- He died of a heart attack in a bar after downing three bottles of Captain Morgan's Jamaica rum, eight bottles of German beer, numerous doubles of Famous Grouse whiskey and Hennessy cognac, and beating five much younger Royal Navy sailors at arm-wrestling. His final bar bill was 270 Maltese lira, about £450 or $600.
- While filming The Three Musketeers (1973), he was stabbed in the throat during the windmill duel scene and nearly died.
- Reed died during the filming of Gladiator (2000). It cost the company $3 million to recreate his face so he could "appear" in the scenes he still had left to shoot.
- Buried in Bruhenny Cemetery in Buttevant, Cork (Ireland). His grave-site was picked so that it was in full view of his favorite pub "O'Briens".
- He and Russell Crowe didn't get along during the making of Gladiator (2000).
- A 1963 bar fight caused facial cuts requiring 36 stitches. It left him with a permanent scar, which he initially feared would put an end to his screen career.
- Some obituaries mentioned the similarities between Reed's death and Robert Newton's. Newton, a notoriously heavy drinker, remained sober while filming Around the World in 80 Days (1956), which was supposed to be his big comeback. Toward the end of filming, he indulged in one final drinking marathon and died from a heart attack.
- The Maltese public house in which he died was renamed "Ollie's Last Pub" in his memory.
- Reed remains the only British film star who never had any stage work of any kind. A 1980s National Portrait Gallery show noted this, saying he was their only pure film actor.
- His wrestling scene with Alan Bates in Women in Love (1969) was the first time full frontal male nudity had featured in a mainstream movie.
- Michael Winner and former snooker champion Alex Higgins, who had throat cancer, were the only celebrities to attend Reed's funeral in Ireland.
- He starred in the first film to say "fuck", I'll Never Forget What's'isname (1967). He also starred in the first British film to be rated X just for the violent content, Sitting Target (1972).
- He was a close friend of The Who's drummer Keith Moon.
- In 1973 Steve McQueen flew to England to meet Reed and discuss a possible film collaboration. "Reed showed me his country mansion and we got on well," recalled McQueen. "He then suggested he take me to his favorite London nightclub." The drinking, which started at Reed's home, Broome Hall, continued into the night until Reed could hardly stand. Suddenly, and with no apparent warning, he vomited over McQueen's shirt and trousers. "The staff rushed around and found me some new clothes, but they couldn't get me any shoes," said McQueen. "I had to spend the rest of the night smelling of Oliver Reed's sick."
- Had an intense dislike for Jack Nicholson, whom he called "a balding midget". (Reed claimed Nicholson was only 5'7" tall).
- Infamously clashed with Shelley Winters on Episode dated 6 July 1972 (1972). He got angry at her for constantly jokingly interrupting the stories he was trying to tell and, when Winters had to leave the show early, Reed told Johnny Carson that he thought that women were happy in the kitchen. She returned and poured a cup of water over his head. He then claimed it was whiskey that she poured over him.
- Narrowly missed out on playing superspy James Bond because of his love of alcohol and fighting. A new biography of the star uncovered a letter from Bond mastermind Albert R. Broccoli outlining how close he came to replacing Sean Connery in the role. Broccoli wrote, "With Reed we would have had a far greater problem to destroy his image and re-mold him as James Bond. We just didn't have the time or money to do that." According to Cliff Goodwin, author of the book "Evil Spirits", "Oliver was probably within a sliver of being cast as Bond." He adds, "But by 1968 his affairs were public and he was already drinking and fighting - as far away from the refined Bond image as you could get.".
- He never forgot his Hammer roots. After hitting the big time, he went back to pay homage to his horror beginnings to narrate the full Hammer retrospective, a reminder that his voice was the one quality the English critics admired about him.
- By the mid-1970s he was widely considered Britain's biggest movie star. He declined roles in The Sting (1973) and Jaws (1975) because he didn't want to move to Los Angeles. A Hollywood executive claimed, "Reed didn't turn us down. We turned him down. We like our stars to have respect - Oliver Reed didn't respect anyone and he showed it.".
- In his final years, when he lived in Ireland, Reed was a regular in the one-roomed O'Brien's Bar in Churchtown, County Cork, close to the 13th-century cemetery in the heart of the village where he was laid to rest.
- During the filming of "The Three Musketeers," co-star Christopher Lee described Oliver Reed as "a menace" when armed with a sword.
- Michael Winner said that Oliver Reed was a rather shy, withdrawn person when sober.
- He never had any acting training or stage experience.
- He appeared in two Best Picture Academy Award winners: Oliver! (1968) and Gladiator (2000).
- Bought Broome Hall, a 63-bedroom Victorian mansion in Surrey, in 1970.
- Nephew of the film director Sir Carol Reed, who directed him in his breakthrough role as the villainous Bill Sikes in Oliver! (1968).
- Had a tattoo on his penis. According to Patrick Warburton, Reed showed him the tattoo the first day they worked together.
- The actor he admired most was Errol Flynn.
- He agreed to play Eddie Mars in The Big Sleep (1978) because he admired the film's star Robert Mitchum so much.
- At age 22, Reed was paid £90 per week for his first starring role in The Curse of the Werewolf (1961). It was banned in Spain for many years because the government thought it portrayed Spain as a backward nation.
- Was mocked by Richard Harris when the Irish actor sent Reed two crutches. On one crutch was written the name Ken Russell and the other on Michael Winner's name on it. Included was a note from Harris which read: "Careful Ollie old boy. Don't lose these crutches, otherwise you shall fall right on your a***.".
- On location for The Hunting Party (1971), Reed bemoaned the necessity of faking an American accent. Along with his love of Broome Hall and English pubs, it cemented his decision not to move to Hollywood.
- Lost weight to appear in Castaway (1986) on a diet of vodka.
- He loved horses all his life and also enjoyed breeding and rearing them.
- Reed released several pop music singles, with limited success. They included "Wild One"/"Lonely for a Girl" (1961), "Sometimes"/"Ecstasy" (1962), "Baby It's Cold Outside" (duet with Joyce Blair) and "Wild Thing" (1992) (duet with Alex Higgins). He also narrated a track called "Walpurgis Nacht" by heavy metal band Death SS.
- Said that when he made the infamous drunken appearance on the Michael Aspel chat show when he sang a raucous rendition of "Wild Thing", that the producers of that show had plied him with spirits in the green room prior to the interview so that he was already plastered when he came on stage.
- Befriended Charlton Heston while filming The Three Musketeers (1973).
- During the Falklands War in 1982, Reed covered his house in a huge Union Jack flag and decorated every room with military memorabilia.
- In order to avoid charges of nepotism, Reed deliberately avoided working for his uncle, director Carol Reed, until he was already established as a star in British movies.
- Father of Mark Thurloe Reed (born January 21, 1961) with his first wife Kate Byrne and of Sarah Reed (born 1970) from his 12-year relationship to dancer Jacqueline Daryl.
- He was originally cast as Mordechai "Fingers" Adams in Cutthroat Island (1995), but was fired after getting in a bar fight and threatening to expose himself to Geena Davis. George Murcell eventually took his place.
- For a brief period in the late 1960s Reed was the highest paid actor in Europe, but by the early 1980s he was reduced to starring in dire European films.
- In 1979 he published an autobiography, entitled "Reed All About Me". Asked to describe the book by an interviewer he replied, "It's a load of bollocks really.".
- He was nearly killed in a friendly sword-fight with director Ken Russell. He described the incident in the December 1973 issue of Photoplay Film Monthly: "Ken Russell came down here last Sunday and we had a fight. I have two large, double-handed swords and he nearly killed me. He tore my shirt right down to here, and I was only fighting with a small sword, from The Three Musketeers (1973), and I said, "I'm going to kill you!" So, he said, "I'm going to kill you!!" All his viewfinders and his pince nez, and his silver hearts with "I am allergic to aspirin" on them, his Mickey Mouse shoes, his pontification about people's varicose veins, that was all blown to the wind. He left here at four. He said, "you didn't really mean that about killing me, did you?" But we were very serious at the time. But whatever it is that allows for that lunacy or sense of the ridiculous comes across in the work that we do. He's extraordinarily talented.".
- In October 1981, Reed was arrested in Vermont, where he was tried and acquitted of disturbing the peace while drunk. However, he pleaded no contest to two assault charges and was fined $1,200.
- Described his role as Father Grandier in Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) as the best performance he ever gave.
- He faced heavy criticism in the late 1980s for appearing in exploitation films produced by Harry Alan Towers. They were mostly filmed in South Africa under the apartheid regime, and released straight to video in the US and UK.
- He suffered from acute tinnitus for many years.
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