Oliver Reed; ‘Women in Love’ Star Was Infamous for Drinking

Oliver Reed, the British actor as well-known for his off-camera drinking, brawling and outspoken opinions as for his roles in more than 50 motion pictures ranging from horror films to the highly respected “Women in Love” and “Oliver!” died Sunday. He was 61.

Reed died on the Mediterranean island of Malta, where he was filming “The Gladiator.” He fell ill while drinking in a bar in the town of Valetta and died en route to the hospital, according to Malta officials, who plan an autopsy.

Although Reed was the nephew of the late, highly respected Oscar-winning British director Sir Carol Reed, the actor often said he cared more about living than making movies. He frequently threatened to retire--even at the peak of his success with “Women in Love” in 1969 when he was only 30.

That film of a D.H. Lawrence novel earned the first best actress Oscar for Glenda Jackson, who remembered Reed on Sunday as “immaculately professional.”

Reed sometimes resented interviewers asking about his drinking feats (like downing 106 pints of beer in 24 hours) instead of his current film. But he readily told The Times in 1971 that he had to drink a whole bottle of vodka before shooting his nude wrestling scene with Alan Bates in “Women in Love.”

“I don’t mind exposing myself in a bedroom or a urinal, but I had to get drunk before I could get in front of the camera,” he said. “I haven’t been offered a nude scene since. And I don’t want one. Some of the girls I date got very jealous.”

Reed never lacked for opinions of his co-stars (once excoriating Raquel Welch only to be cast opposite her in a subsequent film) or women in general.

“Women are good for nothing but sex and pillow talk,” he told The Times in the same 1971 interview, at the outset of the feminist movement. “I don’t care if they take off their bras and pants as long as they jump into my bed afterward.”

By 1987, Reed was living on the isle of Guernsey with his second wife, Josephine Burge, whom he began dating when she was 16, and again considering retirement. In some three-score movies, he told The Times then, he could count the good ones on one hand--”Oliver!” in which he played Bill Sykes for his director uncle in 1968, “Women in Love” the next year, and “The Devils” in 1971. But then along came “Castaway,” which he wanted to shoot for director Nicolas Roeg, and that kept him in the business.

After “Castaway” (the true story of writer Gerald Kingsland, who advertised for a woman to accompany him to a deserted island) appeared in 1987, a Times reviewer evaluated:

“Oliver Reed is a strange actor, and his barrel-like physiognomy and menacing eyes often seem best suited for the gargoyle roles (British director) Ken Russell gives him. But here Reed gives a vulnerable, deeply human performance, one of the best of his career. As Gerald, he reminds you of an ersatz Hemingway with his pants down, besotted on mortality.”

Born in Wimbledon, England, Reed was expelled from 13 schools and by age 17 had worked in a mortuary, washed floors, been an audit clerk in a seed factory, a taxi driver, a bouncer, a boxer and a hospital orderly. After military service, he asked his famous uncle how to become an actor and was told to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

He didn’t.

“I just queued up in line with other fellows and got a part in Adam Faith’s ‘Beat Girl,’ ” Reed once told The Times.

From 1955, he worked steadily, predominantly in horror films--”The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll,” “Curse of the Werewolf,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Pit and the Pendulum”--and costume adventures--”Sword of Sherwood Forest,” “The Three Musketeers,” “The Four Musketeers,” “Crossed Swords (The Prince and the Pauper),” “The Return of the Musketeers.”

He was also remembered for Russell’s 1975 rock opera “Tommy” with Roger Daltry and Ann-Margret.

Reed occasionally appeared on television, most notably in “Return to Lonesome Dove.”

He is survived by his wife of 13 years, Josephine, and a daughter, Sarah.