Sellers - What Fresh Lunacy is This?

What Fresh
Lunacy is This?

Also by Robert Sellers

Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Burton,
Harris, OToole and Reed

Hollywood Hellraisers: The Wild Life and Fast Times of Marlon Brando,
Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson

An AZ of Hellraisers: A Comprehensive Compendium of
Outrageous Insobriety

Dont Let the Bastards Grind You Down: How One Generation of
British Actors Changed the World

Very Naughty Boys: The Inside Story of
Handmade Films

The True Adventures of the Worlds Greatest Stuntman
(with Vic Armstrong)

James Robertson Justice: Whats the Bleeding Time?
A Biography (with James Hogg and Howard Watson)

Little Ern!: The Authorised Biography of Ernie Wise (with James Hogg)

The Authorized Biography of Oliver Reed

Robert Sellers

Constable London

Constable & Robinson Ltd
5556 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com

First published in the UK by Constable,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson, 2013

Copyright Robert Sellers 2013

The right of Robert Sellers to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions with references to copyright material, both illustrative and quoted. We apologize for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make appropriate acknowledgements in any future edition.

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication
Data is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-47210-112-9 (hardback)

ISBN 978-1-47210-114-3 (ebook)

Printed and bound in the UK

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Jacket design & typography www.blacksheep-uk.com ; cover photo Alamy

I do not live in the world of sobriety.

Oliver Reed

I received invaluable cooperation from the family of Oliver Reed. My sincere thanks go to his brothers David and Simon, his children Mark and Sarah, and his widow Josephine. I felt privileged talking to them.

I would also like to thank the many friends and work colleagues who agreed to share their memories of Oliver, memories that were often funny, sad, traumatic, and bemusing, often all at the same time:

Carole Andr, Michael Apted, Vic Armstrong, David Ball, Karen Black, Stan Boardman, Leslie Bricusse, Eleanor Bron, Barbara Carrera, Geraldine Chaplin, Stephan Chase, Michael Christensen, Bernie and Joyce Coleman, Don Coutts, Michael Craig, Wendy Craig, Jacquie Daryl, Pierre David, Brian Deacon, Quinn Donoghue, Greg Dyke, Mark Eden, Samantha Eggar, Julia Foster, Stuart Freeman, Paul and Nora Friday, Mick Fryer, Ray Galton, Terry Gilliam, Menahem Golan, Johnny Goodman, Stuart Gordon, Sheba Gray, Piers Haggard, Georgina Hale, Noel Harrison, Paul Heiney, Fraser Heston, Mike Higgins, John Hough, Glenda Jackson, Charles James, Peter James, Charles Jarrott, Kerrie Keane, Paul Koslo, Sir Christopher Lee, Mark Lester, Carol Lynley, Nico Mastorakis, Peter Medak, Murray Melvin, Eben Merrill, Jane Merrow, Mick Monks, Oswald Morris (1999 interview), Brian Murphy, Steve Neill, Barry Norman, Pat OBrien, Gerry OHara, Ian Ogilvy, Anthony Perry, Johnny Placett, Warren Raines, Reginald Rea, Muriel Reed, Selwyn Roberts, Maria Rohm, Yvonne Romain, Ken Russell, Jimmy Sangster, Janette Scott, Alan Simpson, Elke Sommer, Louise Sorel, Pierre Spengler, Graham Stuart, Brian Thompson, Barry Turner, Jonathan Vanger, Patrick Warburton, Douglas Wick, Jack Wild (1999 interview), Billy Williams, Ali Wilson, Michael Winner, Katherine Woodville, Sir John Woolf (1999 interview), Michael York, Richard Zanuck.

On 2 May, the anniversary of Oliver Reeds death, the small village cemetery of Churchtown in County Cork, Ireland, is host to a very special pilgrimage. Family and friends congregate beside a small grave, sit on the grass and chat, laugh, drink, and share stories about an extraordinary individual, not forgetting to regularly douse his grave with a gin and tonic; just so the old man doesnt feel left out.

As the years pass remarkably its almost fifteen since Reeds death the number of family members who visit the grave lessens, understandably so, but a few still make the special effort to come over for the anniversary. His son Mark is especially keen to uphold the tradition, so that his dad shouldnt be alone on that day of all days.

Conveniently situated opposite a pub, the spot is visited by fans and tourists too, who pop in to buy a pint of beer to throw over him. Im surprised that anything grows on that grave, the amount of alcohol its seen, observes Ollies daughter Sarah. Gifts are also left at the graveside, some weird and wonderful things, like a toy bulldog in honour of Bullseye, Bill Sikess loyal companion in Oliver! And money, so much in fact that one year his widow Josephine collected it all and gave it to a local charity.

But if you look closely at the inscription on the headstone youll notice a flaw. Oliver liked to think that as a film performer he made the air move, an essential quality in cinema, he always thought. Indeed, Orson Welles once said of him, Oliver was one of those rare fellows who have the ability to make the air move around them. There was electricity about him, because you didnt know what he was going to do next. And not just on the screen but in real life too. He was so strong a personality that you could not deny him, you could not ignore him. When he walked into a room every head turned and he took control, without even trying. He did have this amazing energy around him, which was quite remarkable, says Mark. And you cant teach someone that, they just have it.

So the family decided they wanted He made the air move engraved on his headstone. The night before it was erected, they all went down to have a look, and there it was, this brand-new gravestone in big thick slate:

Robert Oliver Reed

19381999

He made the earth move.

It was an awkward moment as they tried to explain to the stonemason that wasnt quite what they meant. So it was changed. And if you rub your hand over the stone you can still feel the gentle hollow where the stonemason had to sand down the slate to etch in the word air rather than earth.

Oliver Reed died as he lived in his own unique way. And the fact that he died in a pub has only added to the legend. While a lot of actors have a romantic notion of conking out on stage like Molire, Oliver died drinking. We always said, if he could have picked that for himself he would have been delighted, says Josephine.

Of course, his death was a total nonsense. It should never have happened. Hed just done Gladiator and shown that he was still a fine actor and was all set for one of cinemas greatest comebacks, and then he resorted to drinking copious amounts of rum and arm-wrestling with eighteen-year-old sailors. It was a terrible waste. I remember the shock of his death but realizing that it was perhaps inevitable that it would happen that way, recalls Michael York. Because even as Athos in The Three Musketeers he had a line that read, Life is so much more rosy when seen through the bottom of a glass of ale.

Indeed, Olivers principal relaxation in life was going to the pub. He always said that you met a better class of person there. It was his drama class, his school, his psychiatrist, his doctor, his everything. Once asked to summarize his career, Ollie replied, with scarcely a hint of exaggeration, Shafting the girlies and downing the sherbie.