Many individuals of a certain age regard Oliver Reed as one of the preeminent British actors of his era.
During his zenith, Reed earned the moniker of a ‘Brit-flick icon’ from the British Film Institute (BFI) for his lead roles in Oliver!, The Three Musketeers, and The Devils.
Regrettably, his penchant for alcohol began to hinder his career in the mid-’70s, persisting until his demise.
According to a biography detailing Reed and his contemporaries Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole, and Richard Harris, the actor purportedly consumed 100 pints within a 24-hour span.
Robert Sellers, author of “Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris, and Oliver Reed,” characterized the quartet as ‘four of the greatest hellraisers that ever walked, staggered or fell into a pub’.
Reed’s final cinematic endeavor before his passing in 1999 was Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. Reflecting on the actor’s demise, Scott recounted the moment when Reed ‘dropped down dead on the floor of a pub’ in Malta.
Scott told 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 recounted that moments before his death, Reed encountered a group of sailors in a pub in Malta.
According to Franzoni, the sailors purportedly challenged the actor to a drinking contest.
“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.”
