking Truth!

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Reed was in Spasms (1983), Two of a Kind (1983), Masquerade (1984), Christopher Columbus (1985), Black Arrow (1985) and Captive (1986). The first time I ever saw Oliver Reed in a movie was when he played Bill Sykes in his uncle Carol’s production of OLIVER! In thick set of muscle, growling voice and manner, he was a type generally more useful to a Hollywood casting agency than to British cinema of the time - the young heavy; but that scowl won him his first lead role in a Hammer horror of ritual creakiness, The Curse Of The Werewolf. But he had a great heart and was often an example of love and kindness to his family and longtime friends as well as to actors and others on the set. Reed was the lead in a Canadian-British co-production, The Trap (1966), co-starring with Rita Tushingham.

Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were looking for a replacement for Sean Connery and Reed (who had recently played a resourceful killer in The Assassination Bureau) was mentioned as a possible choice for the role, with Timothy Dalton and Roger Moore as the other choices. Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Oliver Reed and Peter O'Toole were among the four greatest actors of their generation.Ridley Scott says Oliver Reed 'dropped down dead' after challenging sailors to drinking match while filming Gladiator".

He also had a daughter, Sarah, from an overlapping long relationship with a ballet dancer, Jacquie Daryl.More successful than either was his fourth film with Russell, a film version of Women in Love (1969), in which he wrestled naked with Alan Bates in front of a log fire.