February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — Cork-based actor Oliver Reed, who starred in more than 50 films, died in Malta at the weekend after being taken ill while out with drinking with friends.
The hell-raising Reed, a nephew of the film director Carol Reed, moved to Ireland in 1993 and bought Castle McCarthy, a former rectory at Churchtown near Buttevant in North Cork.
He was in Malta making a film, "The Gladiator," when he died in an ambulance on the way to hospital.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the London-born Reed was regarded as one of the leading British actors of his generation for his parts in "Oliver!," and "Women in Love," but his reputation on the screen was overshadowed by spectacular drunken antics off it.
He had no formal training as an actor and got his first break on a TV serial after a variety of jobs including minicab driver, strip club bouncer, fairground boxer and mortuary attendant.
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Reed, 61, played a wide range of screen roles from the brooding villain Bill Sikes in "Oliver!" directed by his uncle — which made him a worldwide star — to Hammer horror movies and light comedies.
His heavy drinking made him an unpredictable guest for television chat show hosts as one of his party pieces was to strip.
In his adopted Cork home, where he moved with his second wife, Josephine, he supported many local charities and groups. In 1997, he helped raise £81,000 for a ailing Cork baby.