Tragic death of actor Oliver Reed who challenged sailors to drinking match halfway through filming movie
Many of a certain age will consider Oliver Reed to be one of the finest British actors of his generation.
At his peak, Reed was dubbed a 'Brit-flick icon' by the British Film Institute (BFI) for his starring roles in Oliver!, The Three Musketeers and The Devils.
Sadly, his drinking habits began affecting his career in the mid '70s and it lived with him up until his death.
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The actor is said to have once consumed 100 pints over the course of 24 hours, according to a book about Reed and his friends Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole and Richard Harris.
Robert Sellers - who is the author of Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris and Oliver Reed - described the group as ‘four of the greatest hellraisers that ever walked, staggered or fell into a pub’.
Reed's last film before his death in 1999 was Ridley Scott's Gladiator, as the director recalled the time the film star 'dropped down dead on the floor of a pub' in Malta.
Scott told Variety back in 2020: “One Sunday morning, he dropped down dead on the floor of a pub. He probably had a couple of pints and said, ‘I don’t feel good,’ laid on the carpet and died.
“David Hemmings (Cassius) promised to look after him and said to me [upon his death], ‘I’m really sorry, old boy’,” Scott remembered.
Screenwriter David Franzoni said Reed met up with a crew of sailors in a pub in Malta in the minutes before his death.
He claims that they challenged the actor to a drinking match.
“He’s in this bar in Valletta and this British Destroyer is anchored in the bay and the crew comes in,” Franzoni said.
“He challenges the crew to some sort of drinking debauch. He drinks some, passes out and dies. I still have his bar tab, by the way.”
Gladiator actor Omid Djalili, who was in Malta at the time of Reed's death, added: "He hadn't had a drink for months before filming started.
"Everyone said he went the way he wanted, but that's not true. It was very tragic.
"He was in an Irish bar and was pressured into a drinking competition.
"He should have just left, but he didn't."
Reed himself once insisted: “I don’t have a drink problem. But if that was the case and doctors told me I had to stop, I’d like to think that I would be brave enough to drink myself into the grave.”
Please drink responsibly. If you want to discuss any issues relating to alcohol in confidence, contact Drinkline on 0300 123 1110, 9am–8pm weekdays and 11am–4pm weekends for advice and support
Anish Vij